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Shadow of the Sun(Book One of the Timeless Series) by Laura Kreitzer Let me say that I loved-hated this book at the very beginning. As I got past that I could hardly put it down. For some reason the whole beginning sort of read like a paranormal Dragnet episode. Dialogue mostly devoid of emotions. It went on for about the first 15% of the book. It was at about chapter seven that things finally took off. ( I was either growing used to the character- some explanations were now forthcoming that explained her- or it was just time to take that left turn into the supper highway of who Gabriella Noelle Moretti really is. Gabriella of course is adopted which puts her into a common situation these days in fiction. She's also lost memory of her early years in life. At least the first five- which didn't seem too remarkable to me since I don't remember much of my first five years. But Gabriella is a rather gifted young lady who started college classes at age 12. Needless-to say-this is a fair explanation for why she might be just a bit different from many other people. Her intellect capacity is high but she's rather immature and has always been misplaced from her age group so that she's always the fish out of water wherever she's been. So, though she copes well enough to do well in her studies and that has lead to being the authority in Supernatural Specialist, she would agree that it hasn't helped her to develop much of an endearing personality. The story opens with Gabriella being rather snarky to her equally snarky assistant, Sally. Apparently Gabriella's immature character has not learned the value of having an assistant to the point that she mostly takes advantage of Sally while giving her annoying things to do. Although the sense is that she does this to Sally a lot-as if Sally deserves it-at the moment it is in part that Gabriella has too much on her mind and has not had enough sleep. At age 19 Gabriella had fallen into this job with the paranormal as supernatural specialist for the Zelco Corp. She now is 25 but with perhaps the social skills of a 15 year old. And the reason she took this job seems to be somewhat suspect. Her adoptive sister,Jenna, sums it up. Gabriella is hoping this job will help her find her parents.And, solve the mystery of why they left her when she was so young. Of course Jenna thinks Gabriella is nuts and that her job was not going to help her do any of the things she hopes. Up until this day its been a pretty mundane job, with occasional moments of excitement when the FBI shows up and drags away what little they do find that is inexplicable. This time she's received three corpses from a dig in Italy, which don't seem to match what she should have been sent. The corpses were supposed to be hundreds of years old or more; where they looked to be newly dead within days and they don't match the photo of what she was sent. This has spooked her and one would start to get the feeling she wasn't cut out for this job. She next receives a package with a box that contains two items that look like relics but turn out to be keys. When she starts to open the box she's attacked by a dark entity with fiery eyes, who warns her not to awaken the angels. The FBI show up to take this away and they make an unusual offer- they want Gabriella to go with them. One agent, Jeff, acts a bit strange about Gabriella touching the evidence, while a second agent, Karen, comes to Gabriella's defense. Eventually Karen reveals to Gabriella that these three corpses are the bodies of angels. Karen is also an angel-Gabriella's Guardian. On the trip to Washington DC with the corps and Sally and the FBI; the pilots inexplicably take the plane into a storm where there's a lightning strike upon the craft and it crashes. This should have killed everyone but the Angels have wakened-We later discover it is because Gabriella was in danger that they awakened. The angels in this story are not your typical christian angels. They are not particularly even remotely related to the fallen angels. They are more like the Hollywood-ized angels made from humans who were once mortal and now can bleed golden blood and cry golden tears. They do fight beings of darkness who seem to be of the shadow of the sun. In a nutshell it turns out that Gabriella is the Darkness Illuminator- the fulfillment of a prophesy; and that these angels are here to guard her. This sounds like more than enough to drive the plot of this story but there is much more which is both exciting and a bit daunting. Yes there are spelling errors and some grammar points, though mostly points of rule and not of law so, those are minor. I think that it's this extra more stuff that causes many people to become confused and it took me a while to sort out a few problems. One entire plot point is about the prophesy and how it has been altered by someone to hide the truth. Another plot point is that these angels-who are somewhat magical- have the capability of having their memories tampered with through magic and that has happened to a large degree. So, whenever a character spouts on about the prophesy it is unreliable information. The problem with this is that as this unfolds it often seems like we are getting redundant information and that the consistency of the story is all messed up. In fact, the consistency is okay and the reason for the redundancy is to highlight the discrepancies in various character's understanding of past events and the prophesy. This shifting plot line is a difficult and dangerous task to put to some reader's minds. There are elements of massive confusion when Gabriella starts having dreams created by someone else memories and those memories include the death of angels who are walking around. It might even become annoying to some people that certain characters can be killed and come back. There is more to the story though and some of these speed bumps are smoothed out while some go unexplained. Thankfully there are more books and hopefully that means those things will be explained later. Not so thankfully this appears to be one of those series that goes on for quite a while and it takes a great amount of talent to extend a readers interest beyond a trilogy. So, we'll have to read some more to find out how well Laura does with that. Carefully peeking ahead I've been unable to ascertain that there will be resolution of all major plot points in the next two books. I'm a fan of series, but I can see that Laura had a lot to say in this book and that there may be a lot more coming, which may indicate that it may take all of those volumes of books to get all plot points resolved. This is a great story for lovers of Paranormal Romance and Apocryphal Angels (not to be confused with a pocketful of angels). J.L. Dobias

As the author, I am somewhat biased so rather than review this book, I thought I'd give you a few teasers. My goal for this book was to tie up all the loose ends left over the previous four parts (Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords). Do you remember at the end of The Ark Lords, there were still a few crazies running around Deucado even though the vast majority were banished to Helome? And whatever happened to Sussen, the agent of MASAL whose escape trigger the events of Part 3? Those questions and many, many others are answered in the new book. For this book, rather than Rei and Rome fighting cosmic forces dedicated to exterminating all of mankind, I thought I'd make this one more personal. The only threat is to Rei and Rome and Aason. It is a little like a 35th century detective novel in that they have to track down the people threatening them and only them. There are two historical Intermezzos which give you a little backstory about "Rei's Last Day on Earth" and why Rei took a dangerous space walk just to get his futuristic version of an iPod. As a final treat, the Epilogue is the launching point for a new novel starring Rei and Rome's children. That novel, not a true sequel but rather the beginning of a new series should be out by the end of the year.

To be honest I think Dean Koontz is wrong, I found this book both cleverer and more riveting than Dracula, the fact that the antagonists are vampires is almost irrelevant, they could just as easily be zombies, werewolves or hells angels. The most important aspect is how and indeed why the last human continues to survive against the odds. It is one of the best post apocalypse novels ever written but unlike many of them it’s fairly short and hasn’t been dragged out to no great effect out the way some authors feel compelled to do. Also forget about the various film adaptations you may have seen, they are all good in their own way but none of them do justice to this book.

Ted Sturgeon - and through him, science fiction - came into my life when I was 11 years old babysitting for a very cool couple with twin baby boys in Pasadena, California in 1962. I was a voracious reader who spent most of my free time in libraries or upside down in a butterfly chair reading book after book. I also read dictionaries and encyclopedias cover to cover and lived in the world of the mind because, frankly, my flesh and blood world was beyond bearing (interracial female child in the 50's - not a great combo in the US at that time - and a father who was a diagnosed but untreated schizophrenic who was paranoid and manipulative - and worse).

Despite it being a few years since I enjoyed this book, i can say Its well written so an intelligent 5th grader can understand (but not fully)and i enjoyed it. I remember thinking why was Harry's aunt such a "mean lady". Then my grandmother, who got me into the series, said the mother and aunt didn't get along. Ever since I've made a better effort to get along with my brother. This is a novel, a story. A good story has a good moral/lesson. That was the lesson I learned.

The Beginning Of The End:Book One by Michael Edward I liked the premise of this book. I liked the internal story. I would have loved to be able to say I loved this book- but I can’t. And, I do understand that there is a certain kink in the method of this writer- I just think that someone reading this should come prepared. It might just be me, so take this with a grain of salt. After all, I watch movies with similar genre element, but not too many times do I read books of this genre. There were several things that started out as little annoyances and just kept building into grating elements. First I’ll give some back ground on the story. We start with Heather, who seems to have had an accident or something and has lost her memories. Then there is a disembodied voice that tries to help her through her panic as she becomes aware of memories and realizes she has a brother and she thinks something is wrong. The voice tries to calm her and then proceeds to say that she’s going to go on some sort of mind travel journey into the past to obtain a full picture of something that will help her. Then, apparently in the mind travel, we are at Seaborn a quaint community that seems to be quiet and sheltered. When we arrive, there seems to be something which is going to cause a stir in their community. We start with a group of youths Dasha, Jorn, and Kasper. They are concerned about their friend Maggie and her father Orloff, something is wrong but they are afraid to approach the adults of the council. This is where two of the problems start for me. And, again it might just be me, but there are several-not all-but a lot of times where it looks like contractions are avoided. Now I know some people don’t like them in some writing, but it began to sound a lot like a certain android we will not mention. There were a few contractions, but many times the lack of them showed up in dialogue and sounded stiff and unnatural. The next thing is that it begins a rather annoying trend that works into the entire novel. This could be a device for part of how this Heather is seeing things but it’s still annoying. We begin head hopping back and forth between the three each time we get the full thoughts and emotions of these people and its like some hot potato game. When they link up with the adults it hops over to them quickly. Now we have Karen, Savannah, Jackson,Gordon, Orloff, Tracy and Perry. It seems that Orloff’s wife and daughter are missing. And soon we find out that Dasha has been communicating with some voice in her head that takes the name Ikron. Ikron has been taking Dasha on Mind travels and now, using Perry’s memories, is going to take her to her grandfather’s birth. This feels like that mirror in a mirror thing starting here. Now its Dasha watching(maybe Heather watching Dasha watch) and we go to Carol and John Writer, Doctor Holfman, and Tom Brady. Carol is nineteen pregnant and frightened. Doc is getting prepared to deliver her and everyone is excited. Carol starts ranting about it being a mistake to have the child suggesting they should have aborted it. At the time of birth the lights go out and when they come back on there is one baby and 5 dark clouds of energy. It’s difficult to say if Carol delivered all of that but that’s the suggestion. Carol declares that Ethin is here and the room grows cold and Sheriff Tom Brady acts like he’s gone mad. A strange person shows up and in the end only John and Holfman and the baby-Jason- are left alive. Fast forward to when Jason is a teen. The cast of names grows exponentially. We get to know some of them dearly and the head hopping begins to get thick though I think I understand it’s purpose. This novel is like some of my old favorite movies; Aliens, Terminator, all the night of the living dead. People are going to die and it seems we’ll be in many of their heads at the time that that occurs. That means we’re introduced to all of them even some that would seem minor just for this privilege. This is the hot potato of death. Well, its just a hot potato for a while until the terrible five show up.Of course these five are somehow related to Jason. And Jason is the only one who can do whatever must be done with Ethin and so they are out to get him but they also have to rack up some soul points by killing over a hundred people. Only they call it end or ending them. They do this seemingly quite freely using a weapon that causes no excess blood. This is okay with me because I hate those descriptive bloody scenes anyway. So, other than Jason don’t get too fond of anyone. Now, I really do like some of the basic idea here. There’s a parallel or alternated universe where Ethin has been defeated by his enemies, so he is going to come to Earth and prepare for a comeback. This somehow involves having only a small pocket opened into our world that can only be expanded after a specific amount of ‘ends’ to the inhabitants. Jason’s mother has left him some information that will help him which his father has so sparingly left till just this very last moment to give to his son. There’s even a part where things get so bad they have to get away quickly and somehow leave the book with all the clues, so they have to come back. All this time we’re doing head hopping, even into the head of very minor characters that we’ll get to know long enough to watch them die from an up close and personal place. So if you like those breathtaking seat of your pants thrillers that show you everything-except this time for the blood and gore- this is the story for you. It has, I think four books, and I do want to know what happens. Maybe even find out how Ethin and his cronies decide, which people have value- what that means- and whether that means they are safe from ending. For me this was a bit difficult reading- I’d expected it to be the wholesale slaughters that would stop me-it turns out there were other issues. Maybe most everyone else can get past my issues and enjoy the nifty plot and the excitement. I still need to find out why Heather had to hop to Dasha who had to hop to Jason through Perry and how Perry’s memories manage to do that wild head to head hopping. Since Jason seems to be Dasha’s grandfather I guess we can assume he will make it through the four books. Or at least most of them. By all means visit the author’s website to get some insight to his process. Sural

Gabriel:Zero Point (Evan Gabriel Trilogy) by Steve Umstead Sometimes the problem with a short intro story to a trilogy; is that it’s difficult to fully capture the nuances of the character that shows up in the real story. Having not read the rest of the story I can’t make a judgement. I love Trevanian and especially his Shibumi and I love Ludlum and his Jason Borne series. But these are not really the type of book I particularly go out of my way to pick up. The reason I mention them is that the story of Evan Gabriel- in this short brought them to mind. We have the focused killer who has a little bit of heart somewhere buried under his hard core. The trick for them is to not let on to too many people or it might compromise your effectiveness. This story takes Evan from not so humble beginnings - at the top of his class at the academy- to his ultimate final evolution to the super soldier. There’s an element in this story that I found predictable- maybe not everyone will. I can’t say because it’s a spoiler. Anyway the story seems to revolve just on the edge of trying to explain Evan’s motivation for being where he is in this military program- while at the same time making it clear that he’s more hijacked into it than anything. The disturbing part is that his superior is painted as a rather ruthless individual who will do anything at all costs to ensure the security of the federation. We really don’t get a chance to see much of how good or evil that thought may be though we see a bit of life in Evan as he struggles with the whole concept. I’ll assume that in the later stories that we see where Even’s heart lies in this matter. I’m not at all sure about Biermann. Anyone who loves those thriller suspense novels with the spies and agents of exceptional ability should love these stories. It will be interesting to see how Evan makes it through all this and if he can retain his humanity. Sural

Adrift On The Sea Of Rains by ian sales Okay, in all fairness I will give this book a five in initially breathing life back into the images of space flight as we know it. But I truly don’t understand the praises given without any real reviews about the story being told and the content and continuity. And with all the five and four star reviews you would expect someone would have more to say than good job in two or less paragraphs. There seems to be few who go into depth. I really wish there had been more before I plunked down my handful of quarters for the story. I had not ever heard of Ian Sales before reading this. Apparently he has a presence in England (UK) with many short stories and work on several web zine sites. You can find him at his own web site and he has links to his book review site that specializes in reviewing the work of female science fiction authors. More important you can go to the Fiction Desk and read some of his work. http://www.thefictiondesk.com/anthologies/the-maginot-line.php I wish I’d done that first. The piece called Faith gives the reader a clear view of the authors style and bent. It seems to be a group of stories that might have been ripped from the pages of news during the heyday’s of space flight. Except in some cases there are bits of twists at the end where in others they seem to follow the headlines. Either way it seems to be an introduction to the paralleled universe of Ian Sales. With an introduction to his twisted endings. This story reads well to begin with; with our hero Vance Peterson the apparent commander of the moon base Falcon. We’re told that he’s been there for two years, though he was only supposed to have been there for six month. There seem to be two events that occurred around three weeks before the end of six months. One is the arrival of Dr. Kendall and The Bell, torsion field generator(which seems to be some device made by the Nazis that can push them through to other dimensions to other earths, which is going to come in handy.) The next event at this same time - unless I’m confused- is the death of earth through human destruction. Peterson seems to blame the Russians, which is interesting when considering things later in the story. The circumstances are grim so the story seems a bit grim and lacking in emotional involvement of the characters. We see mostly Peterson’s frustration. There is very little life in this story because things are pretty monochromatic coming from Peterson’s point of view. I’m a bit unclear about what the present time is, but it’s mentioned that Peterson has reached the two year mark though at the same time it is mentioned that he’s had to put up with Kendall for two years-which can’t be right. Its also mentioned that the last flight in was Kendall and his equipment and at that time there was two years of supplies. Assuming the destruction so soon, there likely were no more supplies sent. Lastly it is mentioned that there are 4 month supplies left in that Peterson is convinced they will all be dead in 4 months unless they find an earth that hasn’t been destroyed. I know I’m poor at math but this doesn't add up though if we allow a slop factor of 4 to 6 months it’s negligible. I could be wrong about the incongruous timelines but I've read this through three time and the last time was slowly and now I have a headache. Anyway Peterson is in charge and since the death of earth 3 people have committed suicide so supplies might last longer. There seems less fear about water and air though I've some questions about the pure oxygen that Peterson seems so free about using up so he can have his private time. With 9 of them left and some one and half or so years gone by; and some incalculable number of shifts in dimensions, Peterson has some time long ago given up his authority and allowed things to just happen around him. This is important because we eventually have to deal with his tantrums about the lack of discipline in some of the people. Something, which he is a major contributor to. The base is 6 years old and falling apart so one would wonder just how well the recycling of water and air is working since the two are somewhat mutually inclusive to each other. It’s got to be getting old and stale and the equipment might not be holding out.(None of that is mentioned beyond it being taken care of but,I do have my worries anyway.) The Bell torsion field generator is the only hope and its the main incongruous sci-fi in an otherwise Science Fiction story. But it is part of the Ian Sales universe and that’s another story available on Amazon. Even with the Bell, the whole story holds up well until they find a new earth then things fall apart quickly. I’m just not believing that after a long period of abdication of his authority that Peterson will get it back so easily and then so easily hijack the mission that is vital to their continued survival. There’s some excellent teamwork and science involved in the calculation of getting someone in space and if we don’t sit and try to figure out why there isn't something ready to go without all this calculating then its really neat. I just had this problem with knowing that Kendall showed up three weeks before Peterson was to leave. Apparently his departure relies on a flight from earth coming to pick him up. You would think that they would have a backup ready to lift in case the vehicle delivering his replacement encountered problems. But maybe not. Even so after all that calculation to get what they had up into space, we’re suppose to believe these rocket scientists forget to include food in the calculation and that the food for one person will take up the weight of three; so only one person can go on this three day flight. And that sounds really intelligent; we’ll send one man on a chancy three day flight by himself so we can be saved. I have this feeling that- way back- when Peterson abdicated his authority that the vacuum creates would be filled by the XO or someone else and they would clearly want the best pilot on the job, which apparently is Neubeck. Clearly though the twist of this story relies on Peterson being the pilot. Eventually the reader is shown evidence that Peterson should never have been left in command of anything and that he has a tendency to react impulsively upon his own prejudice. There are other secrets there that implicate him into the whole mess that is the death of earth and even Peterson seems oblivious to this. This book has a rather useless appendix except for the citations and references the readers are intelligent enough to understand the acronym there that haven’t been explained within context and they really don’t drive the story anyway. Needless,you should read as much of Ian’s writings prior to this as you can before reading this to catch the tone of his writing and then it will prepare you for this one and probably the next, which I don’t think I’ll bother to spend my quarters on. Ian seems to believe he’s creating a new genre here, but I've seen all of this before and it might be a mix of several which would fall within speculative fiction. I’m not sure he’s yet reached the pinnacle that he’s looking for. Best of luck in that endeavor. You have recaptured the spirit of Space Flight past. Giving the setting marvelous and sensuous texture. I just wish you could work a bit more on giving the story and the characters some emotion and life. Sural

Once Upon Another World (Book One of the Salak'patan Series) by Shiva Winters The title and the cover almost had me thinking 'fairy tale'. Once I dove in feet first it was more like Zelazny's Amber series and Farmers Tier series rolled together and given a special Shiva Winters touch. Raven Sinclair is a powerful character well matched by his counterpart LeShana, who is not only lovely but also as powerful and kick-ass as Raven. Suffice it to say, I loved this book, It's a five star novel with a few hick-ups. Depending on the copy you have there could be a large number of grammatical errors. There has since the first print date been an edit that fixes many of those. I can live with some of this in dialogue- no one speaks perfectly all the time. This book is offered free, but it's nice to see that even with the free there is an effort by the author to improve. The story starts with Raven on Earth trying to keep his group of special people safe from those who might exploit them. Enter LeShana and possibly more people who want to take advantage. It takes a while for Raven to trust these people, but it's important not only to him but to them because he has a past with them that he's not aware of. The overall story- the plot the theme and the character development are all pretty solid. And though it seems this might be the least favorite of the Authors choices of her own work I think it's a great starting point to begin the series. As it stands Once Upon Another World is a well packed novel with a fairly tight plot that has plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing. It also demonstrates some skill in world making that Shiva should be proud of. She has a writing style that I was comfortable with, it seems to be consistent and improves as the series progresses. This is an awesome first novel and a fantastic series of books.(Although I believe it's a first for the author only in this genre.) If you like the Zelazny novels or the Farmer series you should enjoy this series. J.L. Dobias

Zendyne by Han Li Thorn Aka Better Than Real by Huw Lyan Thomas I'm not even certain where I acquired the original. There were formatting problems and that might have been why I didn't get to it right away. That was in June of 2012. Here it is ten months later and I'm just getting to it. This time I started reading despite the formatting problems. I should have done that the first time around. The good news is that I believe those problems went away with the new edition Better Than Real Huw Lyan Thomas. The plot relies on a theme that shows up often lately. The characters live in a digitized world where the person's DNA and memories can be stored easily making death only an issue if you can't afford the backups. I've seen this recently in a few novels -Charles Stoss Accelerando (Singularity) and Walter Jon Williams Implied Spaces(Singularity) Those both involved matrioshka computer arrays and lots of cyberspace inferences. The cyberspace of course covers just about anything by William Gibson. There are no evident matrioshka computer arrays here, but there are plenty of the other elements. And the major AI character in those other two is the self aware cat where this one is a self aware android that happens to look female. My first real love in the area of cyberspace is Philip K. Dick and I think that this novel by whatever name will smell the same. This novel brings back to my mind the authenticity of the characters in most of the novels PK Dick wrote. I think that may be the idea that the characters stay as the focus no matter how interesting the technology gets. Sure there's some fun with the techno-speak of Charles Stross and there's always something stimulating with William Gibson's in-depth notion of how the digital world works or how the use of nano technology looks up close and personal in Walter Jon Williams. Sometimes these novels border on the dystopic myopia of the digital age gone wild. Zendyne- Better Than real does not suffer from this shortsightedness that constantly make the characters second to the technology that drive them to the ultimate conclusion. Make no mistake these things are all there and they try to manipulate the protagonists in the story. If I have one quibble with these stories - it would be that while swapping around consciousness and bodies there is never any time dwelt upon the notion of a soul and what makes up a soul and whether it might be digitized. The bottom line is that even if you could back yourself up what guarantee is there that the soul the you that makes you you is still going to be there. In this novel it seems implied that if you have the same body - coded DNA- and the digitized memory that you have everything you need. Someone might lose only what they experienced the last few cycles since the last backup taken. As we come come up into this story Li Jia Wei or Lee as he is known arrives at the scene of a crime- only for him its the scene of an incident that could make things bad for the company he works for. The crime is that in this world he and the company are going to try to cover it up by whatever means- which involves recruiting anyone at the scene who might let the story leak. The Problem is that one of their pleasure android models has somehow gone haywire and killed a client. Not good PR to have that get out to other clients and potential clients. When Lee arrives he find Lilith of the Aphrodite 9400 series waiting. His job is simple; he uses his disruptor to disable her so the cleanup crew can clean the mess. Lilith pleads with him not to do that and in a very short conversation he discovers that she is somehow become self aware. This fascinates him, partially because he's the major designer of this model and he knows that it couldn't just become self aware on its own. He would like some answers both professionally and partly for his own self profit. This leads to his downloading the mind of the android prior to the shutdown. The android has already told him that when he shuts it down the self aware entity in her will be destroyed. Down loading the mind, to preserve it and allow him to question it about who is responsible for its existence Lee returns to the office to find that someone has leaked the story and that his job and position with Zendyne has been cancels. What he is not aware of is that there is another organization which cleans things up in a much more terminal way and that he's become marked. Unsure what to do next he manages to purchase the previous model android with the notion that he can download the mind of Lilith and question her about her creators with a hope that Lee may profit from this. Enter the Stranger- an operative for the Back Office whose job is to find the rogue AI and retrieve it and kill anyone who gets in the way. Even though in this world people can be brought back the Back Office has the power to subvert that if necessary. The Stranger is meant to act quickly enough that anyone brought back would have no memory of anything related to the AI. This is when things get interesting. We start to get an up close look at the high and low ends of the economic scale and how these have an affect on the whole system of extended life through digital reproduction. There are some interesting spots where the characters try to subvert the system because they realize that there is a potential for them to lose control of who they are by letting their backups fall into the wrong hands. I loved this story-even with the older versions formatting issues. This book is for lovers of Science Fiction, Cyberspace cyberpunk, Robotics and mayhem, AI and self aware computers, and the future general of computers and the digital age in general. It's well worth the price; with plenty of action, suspense and twists. J.L. Dobias

Spots the Space Marine by M.C.A. Hogarth Is a delicious science fiction tale. Written in a somewhat play or screen play style that can put off many an average reader. For those who can tough it through, its beyond well worth reading. Though the story is told mostly through dialogue M.C.A has a way of crafting her characters through that dialogue. It's a bit more work for the reader and seemed to slow my usual pace down quite a bit, but it's worth the effort. I would not have looked at this book had there not been controversy about it. It seems the use of Space Marines is being sanctioned by another party. I find it hard to believe when I see the following information show up. [...] :: has an interesting chart showing the dates and types of usage of space marines dating as far back as 1932 "Misfit by Robert A. Heinlein 1939 (uses term Space Marines) Lensman series by E. E. Smith's 1938-1940(uses term Space Marines) Captain Brink of the Space Marines by Bob Olsen 1936 amazing stories Waitabits by E.F.Russel in astonishing sf 1955 (uses term Space Marines) Space Marines (Space Opera RPG) by A. Mark Ratner (1980) In movies as early as 1973(use term Space Marines) In games as early as 1977 (use term Space Marines) The United States Space Marine Corps by Eugene R. Hudson. 2011 This book is not a game or not about games nor related to said game and even if said game has an armload of novels at a certain bookseller, that still shouldn't give them the right to contest two words that show up in a cover that has more than those two words. That much said:: Spots aka Magda Guitart is the seemingly unlikely hero of the story. As it unfolds we find that she's a wife and mother who has been at a desk job for a number of years. When she's deployed into a conflict zone, this doesn't sound good or hold well with her unit members and just about all except for Claws aka Travis Walker treat her with a measure of contempt. She comes off in initial description as someone who might be a little soft in the middle. The reader begins to wonder how she managed to get shipped out to a remote asteroid where there's a deadly game being played with the enemy. As the reader learns more about the enemy through the dialogue and stage directions and the ensuing battles the stories of the characters are also quite cleverly played out. This seems to me a difficult task using mostly dialogue but M.C.A. pulls it off in what might seem like an effortless fashion. The reader soon learns more of Spots as they are drawn into her character with a lot of respect for her. The reader soon begins to wonder when Spots unit team-members will start to see the light. There's a lot more to this kick-ass woman than meets the eyes. This is all cleverly played out as the reader gets the impression that everything the higher ups do lately has been nothing but trouble and disaster for the unit. It's not that difficult to see that they can't recognize that somehow someone has put the right person in the right place. This is not just a story of how Spots grows and hardens up, it's also the story of how the team grows. There's a lot to get over and to get through including xenophobia towards their alien adviser. And there will be casualties. This story is so rich with character development and intriguing plot that it's enough to keep you riveted to the seat for a while. I'm sure that it's for the most part my own reading habits that made this such a long read. For me every sentence of dialogue counted and had to be digested carefully. Even after a longer than normal time reading I was left hungry for more of Spot's, Sam's and Claw's stories. I found this to be much better than Starship Troopers. Spots is an excellent, strong and well developed female character. J.L. Dobias

Oxygen(Oxygen Series,Book One)By John B. Olsen and Randy Ingermanson I purchased the book Oxygen for two reasons one of those being to read the bit at the end with tips for Authors. I've no idea if the copy other people get will have the same. I want to thank the authors for a very good read. I read the story first knowing the part at the end could have some spoilers. This book is good science fiction and there has been at least some attempt at rising above the usual level that (hard) science (fiction) goes to. What I mean by that is that the science becomes the driving force of some of these types of novels and the characters become cardboard entities that point and explain the science. Of course with today's sometimes bad press with the public lives of the people in the space program it's not too far fetched to see that this novel is peopled with a few gems and then some. We have everything from the paranoid to glory seeker to the super secretive. One would almost expect with all that against us we would have trouble getting things off the ground. Still this is life and so it might figure into a good Science Fiction novel, though some might argue that in some respects the writers should shun certain attempts a making their characters that real. After all we need the heroes and the ones we can look up to. Though sometimes the author's tend to go overboard with the paranoid and over-dramatic I believe they try to keep it balanced and it's much better than trying to believe the space travelers are all going to be flesh and blood robots. The story begins with Valkerie- working too close to an active volcano- trying to get research data at the risk to her life.The we switch to Bob Kaganovski working with NASA and a few friends-getting ready to man a flight to Mars. Something is going down and Bob's almost certain he's being replaced on the project. Meanwhile Valkerie is saved by Steve Perez and Roger Abrams-she later learns they are from NASA. Eventually she'll learn that she's someones replacement. That's already a formula for suspicion and paranoia and its only the beginning. For the most part the various people in the story are believable. Even most of the situations that occurs through misinformation or lack of information seem plausible. One would like to think the people at these agencies are just a bit more together than that. Truth has proven that there are still glitches on the human side so the are not all robots in many of those places. The writing seems solid and though I didn't check all the facts the science is believable. On thing I noticed. And, I suppose that this could be coincidental, though it would mean that neither author has read a lot of Robert Heinlein's stuff, there is a plot point that drives this story. This could be a spoiler so just be aware; A major plot point is very similar to what was used in The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein. After reading this book check it out and see. Oxygen is pretty good stuff. A pleasure to read for Science Fiction and Fantasy lovers with a little for anyone who is interested in the science parts. J.L. Dobias

Fizz nothing is as it seems by Zvi Schreiber: Is the thoroughly enjoyable story of a young girl coming of age in a community that shuns technology blaming it for everything from war to global warming. This is a great novel for anyone who loves physics and anyone who thinks they cant understand it. And maybe even a few who hate physics. It's also a great novel for anyone who loves historic novels. Though In both these cases I'm not sure I'm the best qualified to attest to the veracity of the content. We pick up Fizz in her life when she is given a possible choice to leave her protective community and mingle with the evils of the outer world while making an informed decision about where to spend the rest of her life. Unlike some other communities that shun the modern world that have sprung up throughout the ages this one doesn't seem to have any firm roots in religious beliefs in a god and creator. It does have strong opinions about and against the study of science. Fizz finds herself questioning many things around her which she is expected to take at face value. So,though it is common for most who reach her age to take a pass on this option to strike out into the world, she is strongly considering it because of her inquisitive mind. Add to this the notion that her father (who has already left the community before she was born) has spearheaded the construction of a time machine and you have the beginnings of an odd but engaging experiment. This novel takes the reader and Fizz on a historic journey back through time to begin the study of physics on a quest to answer a few simple questions that Fizz is certain will be solved in one simple visit with one of the great minds of the past. As the story builds we not only get a glimpse of Fizz but we get a glimpse of what must be a universal principle that the more you know the more you need to know. We get to see Fizz grow and the reader perhaps begins to question the wisdom of a community that has stifled someone with such a brilliant intellect and thirst for knowledge. And somewhere in all of her quest for knowledge she might begin to see the work of a creator. J.L. Dobias

The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw (The Morgan Sisters)by Suzy Turner I was not sure how much I would appreciate this one. I got acquainted by reading the story about Daisy Madigan. I really enjoyed Daisy's character and the story sort of reminded me of Ghost Whisperer and then there were elements that were like Scooby Do and the Scooby gang except that the entire Scooby gang might have Paranormal powers. I wasn't sure I'd like the Morgan Sister's since it was likely that Daisy wouldn't be a main character. I've always been a fan of horror and paranormal films but my real love is Science Fiction. My daughter did manage to get me hooked on Buffy - probably revenge for my having hooked her on Science Fiction. I've in the past enjoyed Mary Shelly's Frankenstien, Bram Stokers Dracula and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Camilla which might be considered darker than this novel. I've also been a fan of Thorne Smith whose Topper was pretty hilarious. I think that if you look at a lot of his work you can see his influence in the Paranormal literature of today. Anyway, The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw carried on with the tone of Daisy's story so it was very entertaining. I'm particularly intrigued by this notion of a tattoo that grows it self. With the inscription it seems to embody the whole of the classic eye symbol and a popular trend toward the winged eye. It's neat though, how it seems to have a life of it's own until it finally finds it resting spot on the body. Usually it seems to be in the same place. That it's a marker for the watchers- who may or may not by tradition be related to the Nephilim- is interesting. Considering the powers of these people it's interesting to connect them to the theory that the watcher angels are the ones who took the sons and daughters of man and had offspring.(The term Nephilim does not show up in this book and is not discussed as such.) Another interesting concept in the story is the unreasonable fears that the sisters have. Emma's fear of water and Lana's fear of heights. Mostly interesting in that the power they acquire after the tattoo marks them is related to their old fear, which goes away. It's predictable that everyone with these tattoos has a prior unreasonable fear related to their skill. They all have one parent who was an angel who did not stay to raise them. And many are orphans raised by other people. At the beginning Lana and Emma -orphans adopted by the Morgans- are thrust into the mystery of Josiah Grimshaw who nearly drowns along with a mysterious young stranger who also nearly drowns (the both eventually die from nearly drowning). Both men mistake Emma for someone named Emilia. Both girls have reach the age of 16 and the tattoo shows up -days apart from each other coincidental to their true birthdays. Through a friend of their parents they are introduced to Eleanor Hyden-Jones of the Fourth House of Praxos - a secret society of Angel offspring who work to fight for justice. Eleanor is a true fallen angel who choose to stay on earth with her mate. She's forever cursed to live her life half the day old and half the day young and has reduced powers. There is a counter organization known as the Skulls who are evil offspring of Angels or Paranormal-s. The girls will discover more about their past and parents and they will train to become proficient at their natural skills and at fighting evil. And their first assignment will be to help Josiah cross over. That means that they need to find out what is keeping him here- the problem is for some reason he's lost his memories. Anyone who like mysteries suspense and thrilling horror and paranormal romance should love this book. The coming series promises to be very entertaining. J.L. Dobias

The Lost Soul (The Raven Saga)by Suzy Turner Finally! The third and final installment of the Raven Saga. Lilly is growing in power. December is discovering more of her abilities. Both seem to be falling in love. And there's a lost soul crying out for help.Lilly's father is still missing. Tiffanimelicomelea the displaced Faerie is lost from her faerie community while living with them in Powell River community. And it just might be that Powell River is sitting smack-dab in the center of all the answers. This trilogy has delivered much more than lions and tigers and bears but sometimes it seems like it has a shred or two of oz built into it. Both the books and the movie. But there's so much more - pretty much any paranormal being you can imagine might show up here. The last of the story now is where most everything shall be uncovered and is by far no less than the rest of the series. And, Yes. There shall be Nephilim. Somewhere in the reader's journey to the center of the earth to Argentumalea - the land of Tiffani's kingdom of Malean Faeries they must pass through the kingdom of the Nephilim. It's almost like the underworld - hell. Nephilim- who have variously been defined as anything from fallen angels who mingled with the children of man to the offspring hybrid of such a union. Whatever they are they are giants-they are dangerous-they have been banished to the bowels of earth. The people of Powell River are about to find out that some of them may have escaped. There might be some plan to let even more of them out of their prison. Suzy Turners world is definitely taking a turn for the dark and its going to challenge the dynamic duo of Lilly and December and their league of friends. The council is going to have it's work cut out for them. And Powell River may never be the same. If You enjoy Paranormal Romance if you love suspense and horror if you like Science Fiction and most of all if you have read the other two books -you will want to devour this one. Pick a time when you can quietly read the whole thing all at once. Send for delivery- pizza or your favorite restaurant. Lots of coffee tea or soda and dig into the trenches and get this epic ending started. J.L. Dobias

Perfection Unleashed- A Double Helix Novel by Jade Kerrion. Might be considered YA and Science Fiction- It's also pretty good story telling. I recently started twittering- the doctor said that if I ignore it it will go away. It was to trace some specific activities and I hadn't thought to get too involved. What I did do was I started getting some interesting leads into reading material. Mostly in the form of- gentle- spam. What that yielded was a pretty good read. The story starts with Zara and this line: [quote] On another Friday night, she might have been out at a Georgetown bar, accepting drinks from attractive men and allowing them to delude themselves into imagining that they might be the lucky one to take her home.[/quote] Kerrion, Jade (2012-06-23). Perfection Unleashed (Book 1 of the Double Helix series) (p. 1). . Kindle Edition. I know, gag me. I somehow think this line is meant to mislead- don't let it put you off. This does not even begin to describe Zara. Zara is a mercenary and we find her working with two colleagues, a clone named Xin and a fellow mercenary named Carlos breaking into a lab where some seedy scientist, Rolland and Michael, are keeping an experiment they call Galahad--The perfect human. Zara's goal is to obtain some genetic matter from the experiment. Things don't go quite as planned and Zara ends up taking the largest sample available--Galahad himself. This snowballs into a number of events that introduce us to a whole slew of other character that for me were just a bit hard to keep up with at first. There's plenty of good world building inserted in the narrative to help sort things out. The world is one where there are clones and mutants- both considered sub human. Galahad seems to fall somewhere in between all this. There are even Pro humanist extremest. Zara is not fond of mutants because of tele-paths and em-paths and its no help for her that her friend Lucian Winter brings in his own em-path, Danyael, to help them when everything goes wrong. There are other surprisinge complications to this, but you'll have to read it to find out. The list of important characters in this story keeps building, but it all works out quite well, though at the beginning there were some moments when I lost track of whose POV I was in. The POV thing may have just been me and I got used to it quick enough that it became a non-issue. I found a lot of familiar elements in this story. Lucian reminded me of the rich and discerning quietly helpful protagonist that always showed up in Robert Heinlein's work. The relationship between the Pro human movement and the scientist had shades of twelve monkey's written all all over it. The mutant and clone situation was reminiscent of X-men and other comic fiction, which may help account for the cast of thousands and many protagonists throughout. I found many of the plot elements to be predictable while at the same time there were moments of wow when Jade takes us in another direction than expected. The overall story is well paced and well told and even though it requires more reading in the series to resolve some of the plot issues it sticks together well into itself to satisfy. Perfection Unleashed: Is a great read to anyone who likes a good thriller and interesting diverse characters, lots of Science Fiction and plenty of thought provoking ethical issues. A great beginning to a promising series of books. J.L. Dobias

Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a girl with Scissors by Benjamin X Wretlind. I received this book through Amazon- free after having read a rant by the author. I enjoyed his words so well that even though this is out of my usual genre I decided to give it a try. I admit to being somewhat squeamish sometimes- more so with movies than books. Often enough I've seen movies that have made me shut them off part way through wondering why I endured it that long. This book made me squeamish that way sometimes, but I had decided that I wanted to see it through. As a horror novel it's quite balanced and sustains just the right element throughout to make it top notch. A problem though, with part of the squeamishness, is that I kept seeing this less as a horror and more as literary fiction. It reminded me of Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest mixed with Richard Farina's Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me. Maggie tells us her story in a simple almost innocent honest fashion. Not apologetic or deflective, but earnest description of the things that have happened and are happening in her life. This is realistic story of abuse from her mother's boyfriends and even her own mother sometimes. Both physical and mental in the way that more often than not reduces the abused person to a point where they have no self worth. The result is that Maggie is distanced from most other children her age and is more often than not picked on by them. She takes it all in stride; possibly because of her experience at home she might view it as natural. It is easy to empathize with this child as she attempts to grow up. Her only port in the storm is her grandmother. Maggie's grandmother is the person who has raised Maggie and she protects her when she can from both the myriad of boyfriends who are in and out; and her mother's wrath. It's ironic that grandma might figure more than anyone in Maggie's descent into madness. Maggie is afraid of storms- particularly the dust storms that seem to plague them and they often leave her with a mess of sand and broken glass that she's expected to clean. Grandma tries to help Maggie with this fear, often through telling a sort of tale of castles in the sky. I somehow read between the lines that there is some sort of indictment here against telling children certain fairy tales and fanciful stories. In particular in this instance because there seems to be a thread running though the generations of this family that involves abusive relationships and often what take the form of anti-male sentiment. Always the abuse from the men seem to overshadow those of Maggie's mother. The notion that the bricks used to build the castle in the sky are used by girls to make castles for girls. There is another realistic thread in this novel that has to do with Maggie's apparent descent into madness. This is played out well, as the reader comes to understand that Maggie has no real grasp on how far she might be slipping. When Maggie's only defender, her grandmother, dies; Maggie must take care of herself. And when grandma's ghost visits her constantly along with the discovery of strange sand eels, it become increasingly difficult to tell if this is a descent into madness or if it's a page out of something akin to a Stephen King horror and suspense. I'll admit that there's a point half way through this that my sympathy for Maggie sort of dies. In a twisted way though it's like watching a loved one you've tried to help, who is in a bad relationship and can't seem to fight their way out. You don't want to give up on them but there's a point where they could drag you down with them if you're not careful. In Maggie's case at the beginning she has less control over her destiny because she's a child. There are no other characters in the story that I felt sympathy for. They get their just deserts. This is not their story. It's a study in abuse and how some people handle that abuse and about how rebelling against that abuse can easily take someone down the wrong road for all the right reasons. This book is well written literature and though I'm not sure how soon I want to venture into any more of Benjamin X Wretlind's worlds, I recommend this read as; Something great for a good thought provoking jarring of our regular everyday complacency. J.L.Dobias

Lodestone Book One: Sea of Storms by Mark Whiteway This is a really good book with some outstanding characters and world building. There are some interesting though sometimes confusing elements about the Lodestones, which I’m no way going to try to be expert about. The important thing to this type of fiction is that the author try to maintain the rules he’s built into his system-or at least have good reasons for any deviations. I think,without going into real in-depth analysis of the working of the lodestones, the author does a fair job of keeping things real. There is an prologue to story and it almost confused me. I at first thought the whole Kelanni religious order stuff might be based around Kal and had to read back to realize that it existed before. Then I wasn’t sure if they had the lodestones before him or after the Keltar obtained theirs- I’m thinking maybe after and he may have played a role in that but later there is mention of a Kel Stones almost as a separate thing- by a character in the real story so I’m still a bit confused. That might get cleared up for me later in this series of books. The world of the Kelanni is one of a world with three suns- I don’t remember any moons. The actual orbits and movements of the suns and the planet are still muddled in my mind and an orbital diagram might have been helpful. It’s possible, since it seems that the large red sun never sets, that the Kelanni world is like the moon orbiting a sun instead of planet with only one side facing the big red sun, Ail-Mazzoth. There are two smaller sons that move around the sky and those are what confuse me the Ali-Gan yellow sun and Ali-Kar white sun. I don’t understand how they orbit and what the relationship is to the Kelanni world and Ail-Mazzoth. My confusion asside: This seems to be a story about Shann who is a young girl living in a small village where the Kelanni religious orders Keltar are extracting tribute in the form of slave labor. Her parents were taken some time in the past and she lives with relatives and has dim view of the religious leader and the Keltars. I would guess that explains why she tries to help someone who seems to be attempting to save the tribute slaves from being taken by the prophet’s Keltar’s. Her attempts lead to her having to go on the run from the Keltar. We learn somewhere along the line that Kelanni have tails. It’s sort of almost in passing and not much time is dwelt upon the subject. Later it becomes a major plot point so it might have been useful to have the tails mentioned- as in having some purpose to remind us of their existence before the plot point arrives. There are more major characters in the book with Keris a Keltar who initially assists in the pursuit of Shann. Alondo and Lyall are the rebels-Lyall is the one Shann helped. Then there is a large beetle like bug named Boxx; he’s a Chandara and they live very long lives. At some point it’s difficult to tell who’s story this is but since it starts with Shann and ends with Shann I will call it her story. They all eventually get together and begin a convoluted escape from the prophet and his Keltar. As things unfold the escape route makes perfect sense as they work together in a mission to save all of the Kalanni from the Unan-Chinneroth, the one “without a tail”. Pretty important that tail everyone takes for granted. On the other hand it could have been the one without a nose; so, even without many mentions about the tail this does work. The quest takes them to the other side of the planet- which may be freezing cold- or not- depending on those orbits of the other suns. This is a good fantasy and fair Science Fiction -I think it could use a bit more explanation in some of the science- a bit of romance with a strong female character. I recommend this to anyone except the few nitpickers who ‘have’ to know all the facts about how lodestones work (or shouldn’t) and orbits of planets and suns. It’s good for a couple nights entertainment and a good prelude to: THE REST OF THE STORY- there is a volume containing books 1-3 available. Sural

Powerless Series (Omnibus 1-3)by Jason Letts I first tested the single first book(Synthesis) for free- I believe it is still offered as free. I would recommend that someone start with that and decide if they like it enough to try the rest then I'd recommend the omnibus because it will save a little money. I really liked the first book for getting the reader started into this world. It at first reminded me of Anne of Green Gables meets Harry Potter. It quickly shifted into Harry Potter meets Genius Girl. And that's all good. I would class this as a Young Adult fantasy though it might easily fit into some steam-punk category. The one problem was that I couldn't readily place it into any particular era or time frame. It might be alternate earth or it could somehow be ins some sort of quasi-dystopic future. It just doesn't conform to any particular framework though it does use the Earth as a reference. Certain elements of the world building seemed to be skipped over, though that did not impede the overall development of the storyline. I enjoyed the development of the characters and though the first book almost start out a bit like juvenile fiction it segued into Young Adult much as it started to look a bit like Genius Girl. There are a number of good characters in the story and several of them undergo changes as the story develops. The story begins with Mira Ipswich who lives a sheltered life at age fifteen. She is being home-schooled by her parents Kevin and Jeana and has no idea that there is a whole world out there. There are reasons for all of this, which will come out later in the story. It's almost an unbelievable situation and I think that that's one thing that gives this book initially a feel of being juvenile fiction. It doesn't last long because Mira is about to discover the real world that's out there and she'll be thrust into it quite abruptly. In this world everyone has some sort of power - except Mira. This will make life difficult for Mira, but she wants to live out there in the real world and her parents home schooling has prepared her for it as much as possible. Mira will join the academy and meet the people who shall become her worst enemies and best friends. The twist here is that she may well be thrust into the thick of life in the next year. Some of these friends are Aoi and Vern,Mary and Rowland, Roselyn and Kurt, Jeremy and Chucky and many more. There is a thread that runs in this that is reminiscent of Lord of the Flies in that it has rather young people having to deal with the horror of war early in life. That's not to say that there are not young people out there who do have to deal with this it's just not normal fare for me in my fiction. These are fifteen year-olds just edging into sixteen who are going to -at the age of 16 begin training for war. One almost disturbing element in the story is that the youths seem to handle the situation as though this is some sort of mmorpg instead of real life. Also the adults seem to encourage this. There is a heavy element of competition and in a short time the reader finds that people can be hurt during the competition. They will all be vying for the position of leader -not just of the class but of the unit when they eventually go to war. They seem to have somehow been encouraged to make this an every man for himself competition. There are elements of this that lend to the thought- yes we need to teach them the seriousness of the war they will have to face- yet we must ask - should we kill them before they reach the field. Mira will have to join in this competition without a special gift or power and having to use her one most powerful resource- her mind. She's not to be deterred and gets right into the spirit of the whole thing. At the same time she understands the need to bring in teamwork- which is going to be a daunting task. There are so many characters with so many attributes and so much depth and Jason does a fantastic job of introducing them and keeping them all in order so its not difficult to keep track. These characters are youths that are growing and developing and I think the author does a good job here though it might put off many readers because they seem to often shift around and change more than what many readers are comfortable with. It's been said that Mira is a very conflicted character and I agree- but in truth many of the characters in the story are conflicted for different reasons. I think the author lays the seeds for this well, but has taken on an awesome task with perhaps too many characters spreading his talent a bit thin at times. Thankfully he tells a story well and keeps track of his characters as he goes. In the first book - eventually the group is all going to be confronted with a first hand look of the horror of war and they will have to learn to work as a unit. The next two stories The Shadowing and Stasis continue bringing our ersatz heroes into the thick of the war. The first half of Shadowing is about the shadowing, which is how each person learns to use their skill from someone who has mastered a like skill. This reads a bit like Karate Kid with all sorts of instruction that almost makes no sense to our somewhat anxious trainees. Most will learn once they come to an understanding , but for some their choice of masters to shadow may come close to fatal conclusions. This is all leading to another challenge for leadership, which may, in itself, prove fatal for some. This all leads to the war in the Stasis where the reader can't help but feel sympathy for these youths who will have to grow up early. The war is so wide spread that it seems that not only do most youth end up in it, but most don't return. This third book reminded me a lot of The Death Stalker series by Simon R. Green and I'm not sure I'd recommend it as a young adult book. That's just me though. There's two more books and if you make it this far you will want to read those. My one quibble would be that once you get this far and with the way it abruptly comes to its conclusion it leaves you thinking,"oh, he should have put the forth one in this set." I recommend this Omnibus for anyone who likes dystopic steam-punk,mmorpg's, magic and wizards, and seat of your pants conflicts. Something for everyone and sometimes not for the faint of heart. J.L.Dobias

Ordinary (The Anything But Series)by Lindy Zart So this is another in the series of free offerings. Unfortunately I'm not sure It's still free. Now, because it's free, I should at least be civil and nice. But at the risk of spoiling things- You can't end it like that. Granted I'll give that this is almost like a Zombie Apocalypse novel, but it's really not- so there. Make no mistake, I really liked this story and I'll be waiting for the other half of it to make it to e-print. This story has many elements of similar novels of this type: Honor lives with her mother and sister and has lost her father. She's living a life that she's about to discover is a lie. There are people who are out to get her- with the notion they want to help. Do they really? Honor doesn't know and is struggling to trust anyone after her world has just been destroyed and re-arraigned. It all starts when she notices Christian, an acquaintance and classmate, exhibiting odd behavior- which pales to the odd behavior around them as no one else seems to notice. Later she sees what she thinks is Christian being abducted. The very fact that she could see what Christian was going through has put her in danger, but it will take her a bit of time to discover that. Honor, who is one of those people who probably brings every stray dog they find home, is concerned for Christian. It almost looks as though her concern is what gets her into trouble, but she's already there it just hasn't caught up to her. Honor has two school related nemesis, Natasha and Ryder, who figure into the gang of people who try to 'save' her. In Honor's universe there was a virus that was accidentally released which over time began to manifest itself with dramatic changes in the DNA of those affected. There are three types of people the UD's who become zombie like, the UDK's who are able to control and eliminate the UD's and the ordinarys who may carry the virus but show no signs. -----------------Spoiler- maybe but maybe not-------------------------- Now, and this is speculation and not a spoiler unless I've speculated correctly, this really sounds like a- lets make the ultimate soldier gone bad scenario. Once again we're making soldiers with no way to safely integrate them back into society. Only this time were growing them up to a trigger date without any good missions to point them at. ------------------end spoiler alert------------------------------------ Honor has to start trusting her instincts because she can't trust anything that's she's being told. The problem is that this lack of information could get her and some of her friends and acquaintances killed. And as things unfold- that may be someones plan. This is a well told story and though it seems to be cliffhanger-ish it does stand well alone and definitely grabbed my interest to where I will buy the next book once it comes out. There are plenty of unresolved threads-but as you can see it gives much room for speculation and imagination until the writer gets that second half out. While waiting Lindy has another series out that you can read. Sural

Wisdom(Blue Moon Rising Trilogy) by Bonnie Watson This is one of those free books that have a bit of extra hook. The free book was the next one and I just couldn't see reading the free one without first reading this one. So I purchased Wisdom and it's a wise choice-I think. There are so many things to love about this book it makes it worth the struggle. When I say struggle I don't mean that as a bad thing. What I mean is that this is a story told in the high form of such classics as the Three Musketeers and Count of Monte Cristo. Add to that some interesting world building and it comes close to the classic nature of The Lord of the Rings. If there is any problem with this book, it's that there are at least three threads being told in parallel which eventually bend into each other by the force of powerful singularity which is the creative nature of the the author, Bonnie Watson. This book demands special care and attention to details to understand how these story lines fit together. If I were to split types of readers I would call them the slow reader (me) the scanners (me some of the time) the speed reader (Not me, but I know a few). This book is suited to the speed reader. The slow reader may muddle along and take extra time or be tempted to scan and then get lost. It's best to take the extra time and not miss any of the precious details. As to the story of Wisdom (who starts the story as Keith Larson). The reader is introduced to Keith as a child with loving parents- that is soon a condition that will change through treachery of someone close to the family. This creates an element close to the wonderful story of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. And later when he joins a guild of thieves it becomes a mirror of Oliver Twist. By the time Keith reaches the point of becoming a slave we would almost suspect that he'd have a thirst for revenge and be close to the Count of Monte Cristo. But the real parts that remind me of Dumas are all the bits and pieces in the building of the tale that speak of treachery and intrigue and the length it takes to build to the connection to all of these. This is really another story of a youth who's life has been a fiction until they are thrust into reality and forced to discover what they truly are. And that perhaps explains why even as a child Keith possesses a certain quality that sets him apart from normal. Usually I can finish these off in one or two days but this one took me three. It was well worth the time. Scanning through this book would leave me mostly wondering a variety of thing about what was going on. Going through it carefully was like savoring the flavor of a well prepared feast. That all said there were a few choices of words that threw me off occasionally and two in particular stood out and I'd love to have someone explain what I might have missed. The first is this one: "Indeed." Jenario stood with an heir of newfound dignity. Watson, Bonnie (2010-10-05). Wisdom (Blue Moon Rising Trilogy) (p. 227). Foreseer Productions. Kindle Edition. Now I could be all wet here, by waving one foot over the rail precariously. But in this instance it would seem more appropriate to say Jenario stood with an air of new-found dignity. That's not to say that he couldn't do the above. For lets suppose he'd just had a child and in his society that that very fact gave him a newfound dignity. This could all be eloquently summed up with that one statement. Since the child would be his heir. Then he might well stand with an heir of new-found dignity. Unfortunately he didn't just have a child. As it stands in context it confused me though it's not to say that it won't make sense to someone more acquainted with using nouns in this manor. The next was this one: Already, many young females had taken an interest in him, to Chronicles' discretion. Watson, Bonnie (2010-10-05). Wisdom (Blue Moon Rising Trilogy) (p. 238). Foreseer Productions. Kindle Edition. See to me this says to Chronicles good judgment which seems to jar with the way Chronicles seems to come off so far. Much the same as to say Chronicles was encouraging the females towards Keith; while I'm certain he would be doing the opposite. So, this one baffles me. These were not show stoppers and I think I understood what was going on and even if I got it a bit wrong I don't think it spoiled the story. Please read this book and then anyone who would like to enlighten me on these two can feel free to in the comments. This is great writing from a highly talented person and it was a pleasure to read. I recommend it to just about anyone who loves reading. J.L. Dobias

Time Change Book One: The Jump by Alex Myers I loved this book. Not only was it entertaining it was educational. There are a lot of historical characters here that I might never have met without this book. It's amazing how many inventors there are that are not household names. On the other hand there a quite a few household names in the book also. I usually call this name-dropping because an author often does not do much related with that character that seems to be totally in character when they map out stories like this. This is not that kind of story- these characters show up for a reason. This book starts out like a historical novel and then sort of morphs itself-understandably-into a sort of steam punk with just a bit less steam in it. Instead of being an alternate universe which developed differently this is more like a time travel universe with the same potential as ours where the main character- familiar with today's technology- attempts to bring his new-old world up to date. This has a great storyline with a great main character. Jack Riggs-maybe later we might consider him the Jack of all trades- has a vast amount of knowledge that he seems mostly to be wasting. Jack is a womanizer. He hasn't found the woman he loves- ie; one he respects long enough to actually be in a serious relationship with. This is what gets Jack into trouble and it's something he'll find himself working on in spite of himself. Jack is teaching- which means he is using some of that knowledge. and he is presently toying with a relationship with Ashley who seems to be quite intelligent and driven and possibly a bit anal- at least from Jacks point of view. Jack has also been toying at work. He must be teaching seniors because the girl he's been cheating with, Shalah is possibly eighteen-making her somewhat legal. But, let's face it; Jack! what are you thinking. Jack has all sorts of good reasons for what he's been thinking of doing and all sorts of denial that he did that much. It seems that Shalah has thrown herself at him. This is natural since Jack is just one of those guys that women throw themselves at. The trouble this leads to is everything beyond expected when Jack is being questioned at the police station for possible terrorism. Shalah shows up with a bomb at school-one which her terrorist boyfriend made- based on knowledge that Jack was freely tossing around. This leads to a disclosure of a relationship with Shalah that seems to be trumped up by pictures Shalah had taken after breaking into Jacks apartment. Jack naturally calls Ashley to pick him up where she proceeds to break up with him in a high speed drive away from the police station and into the center of a super storm. This is when things get really strange. At the moment when Jack might be seeing his life flash before him. Surprise Ashley loses control of the care and the slide into an eventual accident. At the moment of Impact the super storm lightning strikes and some great vortex like force takes Jack back to the 1850's and some time just prior to the civil war. Now I'll stop for my quibble with this book. There is a side story that figures heavily in this novel and probably makes more sense in the next novel. It shows up as a preface or prologue or such called Before. I won't say much about it because it confused me mostly and I'm not sure it's necessary. But, I didn't write this novel and I don't intend on rewriting it so it's there and it stands. I have the same feeling about the last chapter which is a chapter and could have been the epilogue. Either way I don't think they added to the story and could have been inserted somewhere in the second book if they are necessary, which I think they are and it might be that the author doesn't want to make it look like he thought of this at the last minute and inserted it into the second story. So, bottom line is the objection is just me- it probably is a good thing the two sections are there. There are more breadcrumbs related to them inside the story. Anyway, Jack becomes a great facilitator of inventors. He needs to eventually create most of the things he thinks he needs to stop the civil war from happening. I'm not going to name drop all the inventors involved. I think the best way to read this is to have a paper handy and write names down and later check their credentials on line. You'll be surprised at what information is there and how well the characters fit into the world that Jack is building. There's an evil group of southerners who are copying peoples patented technologies who will notice Jack and realize they need to get him on their team- not realizing that Jack is never going to be on their side. This creates the conflict. And, the woman of his dreams, Dreams Jack never knew he had, creates the pathway towards rehabilitating the womanizer. But, not before he takes an initial sampling of what's available in the past. This is a great novel for anyone who loves historical romances and it's coming real close to the strange technology anachronism of all good Steam-punk novels. It has time travel and even some strange-mysterious group(possibly time travelers). So any one who loves Science Fiction or Speculative Fiction and those other aspects should love this novel. I'm definitely reading the next few to get the rest of the story. J.L. Dobias

I acquired this e-book free from amazon and I can emphatically say that it was a delightful surprised wrapped in the fresh voice of a new talent. Let me first warn that this book is best enjoyed on a kindle or in a kindle for PC app and not quite so friendly in the Chrome-book app that they have for it. I was test driving the chrome at the time and endured the jagged right margin with no indents and no spaces between paragraphs and there was often some confusion about where paragraphs ended. I checked later on my other two appliances and found it to be an affectation of the poorly written kindle program for the chrome. Let me also say that this should in no way reflect poorly on the author- in fact- it says a lot that I couldn't put this book down even with those problems on the chrome. This is a sort of coming of age story. Jamie and her brother Brandon have recently left home and are trying to find their nitch in life. Brandon has his band and his band buddies, Jamie is not so fortunate as she only has the band by association. She's well organized but not yet focused on what she wants to do. So she helps out where she can with all the guys in the band and she is falling for one of them. Kyle is someone that she and her brother have known for a long time and she's becoming certain that she'd be comfortable with more than that as long as it doesn't mess with current friendships. This story is a lot more than that though. It's a story of changes and coming to understand ones own potential. It's a story of love, heart break, betrayal and growth. It's also a story of strange creatures and mystery. It starts out a bit slow, but that won't put you off. It's a slowly peculating mystery where Jessica keeps the reader wondering just what's happening. Brandon and Jamie start the story on a camping trip in the desert that goes just a bit awry when they wander into a deep cave where they both are injured and attacked by an unseen and deadly creature. Strange things begin to happen to them and it's only at about one third the way into the story that we discover a bit of what is going on. Trust me you won't want to put it down at least until you find out what that is. Then when you do, you'll have to finish it because things get really interesting. One of the amazing things about The Foretelling is how well the characters are portrayed. Not only did I easily identify with Jamie and Brandon and immediately feel a connection, but even some of the less likeable characters are still endearing enough to care about. The story is a well woven and nicely paced tale that takes you from beginning to end and leaves you wanting to pick up the next book as soon as possible to find out what is going to happen. Anyone who likes Anne McCaffery's Dragon stories will love this tale. I love mostly science fiction but the explanation and detail along with great narrative style were enough to keep me happy throughout. I really can't express how much I love the world you're building here Jessica. J.L. Dobias

December Moon(The Raven Saga)book 2 by Suzy Turner I had just finished Raven by Suzy Turner and knew that I'd have to eventually revisit the world of Lilly Taylor aka Lillian Tulugaq. A universe where all imagined fantasy characters might exist- and possibly do. We certainly meet quite a variety. The next day after I completed Raven I came home and my wife Virginia mentioned being three quarters of the way through a really interesting book. Of course it was Raven and I knew right away that I'd have to get the other two book. I did that immediately. Then the race was on. Virginia loves romance novels I am more partial to Science Fiction though I've been known to read the occasional fantasy. So that was one reason I had picked up Raven which turned out to be a fantasy - paranormal romance novel. Sometimes we find something which crosses both our paths and this series is one of those. Being a slightly slower reader than Virginia I attempted to get that extra quarter of the novel lead on her. I knew it was fruitless but it was fun and though she finished the second book a bit sooner than I I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it. December Moon starts out with the beginning of a reveal about its namesake. Up until now December has been Lilly's normal best friend whom she's had to hid her secrets from despite their closeness. Of Course in the world that Suzy Turner has made that's a condition that is about to change. In this universe the special people have to hide the secret from the normals to protect themselves and possibly even protect the normals. Lilly is still trying to come to terms with her new life as a changeling or shape-changer. She's dealing with the loss of her boyfriend because of the necessity to keep secrets and other complications. She's still searching for her father who vanished last year. But, she does have her new-found family and she is in constant contact with her friend in England, December. She just has to angst about not being able to tell December anything about the truth of her family. December has had a few strange things happen around her and is thinking she might be losing it a bit. She's just turning 15 and I'm not sure is that's a major mile-stone in England, but she's about to discover that her father has left her an inheritance and that she's now free to decide where she wants to live. She finds out the mother who abandoned her -didn't really abandon- and that she lives near Seattle Washington in the USA. And December and her faithful servant Monty are about to embark on an adventure to the Americas where she'll be a hop skip and jump from her best friend near Vancouver. December is about to discover that she comes from a family of Witches. Her mother, grandmother and great-grand and so on have all been witches and December may likely end up being a powerful witch some day. But, she has to keep it a secret and that means she needs to keep it from her ordinary friend Lilly. This begins the narrative dance which Suzy is so good at. The reader gets a lot of reveals before the characters do so its fun to watch as they unnecessarily avoid issues because they think each other to be normal. It's all about to change because a dangerous Vampire has been stalking the community that Lilly lives in and they have been calling in outside help. The witches of the Seattle are are about to be called in, which both thrills and mortifies December since her friend Lilly is there and she might be in danger and if she sees Lilly she won't be able to tell her the real reason she's there. These books are all about the interconnection of this diverse group of paranormal people. The mess they get into while trying to blend in as normal and the dangers they face constantly when they have to face the evil half of their own people. The excitement and tension and danger ramp up a bit more than the last book. There is still plenty of paranormal romance to go around with the cast of the original novel and a whole couple handful of new players. This has a few threads carried over from the previous novel and some that will carry into the next. The story is well rounded and ends with the definite indication that there is at least one more book to follow. Once again this is for lovers of Horror-Paranormal Romance and fantasy books. Now quickly onto The Lost Soul -final novel of Raven Saga Trilogy. The race is not yet finished. J.L. Dobias

The Raven Sage: Part 1 Raven by Suzy Turner This is one of those plots that sort of creeps along and holds you there for quite a while. Once you get to about 25% of the book it nails you. This does not have one of those page turner openings with the heart-pumping heart stopping hook. But Suzy Turner proves that you don't need that to make good stories work. When we first meet Lilly Taylor- we don't know her name. In fact for all we know it might be eat- that's what her mother seems to say just as shes addressing her in the few times we witness any exchanges between them. I think this is to help jar the reader into understanding that Lilly's home life is nothing near normal. And, just when she thought things would continue in their horribly boring way her parents disappear. For Lilly this is equally as distressing as it should be for any young girl of thirteen years and yet it's somehow less so because she has a very strange relationship with her parents. The one thing about Lilly is that she's always had this life and knows no other and she has had few friends up until December Moon, her newest classmate, shows up. Unfortunately due to circumstances Lilly will have to move away from December and from England to live with her grandfather in Canada until her parents are found. Though the disappearance of her father and mother has some strangeness attached to it, Lilly doesn't know strange until she reaches Canada and her extended family in British Columbia near Vancouver. Lilly goes from a life of seeming imprisonment to a wide open wonderful colorful world that seems to have a magic to it that not only touches her heart but pulls her deep into it's mystique. What she doesn't realize is that she has a special connection. Her grandfather Gabriel tries to slowly and carefully break some of the family secrets to her. Lilly is anxious and almost demands to know and soon she'll discover the deceptions that have been perpetrated on her and her world will be turned upside down. She's also destined to -at the age of fourteen- have her first true love. Unfortunately the family secrets and new revelations about her life will begin to interfere with that part of her new-found happiness. It seems that Lillian's true surname is Tulugaq-not Taylor-and Tulugaq means Raven. Her family carry a gene for shape-shifting into Ravens. What's more her mother-that she grew up with-is not her mother at all. But the woman Vivian is a witch who has enchanted her father somehow and stolen both of them away from the family after her sister and mother died.(All of this occurred right after her birth.) Lilly has the potential to shape-shift into one of two creatures. A raven or a cat (of some sort-usually determined by the persons character-I think). Lilly's true mother's family are cat shifters. Lilly is about to be be thrust into a secret world of vampires, werewolf, witches, shape-shifters and more. You'll have to read to find out what Lilly might become. Suzy Turner does an excellent job of creating her world where there is a special council of elders who make rules to govern all of these strange creatures. It turns out that more people than just Lilly have been victims of Vivian. And Lilly must come to terms with what she is so that she can begin to help in the search for her father who was being slowly brought to the brink of death by Vivian who uses certain special types of people to help extend her life ( at their expense). This is a great story that proves once again that your hook can actually be your great ability to tell a great story and doesn't have to include a thrill ride introduction with several paced mind numbing thrills and terrors through out. There are plenty of conflicts and things to stimulate the readers imagination throughout this and Lilly is a truly engaging character from which we are introduced to the wonders of British Columbia and the rich world building of Suzy Turner. This is definitely a great story for Young Adults and Mature Adults. I usually read science fiction but this fantasy with a small edge into the world of horror and the magical with potential for paranormal romance is quite a draw. It reads as though Lilly is growing up as the story begins to unfold and flower to maturity. I enjoyed it so much-when the last page arrived I was a bit heartbroken. It's a good thing there are two more books. I got this one free as you may also be able to do and I'll definitely be purchasing the others. J.L. Dobias