Updraft
More than anything Kirit wants to be a trader like her mother. Instead of living her entire life on one tower, she would get to fly from tower to tower, helping the inhabitants of the city, and seeing everything the world has to offer.
But Kirit makes a terrible mistake and doesn’t return inside the tower during a dangerous migration warning, instead sitting on the terrace to watch her mother leave to take medicines to other towers. She attracts the attention of a skymouth–terrifying creatures that snatch and devour the unwary.
But Kirit survives, drawing the attention of the Singers, the city’s protectors. As a result, her plans to become a trader are threatened because the Singers have discovered Kirit’s ability to scare off skymouths–and they want her ability for their own use, even if it means threatening the people she loves.
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EBR’s Self-Published Blog-off Finalist
The time has finally come for us to make a decision. Firstly though, I thought I’d mention how we decided what to pick:
1) We selected the two novels that we felt best represented the spirit of the contest.
2) Each member of the EBR Team read both books, then told the others which one they had picked and why.
3) The book with the most votes became our finalist.
Seems simple, right? It wasn’t. See, this task wasn’t just about grabbing two books off a bookshelf and saying which was better. The largest reason for this was that neither of these books have had professional edits, and so we ended up having to tackle the problem by saying, “Well, if it HAD been given those edits, the novel would probably have turned out like THIS.”
We talked about writing ability, originality, pacing, foreshadowing, characters… it was all very long-winded (totally my fault), but I think we covered all of the good stuff. Anywho, we’ll have a post later on that gets into the nuts and bolts of our opinions on self-pubbed stuff now that this section of the contest is over.Read the rest of this post »
Nightborn
Karn is a gamer; his favorite game is Thrones and Bones (after which the series is named). When his best friend Thianna–half giant, half human–is kidnapped, he’s tasked by the dragon Orm to find her. Easier said than done, for he must travel far from his rural home to the city of Castlebriar, deal with duplicitous elves, and solve riddles. Thianna was on a quest to find a horn, much like the one they discovered in book one, FROSTBORN (Amazon)–these horns make it so the user can speak with and coerce magical beasts. And Orm isn’t the only one who wants to find the second horn.
Desstra is a dark elf, training to be a member of the Underhanded, a group of elite fighters. When an important test goes awry, she’s sent on a mission to prove she’s worthy. Part of that mission involves tricking Karn into thinking she’s something she isn’t. Because if she can’t get the horn before Karn does, then she will be outcast from the only home she’s ever known–even if she does think dark elves aren’t very nice.
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Grunt Traitor
Weston Ochse’s GRUNT LIFE (EBR Review) was one of my favorite novels released in 2014. It was also one of the finest Military SF novels I’d read, and I’ve been anticipating the sequel ever since. After the follow-up novel, GRUNT TRAITOR (Amazon), arrived I took it with me on a plane trip… and ended up reading the whole novel that day.
To put it mildly, GRUNT TRAITOR was a page-turner.
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The Silver Ships
Seven hundred years ago humans took to the stars after Earth’s resources could no longer support the population. The colonist ships headed to different systems and lost communication with each other. Until one fateful day when tug captain Alex Racine discovers a derelict ship of unknown origin. He quickly learns that the ship is run by an AI, that some of the crew are in stasis… and that it came from a completely different system from his own. The superior technology fascinates him and he assumes it must be alien, until the crew are awakened by the AI computer and he discovers that they are descendants from another Earth colony ship.
And that the reason their ship was damaged and many of their crew dead is because aliens had attacked them.
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Kitty Saves the World
There’s something so incredibly satisfying about reaching the end of a great series. Fourteen books (and a few short stories) of Kitty, Cormac, Ben, et al. We’ve come to know and love these people, their friends, and the work they do for the greater good. And now they have to try to save the world.
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Gideon Smith and the Brass Dragon
After the exciting events of GIDEON SMITH AND THE MECHANICAL GIRL (EBR Review), Gideon has been dubbed the Hero of the Empire by Queen Victoria, and sent off on quests that only heros can accomplish. Gideon isn’t quite sure what it means to be a hero, other than his stories end up in the penny dreadful World Marvels & Wonders, as recounted by Mr. Bent, the journalist who follows Gideon around.
The one assignment Gideon is waiting for is the one that means he can search for the missing brass dragon Apep and the clockwork girl he loves, Maria. He gets his chance when Apep is spotted over Texas, and Gideon heads toward America.
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Motherless Child
I was flipping through the TV channels recently and saw that “Fried Green Tomatoes” was playing. I’d never seen the show before (travesty, I know, I plan to rectify that soon) so I stayed and watched for a while. I was coming in about midway through the show and there was a scene where two young women were sitting in an otherwise empty restaurant talking about some of the problems in their lives. In a very few minutes, I felt like I knew these two women and where they had come from. What and who they were, at their core. It was brilliant and seemingly effortless. It was in the same incredibly simple and beautifully elegant way that the story in this novel began with two young women talking to one another in a bar about the pieces of their lives, and I knew at once that I was going to enjoy this book.
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Giveaway: Charlie and the Grandmothers
Updated 8/10/2015: Paul C from Los Altos is our winner. Congrats!
A copy of today’s new release, CHARLIE AND THE GRANDMOTHERS , is provided by the publisher to give away to one of our lucky readers. To enter this giveaway:
1. Email us at elitistbookreviews@gmail.com
2. Include the following on the subject line: CHARLIE GIVEAWAY
3. In the body of the email include your name and mailing address.
Giveaway rules can be found here. Entries will be accepted until midnight of August 9th and the winner will be posted on the 10th. Good luck!
Son of the Black Sword
As Larry Correia’s biggest fan I’ve been looking forward to his fantasy debut for a while now. If I remember properly he’s been teasing fans, talking about it on his blog for a couple years now at least. Judging by how incredibly large scale Larry’s urban fantasy and alternate history novels have been I’ve been eager to see what he could do with straight up fantasy. I can happily say that SON OF THE BLACK SWORD (Amazon) will not disappoint the Monster Hunter Nation and it will also likely earn Larry a lot of new fans from the fantasy genre.
Here’s the plot synopsis: After the War of the Gods, the demons were cast out and fell to the world. Mankind was nearly eradicated by the seemingly unstoppable beasts, until the gods sent the great hero, Ramrowan, to save them. He united the tribes, gave them magic, and drove the demons into the sea. Yet as centuries passed, Gods and demons became myth and legend, and the people no longer believed. The Age of Law began.
Ashok Vadal has been chosen by a powerful ancient weapon to be its bearer. He is a Protector, the elite militant order of roving law enforcers. No one is more merciless in rooting out those who secretly practice the old ways. Everything is black or white, good or evil, until he discovers his entire life is a fraud. Ashok isn’t who he thinks he is, and when he finds himself on the wrong side of the law, the consequences lead to rebellion, war—and destruction.
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