Down the Mysterly River
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.
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How to Review Books the EBR Way
I get asked on a weekly basis about my method for reviewing. Why? Heck if I know, but I like to think that all the questions mean I’m doing something right.
Recently, a friend of mine sent me an email detailing his thoughts on a book he had read based on an old review I’d written – SERVANT OF A DARK GOD by John Brown. Obviously, since he is an intelligent chap, he agreed with the review. One of his acquaintances, however, didn’t. This isn’t an unusual occurrence. Amazingly enough, people don’t agree on everything – a shocker, I know. I don’t have a problem with people not agreeing with me. Usually. Where my problem resides is when people think they are among the best of literary critics, and slam (or praise) a novel in defiance of any logical thought.
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Hush
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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Startide Rising
DOLPHINS IN SPACE!
Doesn’t that sound exciting? Don’t you want to read that book right now?
OK I jest, but in all honesty if you have a problem with Dolphins crewing a starship and getting stranded on an alien planet than this book isn’t for you.
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Redshirts
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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Shadows in Flight
In a perfect world reviewers would read books with no biases at all and based the work completely on its own merits and not compare it to other books, or other works of the same author. No prejudices would sway the reviewer for good ill. Wake up. We don’t live in that world and perfect as we Elitists are, we still have our biases. That being said I’m going to give you a review of SHADOWS IN FLIGHT (Amazon) the latest work in the Enderverse by Orson Scott Card. Firstly let me lay my biases out for you so you can know understand where this review is coming from.
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The King’s Blood
Wow!
I finished reading Daniel Abraham’s new book, THE KING’S BLOOD (Amazon), the other day (second in his Dagger and Coin series) and my wife happened to be sitting next to me as I finished. I looked up at her and all I could say was “WOW!”
Guys, this is a great book. This is as good as it gets. There’s a quote on the cover of the book from George R. R. Martin that says “Everything I look for in a fantasy book”. The quote is talking about the first book in the series THE DRAGON’S PATH (EBR Review) and the second book is even better!
For those of you who haven’t read this series yet, STOP NOW! WHAT ARE YOU DOING! GO READ THESE BOOKS! You’ve been warned! For those of you who have read the first book, read on.
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Nocturnal
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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Assassin’s Code
“What are you still doing at that house?” she bellowed.
“Trading Pokémon cards with the vampire hunters.”
Oh, Joe Ledger, how I love you.
Ever since reading PATIENT ZERO (EBR Review), one of the things I’ve looked forward to the most every year is a new Joe Ledger novel by Jonathan Maberry. The series has tons of action, humor and monsters. Even more that that, the series is full of terrific characters that compliment Joe Ledger.
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The Night Sessions
Occasionally I read the back of a book and an idea grabs me. Honestly that’s what I love about SFF books. There are tons of great ideas out there and I love when an author plays with one and lets me tag along for the ride. The idea of personal incorporation in the Unincorporated Series was one such idea. China Miéville’s works are so jam-packed with ideas that he often tosses a few of them out on a single page just to toy with your mind. I read the back cover of THE NIGHT SESSIONS by Ken MacLeod (Amazon) and the only thing I remembered from it was “What if robots found religion?”
Holy Crap! Wow! What an idea! What a great, big, wonderful, let’s explore this and all of its ramifications, kind of idea! I was hooked. I needed to read this book right away.
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