Stars Uncharted
Nika Rik Terri is known as one of the best body modders (as in she modifies human bodies with her machines) in the galaxy. But even those famous for their abilities can make dumb decisions: like, say, hook up with a man who becomes an abusive boyfriend. She makes a business deal with his boss so her ex-boyfriend will leave the planet and harass other people instead. Unfortunately she ends up on the run anyway after her ex’s “co-worker” threatens Nika’s life.
Josune was recently hired as assistant engineer on the spaceship The Road to the Goberling, but she’s there to spy for her boss, the captain of the Hassim, who wants to learn something only Captain Roystan will know. But when the Hassim arrives suddenly out of nullspace with company men on board (think pirate mentality but with corporate backing) and the original crew dead, Josune suddenly finds herself in a predicament.
But neither woman is without resources or smarts, and they must use all their wits to come out of this alive.
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Interview with S.K. Dunstall
With the recent release of STARS UNCHARTED, we asked author(s) S.K. Dunstall if we could ask a few questions. They graciously answered.
Elitist Book Reviews: S.K. Dunstall actually stands for a sister-writing duo. We think that’s pretty awesome. Please introduce yourself to our readers.
Sherylyn: Thank you for having us. I’m Sherylyn, the ‘S’ part of the name.
Karen: And I’m the ‘K’. Karen. We both live in Melbourne, Australia. As you noted, we are sisters.
Sherylyn: Some people think the Dunstall part is a made-up name. It’s not. It’s our real surname.
EBR: Tell us a little about your writing history and how you came to be published authors?
K: We always told and wrote stories. Originally, we wrote separately. Sherylyn was my sounding board, and my first reader, and vice-versa. We critiqued each other heavily.
S: So much so that one day another of our sisters (we come from a big family) who was listening to one of our discussions, told me off for being mean to Karen.
K: We […]Read the rest of this post »
Giveaway: Magic of Recluce
***Updated 1/25/18: The winner of this giveaway is Anthon of Vineyard, Utah. Your books will be on their way, soon. Congrats! And thanks to everyone who entered. ***
In honor of the 20th anniversary of L.E. Modesitt’s The Magic of Recluce series, the publishers are reprinting the books with new, beautiful paperback cover art. If you aren’t familiar with the series, here’s your chance to pick it up where it all began, because one lucky EBR reader will receive a set of the first three books in the series.
To enter this giveaway…
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Avengers of the Moon
Sherlock. Queer Eye. Sabrina. An endless parade of Spider-Men (is ‘parade’ the right collective noun for spiders? Update: the internet informs me it might more correctly be called a ‘cluster of Spider-Men’).
Anyways.
Reboots are everywhere and Allen Steele’s AVENGERS OF THE MOON is one of them, a reboot of a classic, pulpy sci-fi series called Captain Future. I’m going to date myself by saying it was WELL before my time and that I’ve never read the previous series; regardless, I think the reboot criteria are clear:
A reboot should stand on its own.
A reboot should make characters and story arcs more accessible to modern audiences by updating the piece’s sensibilities.
A reboot should retain some of the essential qualities that made the work popular in the first place.
So does Steele deliver?
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The Hod King
It certainly seems like it’s been a considerable period of time since I read the first two Books of Babel. Thanks to the words of Mark Lawrence during the 2016-round of his Self-Published Fantasy Blog-off, I was made aware of this brilliant series that had yet to be picked up by a traditional publication house. In point of fact, it’s been a little less than 18 months since I closed the pages of THE ARM OF THE SPHINX (EBR Review) and began my wait for this next book. Would it be the last? Or just the next? Would it be as good? Bah, how could it not be? Tom finally knows where his wife is, and he’s bound to get to her! I had a difficult time believing that anyone that had read the previous two books (that you? hmmmmm?) wouldn’t be just as ecstatic to get into this story as I.
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Shadow Captain
It’s always an interesting ride, I think, when an author that typically writes for readers within a particular age range ventures outside their normal boundaries. Age ranges being groups like Children, Middle Grade, Young Adult, blah, blah, blah. In this, I’m thinking Abercrombie’s Shattered Sea (EBR Archive) or Rowling’s Casual Vacancy are decent examples of this jump in readership. Sometimes they work; other times, not so much. I’ve never tried any of Rowling’s non-Potter books, but of the three YA books that Abercrombie gave us, I thought the first and third not quite as good as what I was used to getting from him, but the second, in my estimation, was possibly the best book he’s ever written. And while Revenger wasn’t necessarily my favorite book from Mr. Reynolds, and I’d likely be more interested in getting another in the Prefect Dreyfus series, I was still super excited to get another anything from him, as he’s easily one of my favorite science fiction authors these days.
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Best of 2018
2018 was a bit of a crazy year for us here at EBR. We started by throwing off the shackles and supremely annoying ads of Wordpress.com, and leaving behind a website that was doing essentially nothing for us with regards to helping us find more readers.
The new site has been a labor of love, and a copious number of hours have been spent by the team in hacking and slashing the reviews we’ve posted over the last ten years (yeah, ten years people!) and trying to figure out how best to restructure the site to make both our readers and search engines (Google) love us ever more.
We held a contest for and opened our doors to a couple new reviewers — Yea, new reviewers! — and have loved what they’ve been able to add to the site. We’ve tackled in earnest the social media sphere and have picked up a growing number of followers there on multiple different platforms. From the look of things, most of the rocky is done and over, and the future is looking up, up, up from here.
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Skyward
Spensa has always dreamed of being a pilot. When she was a child her father was a pilot for the DDF, the military force that protects the planet Detritus from alien Krell incursions. But one fateful day during a defining battle against the Krell, her father ran from the battle, died, and was labeled a coward. As a result, Spensa and her mother and grandmother live on the fringes of society. But now that Spensa has come of age, she can test for pilot training and prove to everyone that cowardice doesn’t run in the family.
But the DDF doesn’t make it easy for her.Read the rest of this review »
Scourged
SCOURGED is the final book in The Iron Druid Chronicles and we get it all: war (Ragnarok!), character growth, teamwork, comeuppance (multiple instances), and even a little romance. But how does Hearne deliver?Read the rest of this review »
The Ember Blade
This book was on my radar for a while, but I didn’t think that I’d be able to get to it. Then, I forgot to cancel my Audible membership after going through that mess with THE SIGNAL, and suddenly I found myself with another book credit and no direction to run with it. After a quick perusal of my options, I found that the audiobook for Chris Wooding’s next book was only 10 days away from publication. Trust me, with our history of loving the books lobbed at us by him (EBR Archive), I quickly made my decision and started into it.
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