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In this book Peregrin is a foreigner- stranger -traveler which in my dictionary is Peregrine. On the other hand Peregrin is Pippin from the LOTR. Since this is the second half of an epic adventure it all balances out.
I love everything about the two books Xenolith and Peregrin. I believe that most everywhere the first book is free though in some places you have to purchase the second for about a dollar. That's the e-books. They are well worth the price. If you like the fantasies like LOTR and love reading about great battles this is one fine book.
It's a diamond in the rough though, and I'll get to that, but first the praise.(Five stars for most everything)
Peregrin takes up after Xenolith with the story of Frank Bowen and his wife Liz who have been separated for twenty years by the most fantastic rift one could imagine.
The Xenolith rocks which seem to be much like fools gold hold the key to the power of the convergence that links Earth to Gi. For years their secret was guarded until Cuerti, Crasacs and Polu began invading from Venen. Before then there were many clans and cities and peoples who often fought amongst each other, until the invaders came and they had a common enemy.
This is the world that Liz stumbled into all those years ago and in twenty years she has changed and hardened while somehow in many ways remaining the same. Frank, her husband has tried to live without her but has not been able to move on and has lived the life of a ghost as he goes from one medical mission to another and always landing at Rio Frio where he lost Liz. On the last trip he's too close to one of the Convergences and Tezhey (a traveler who walks the convergences) takes him across to Gi where no one returns. Tezhey along with others like him help keep the secret and when the peregrin wander in they take them to places where they are away from the convergences so they can't get back.
Frank was given a chance to go back and declined being convinced that Liz was on this side somewhere. He finds her in her new life and he discovers how difficult it will be to get back into her life.
But theirs is not the only story.
Ara is a member of an elite force known as the Cadre that is supposed to work with people like Tezhay. While trailing through Earth on a supposed mission of peace she meets up with a band of fellow travelers led by Seor. Ara's leader Baren has told her that they are on a peaceful mission to parlay with the enemy. The problem is that the Venen are not suppose to know about Earth or the stones that drive the Convergence. And it looks as though Baren means to give the Venen a stone. Seor and her people convince Ara that something is amiss with the whole idea and things have gone poorly for everyone leaving some of the wounded on both side of Earth(Ur) and Gi.
This is where A. Sparrow begins to grow the character of Ara as a reluctant but possibly brilliant leader commander.
There are so many well developed characters in this novel each drawn with their strengths and weaknesses sometimes leading everyone into danger even death and other times coming out smelling like roses.
Rarely are there any punches pulled. The horror of war and peoples varied reactions are examined closely. Where characters like Miles and Frank have had such a hard time believing they have ended up where they are and in so causing their own problems; there are characters like Liz who have accepted it and grow to where they turn a blind eye to what is happening around them because they don't remember a day there wasn't conflict even when the Venen were not around.
There's never a dull moment and I think all fantasy science fiction adventure lovers will eat this one up.
I would be remiss though if I did not caution that there will be rough patches for some people.
There are many grammar issues with both books. A. Sparrow has become my second favorite author who is a powerful writer who could benefit from getting a couple extra set of eyes to look at the work.(I'm not offering to do that; I'm busy.)But, I'm sure some college student could even help here.
Many times in this book there are extra words that are redundancies. Sometimes there are missing words. In this novel I didn't notice any misspellings.
We can't catch all of these- I've seen traditionally published books with many such errors. But extra sets of eyes will help vanquish many of those I caught I this book.
So if those things bother you be prepared but please don't let that dissuade you from trying at least the first book Xenolith. I loved them both and I hope you will too.
J.L. Dobias
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I loved this book. Of course one thing to love is that it's free. It really would be worth paying for.
(Has some issues but I wouldn't downgrade my stars for those. It has a lot going for it.)
This book reminded me -at the beginning- of Atlantida by Pierre Benoit and because of that it also parallels She By Henry Rider Haggard. These are two old classics that are written in the old high tradition of narrative. You don't see books like that that much today. There is an attention to detail of the worlds that the characters travel through in this book. Along with many instances of there being a desperate desolation in the interaction of character to environment.
The story starts with Frank being bound and gagged and blindfolded by mysterious band of people in Belize; where he's visiting the site of ancient ruins where his wife and a friend and their guide disappeared twenty years ago. This digresses into a flashback of the trip out and that back-flashes into the time of the actual events twenty years ago. Frank is a Doctor who seems to be some kind of mission Doctor who flits across the world in some of the most dangerous and impoverished zones around. His wife Liz is an absolute saint just for putting up with it all. Liz loves archeology. When the local pastor offers to take them out to see some ruins that have interesting aspects and have never been worked by other archeologist; she jumps at the chance. Unfortunately Frank has medical emergencies that day and can't go along. So, the boat man, the guide, the pastor and the wife head out. The boatman is the only who will return.
There's a second story being told parallel to this story about a group of somewhat primitive yet well organized individuals fighting a war that seems to be extending across what might be parallel universes. At the beginning it looks as though the group we follow might be the only ones who use the special stones that open the convergences. Part of what this narrative is taking place at this time that the enemy may be acquiring the ability to breach into the different worlds.
One of the many worlds is Ur or Earth, Franks home. And Frank might have been abducted by one of the first group, who are trying to guard their secret. Tezhay, the man who has taken Frank to a different world may be one known as a Traveler. Previously a special group known as the Philosophers had held the stones and kept the xenoliths secret. When war struck -in order to survive men like the Travelers were allowed to learn to go through the convergences into other worlds to escape elude and sometimes ambush the enemy. But, the enemy is still winning. Their world is dangerous, especially for someone like Frank who has a bad heart after all these years.
Frank at first doesn't believe that he's in a different world. Not until he experiences it first hand. After which, he starts to believe that his Liz might be alive and possibly somewhere on this world. This part is executed excellently as Frank vacillates from wanting to stay to wanting to escape back to Earth. It hardly looks like he will survive long if he stays.
Conversely the warriors from the war zone are trapped on Earth when the stone they need to use to leave is broken. Furthermore events evolve that present the possibility of the horror that someone has betrayed them and the enemy now has at least one of the stones to the convergence they are at.
This story has some awesomely good world building and is well paced while full of conflict and action. There's a lot of political intrigue and betrayal going on. And there's the lover's quest story that seems all to real and sometimes hopeless. I can't give A. Sparrow enough praise for this book.
That much said I do have some issues with the need for editing. This goes well beyond grammar and spelling. Those can easily be overlooked. There are some consistency issues of which I'll point out two. They create enough confusion to be frustrating.
[quote]
"Flower mean they sell drink," said Tezhay. "You thirsty?"
"Sure," said Tezhay). "As long as it's clean and doesn't have any dead toads in it."
"No worry," said Tezhay. "Is just beer, from honey."
A. Sparrow. Xenolith (Kindle Locations 6442-6445). A. Sparrow.[/quote]
"Sure," said Tezhay (should be frank talking) . "As long as it's clean and doesn't have any dead toads in it."
I say this because Tezhay does not use contractions nor speak this clearly and it only makes sense if Frank said this.
[quote] Canu stepped over Vul as he squirmed among the tarps. "I'm going out to relieve Pari," said Canu. "Tell Aret I say hello.""
"Canu?" Vul bellowed, as if calling across a vast cavern. "What are you doing here?"
"Don't shout. You'll wake Vul. He's trying to sleep."
"But, " Vul popped up, eyes flashing open. "Where , where did she go?" He looked confused, and frantic.
A. Sparrow. Xenolith (Kindle Locations 6718-6722). A. Sparrow.[/quote]
This did not make sense Canu would not be telling Vul to be quiet so as not to wake himself. At least in this context I couldn't even make it into a sly jest.
I also have a minor quibble about the usage of some words.
It's not that I haven't seen these words used before-They in fact are perhaps poetic words and in that they would be delightful inclusions if the entire text had many more such gems. The fact that they show up once or twice -stranded alone- makes little sense.
That's not the issue though
One word in question is at end of chapter 53 susurrus (this is the correct spelling) the spelling is wrong in the text.
I have no idea if in some circles this word is used every day. I only know that it would be the one explanation as to why someone would use this word and not bother to check up on the spelling. This is the third novel I've read this year using this same word and the second novel to misspell it. The third book used a variation and actually spelled it correctly.
If I use a word like this- whether as a poetic note or perhaps a word that says something that I could only otherwise say in five words or more - I would still take the time to look it up. Especially if I had even the smallest suspicion I could be spelling it incorrectly. Even so usually another set of eyes will pick it up quickly.
I would also check the meaning and try to decide if I want my less learned readers to learn this word with the meaning I'm trying to convey. Often I even check to be sure I'm not using it as a colloquialism. Either way; while I'm there I make sure I get the spelling correct.
I do not have a fear of new words but its nice if the definition in the kindle would be at least helpful. And it would be much better if the word could be found by the kindle dictionary- which won't happen if it's misspelled. Causing the reader to try to guess the spelling of a word they are now forced to look up in the dictionary.
Anyone that like the classics and who like Fantasy and Science Fiction and adventure with lots of archery and sword battles will love this story. For some it may take a few pages to get into the story. The time it takes to build an idea of the conditions in Belize and the character's feelings about it all at the time consumes a large volume of the beginning.
I enjoyed it all- it's well worth the read even having to get around a few rough spots.
J.L. Dobias
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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 by 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
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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
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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
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I love this story, but at times it was a trying experience.
This book reminds me a lot of that movie Making Mr. Right. It stared John Malkovich and Ann Magnuson and was about an android made for the purpose of exploring space. It was also one of those movies that had a somewhat strong female character - though she still had some of those foibles that might brand her as a bit less than the quintessential future of woman.
This novel has those same elements. The android designed to go into space that is. Sorry no strong female roles. I call this a novel because it lists at 160 pages I don't have the word count but I think 160 is good for a novel.
This story starts out with and revolves around the character Timothy. Almost a leave it to beaver household. Tim is 12 so this is very much at the beginning a juvenile science fiction story. It could easily be a YA but what drags it down is the style the author took in writing. I've been blasted before about this but I will say it again. Sometimes when we concentrate really hard on making our science good enough to be the hard stuff; we forget to put effort into the difficulty of developing good narrative. The writing reads like it is intended for the 8 to 15 year bracket and maybe even a bit earlier. It took a long time and a lot of patience to get to the good stuff. Part of the trouble for me was that there were lots of scenes with many people but scant dialogue for quite a way through. This tends to lead to a lot of expository paragraphs. It did not destroy the story it just pushed it back a few grade levels for me. But that might be just me.
It's about the time we meet the android that the characters start to take on some life. Maybe this is planned- we could always hope that.
The story starts with the simple life of Timothy and his sister Kate his mother Susan his father Charles his best friend Johnny and Johnny's sister Amy (Timothy's crush). All getting ready for summer vacation, which this time includes an invitation from Timothy's grandfather Julian to spend two weeks helping with a science project. Timothy is not sure since he'd rather spend time with Amy er I mean Johnny.
Of course, when they go to visit Julian they meet G the android- the science project. Timothy is to be there for two weeks providing a sort of companionship to the Android in order to prepare it for the up coming Turing Test, which could net them one million dollars and public acclaim.
Now we have plenty of moral issues that arise with the danger of being exposed to people who might find the android threatening and we have a sort of I Robot thing starting here. Timothy proceeds to become really good friends with G and they get along famously and G just seems like a regular guy. Who doesn't have to eat or sleep and who has more knowledge than the average genius.
What doesn't seem to get covered is whether self awareness comes close to equating to sentience and perhaps that could be covered in another story.
There's lots of excitement and chances for G to prove himself and there is even another secret project going on, which seems predictable but in a way that doesn't really spoil the story. There is still the eventual training at NASA and lots of other good stuff ahead.
I really did enjoy the moral examination though I felt that because this seems more of a story about an idea and ideals and some of the moral ramifications that there was a bit less involvement of character development than what I like. But that's because I'm a fan of character driven stories.
This is really a good book for all ages. It maintains purity as a youthful juvenile fiction with enough elements for the YA and the adult crowd. It may be that not everyone will have the trouble I had getting through the first part, but if they do they only have to tough it out for a bit before it gets interesting.
What's really neat is there are so many interesting threads touched upon in this story that there's room for some really exciting ideas and fiction to come.
J.L. Dobias
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The last thing this book needs is another review. It seems to run the whole gamut of stars in the system. It's that type of book that has a love hate relationship. There seem to be a lot of complaints about the overflow of cyber geek talk which doesn't surprise me. What did surprise me is that I went right through this book with only a couple pauses to look up words. It seems I cut right through the geek talk without flinching. Maybe I should say blissfully through. Since it might be argued that I was bliss-ed just enough to remain unaffected.
What some of the longest -geek-speak passages reminded me of was some stuff I'd recently tried to digest at the Depau science fiction studies site.:: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/... ::this one in particular was what kept coming to mind every time we took a trip down through all the buzzwords and slang from every notion of cyber punk and the socioeconomic of the net. There were complaints that this is not how they will be talking in the distant future. Get real people if you can pick out the slang I will give you that but buzzwords are forever they just shift around in meaning through the years.
I suppose if you can read the articles for the science fiction studies without much pause then Accelerando shouldn't affect you. There is something to say about the characters being a bit distanced and dysfunctional enough that you don't seem to feel for them. I have a feeling that Charles Stross may have been going for that.
Another thing that Charles did was he put together a tough combination of things that would drive any writers forum crazy. Much of this book is written in first person and present tense. Other part seem to be third person- close- and present tense. These alone are not easy tasks to pull off. Then there are those long and greatly punctuated sentences that would grind on the nerves of the OCD driven punctuation people at a certain forum I will leave unnamed here.
Charles pulls this all off well. I would almost guess he might be thumbing his nose at these forums that are trying to spit out cookie cutter writers. All of them clones of the churlish administrator who is still learning to write. And this is where I can see that a few people might not like this book. Not because it is not written well or that it is full of geek-speak but because it doesn't conform to what the majority of books are that are spit out by the presses of the large publishing houses.
Sure there might be some Science in this story that is suspect. It is after all science fiction and the best of them that have started from the most solid what-if have all digressed a bit and wandered off the path. I again think that Charles has done well.
Of course there is the notion that these separate stories do not quite congeal together well even though they are about the members of the same dysfunctional family. To that I say we missed a larger point. These are not just the story of Manfred Macx and his wives and children and grandchildren. This is the story of the birth of an AI (catlike) and its growth into something that transcends its creator.
*Possible spoiler-------------------------------------------------
This is Aineko's story- Aineko is there all the way through the whole story. Right to the end. And I'll admit that its hard to empathize with Aineko but that might be because it's not really human.
J.L. Dobias
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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
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This novel reminded me of an MMORPG-oh wait-it really is an MMORPG. I think anyone hooked on those MMORPG's has often wondered what it would be like to be in the game-really in the game. If you're like me and you know that your avatars have all died at least 30 times or more then it's only a passing thought. One that you let go of really quickly.
Of course this one is a free one- in fact all five books are free- and that's all five levels. Of course we've all often thought about writing a book based on our favorite game and so here we have someone who has- well I think the game is made up- but it all works in the way expected. I'm a fan of Science Fiction but having delved into to MMORPG's I had to check these books out.
80AD is targeted to young adults but it's a pretty darn good story and its quite entertaining for all ages. There are two major characters Phoenix and Jade the to unsuspecting teens who will get trapped in the game. Phoenix builds his character out of his desire to escape from his stepfather's abrasive behavior. Phoenix needs something to take out his aggressions on so he creates a warrior. Jade doesn't fit in and has been hoping if she hides that the rest of here family her 6 older sisters will forget about her and leave her behind. When she gets that wish she finds herself with a free night and obtains permission to play the game on her father's computer. She is intelligent and knowledgeable about herbs and healing plants so of course she creates an Elvin halfbreed healer/magic Avatar.
The story starts with Long Baiyu - a prisoner below someones castle or keep- using magic as his last resort to possible escape.
The game; 80AD, is still in development so the two copies we know of are supposed to be standalone copies of a beta version. But, this story includes a bit of magic before the game starts. Phoenix's mother gives him her half of a yin yang charm necklaces that she and her late husband had. Phoenix's father died in a car accident and his half of the pair was lost. There is a reference to an old couple at the time of the accident.
Jade's family has recently moved into a house that has several places that seem almost like mystery hiding places and she's found a pouch containing a strange necklace with a charm. The house was previously owned by an old couple.
They are both playing the game the same night and although it is not set up to do the MMORPG they somehow connect to each other and lightning strikes and the find themselves trapped in the game.
Phoenix is excited that he's now this big burly warrior and inside a game that seems so real. Jade wants only to get out of the game, which is quickly becoming too frightening for her. That's not going to happen soon and they are about to find out that they need to at least finish this level and that the stakes are high.
Both characters are quite strong and they easily play off of each other since they are almost polar opposite from the start. They each have a slot in the game for one helper and that's how they acquire Brynn and Marcus, a thief and a Roman. Since in this game a Roman would be the enemy we can see where this is all going.
This unlikely quartet set out to acquire the Jewel of Asgard which is the quest of the first level. Jades hope is that when they finish this level they can return home.Phoenix is hoping for as much conflict as he can stand.
Soon the reality of not having bathrooms and showers and restaurants and refrigerators and soft comfortable beds all seem to wear on both Phoenix and Jade. Their helpers don't know of those things so they can't miss them. Add to that the conflict and the pain and trying to reconcile deaths in a game that now seems too real to ignore and things start to get old for them both.
The only thing keeping them going is that they are convinced that if they fail the quest that it will be the end- not just for the game but for the world they're trying to get back to. They don't even know if they have the requisite seven lives and are very much reluctant to give up even one.
The quartet are all very different and engaging characters and the story moves along quickly though for me that thought that this is a novel about a game keeps looming in the back of my mind. It takes an effort to keep the reading of the story on some serious level but Aiki does a fair job of keeping things real.
I loved this book and any gamer should enjoy it and its a good book for Fantasy lovers. There's five levels so there's five books and as far as I can tell they are all free, which is hard to understand considering how engaging the first one is but I'm not going to complain.
There's even a bit of history and mythology buried in the story.
Thanks, Aiki for the entertaining read with good clean fun and the requisite amount of violence; and if the other four books match the level of this one I'm sure I'll polish them all off in no time.
J.L. Dobias
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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
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I strongly suggest first reading a bit about the author here and perhaps check the author information at Amazon.http://me-michaeledward.tumblr.com/stories :: That's just to prepare you for his style.
I liked the story. I love science fiction and it had some elements of that. It did have a bit of horror, which I'm not so much a fan of. Redeeming quality here being that the Draken Sword leaves a mark and drains life but doesn't make a mess.
The story starts-possibly somewhere far in the future. Heather has no memory and someone is trying to help her as she struggles. The help is in the form of Mind Traveling to the past. We're not told how this is done.
She Mind Travels to Seaborn where it gets a little disorienting as we get acquainted with somewhere close to a dozen people and then quickly Mind Travel through Dasha. Dasha has learned Mind travel from Ikron, a being who seems to be in her mind or something, and now we learn that it's accomplished using another person, Perry's, memories.
This takes us way into the past to visit the birth of Dasha's Grandfather, Jason Writer. There's a bit of a scary scene where it almost sounds like his mother thinks she's giving birth to the anti-christ. As it turns out she and another person die that night and she has left instruction for her son. For some reason Jason's dad waits until he's eighteen before giving him these.(and never reads it himself.) The same night 5 dark energy forces have been brought to Earth, these seem to be Ethin's warriors or some such.
We leap forward again to Jason as a teenager.
It takes a while to build up some steam from here. We have to get acquainted with everyone. Mostly because a lot of people will die. This is one of those slaughter fest type stories, which is where the horror part of the story is.
There's a back story-or another story within the story within the story that talks about another world or universe where Ethin was a great warrior who was defeated by an army of people in some sort of betrayal. Feeling a need for revenge Ethin has a plan that involves coming into our world and preparing his new army. There's some sort of restriction to what he can do here and there is a time limit so things start to move quickly as our heroes try to stop him. In this first time limit segment Ethan is limited to the specific area with a specific body count to generate the next phase. Jason is integral to the task of stopping Ethin.
There were rough spots here for me because there was a lot of jumping around from person to person. The point of view seemed to go beyond being in Perry's memories. This seems to be so that we get to know someone up until they are ended. And that's a bit of an oddity in this book- the word kill seems to have been replaced with end. I've no idea why- maybe this is something to do with this genre.
Of course there are several books to this so not everything gets resolves, but its filled with some interesting ideas and strange world building.
It doesn't always command my attention though I will want to finish the saga-it might take me a while to get to it.
But, part of that is because I have a lot of unread stuff in my kindle.
J.L. Dobias
This book is a real surprise.
I've been avoiding this one hoping Mel would put it on sale or maybe offer it free. Not that it's all that expensive; it's just a bit more than I pay for new author e-books. Plus I wasn't absolutely certain about the genre. And, I have all these other books here in my kindle that I haven't read yet.
After reading a number of reviews- they all are pretty favorable- some are rather short and not real helpful- but the ones that took time to demonstrate they read the book left some great impressions to entice me.
I wasn't disappointed.
We start out with a bit of mystery with someone in a garden of flowers and trees who is wondering how they got there. The last they knew they were asleep in bed. So this could be a dream or she could be sleepwalking. The dream theory is enhanced by the fact that her hair is the wrong color.
Then we move to a normal setting and for a while it's a question of; is this just another teen angst story. It takes only a few pages to get past and thankfully the author gets us into the real story.
There is a great need for background though, I think. That's my theory. Gwen Penn lives with her grandparents. She's getting ready to chose a college. She's limiting herself because she is certain her grandparents need her near. During the admission process she meets Mick whose nickname is Mimic-because of a stutter problem. Gwen feels a slight connection to Mimic but because she has kept to herself recently she tries to keep it out of her mind. She is affected enough to design her class schedule around his.
Gwen's mother has been institutionalized because she's not all there. This is something we learn as things go. I must confess I honestly can't remember what happened with her father if it was mentioned. I'll have to read this again soon. She has lost her best friend, Baylee in an accident. All of this is important because Gwen's about to question her sanity soon. And, I can't help but wonder about what might really be afflicting her mother.
This ordinary life is created to contrast the world where the story will really take place. Rook Dresden- through a twist of fate- will happen across a young woman collapsed in a garden. This is Gwen who will find that she's not only in someone else body but she's in some rather strange world.
Rook has a lot of strange similarities in his life. He's lost his mother in an accident and his sister Raven is in a coma and his father is institutionalized because he blames himself for his wife's and daughter's condition.
Despite herself Gwen has an immediate and intense connection to Rook; her initial thoughts are [quote]...cute is trouble. Cute got people into trouble. Partly to blame for over occupancy at the animal shelters. It weakened good judgement. [/quote]In this world Gwens senses seem to be heightened and with the relentless nature of Rook; she won't be able to rely on her good judgement.
While trying to pretend nothing is wrong with her Gwen slowly learns that this world is very different from hers. People are nocturnal. Cars don't have wheels because they fly. There are no restaurants and no banks. They don't eat but feed off the energy of a dark sun. They have magical abilities. And, partially because of the heightened sense, Gwen thinks its a paradise.
Strangely one constant in both worlds is her cat-the one in the new world looks just like her's - it has a different name while her's was called Whinny this one is Chester. This is something she finds out at the same time as she finds out that its Alex Murdock whose body she inhabits.
This story is like sliders with a quantum leap twist.
This is when things get really interesting-like that old curse.
Cat, a friend of Alexa's, shows up to inform Gwen that she knows about her and that Alexa had been experimenting with a drug to induce a condition they refer to as a Wardlow. Wardlows are a supposed epidemic that wipes away a persons soul replacing it with a beast. Alexa was trying to prove that that theory was wrong by inducing the condition. The big problem is that Cat was supposed to have been there to prevent Gwen from interfacing with anyone. Gwen was never meant to meet Rook. And there are people who hunt Wardlows -the hunters from the world of the unseen- and beings who detect them, the TAS the all seeing. When the all seeing find a wardlow they send the hunters to hunt them and because there is no cure for their condition they are executed.
Okay, so I might be going too far here and I don't mean to spoil things so I better stop. There are still a lot of layers to this story I haven't touched anyway.
Gwen who has otherwise isolated herself from friendship is the type of person who can't easily lie to others and now she finds herself in a position where she needs to lie to keep alive. Just when she thought she could make friends she finds that she can't trust anyone. And, she has no idea what Alexa might be doing with her own real life back in her world.
This is an exciting almost paranormal romance blended with science fiction and some elements of fantasy with the potential to throw in a bit of horror. Even Gwen thinks jokingly over the curiosity of what genre she would be; when Rook compares her to an interesting book. She wonders if it would be Horror? or Science Fiction.
No mater what of the many genre above if you like any of those you'll love this. And even though it promises to be a serial of some sort the ending is satisfying enough to make you yearn for the next book.
J.L. Dobias
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
This book peaked my interest right away. It has a prologue-I'm not sure it needs one- the author gave it one so I guess that's that.
This is the story of Shann - a young girl with a history that puts her at odds with the prophet and his religious order. As it turns out a lot of people don't like them, but she in particular has lost her parents to them. She lives with her relatives and helps them with their Inn. As the story opens we find Lyall trying to free the slaves being taken from Shann's village. Lyall is posing as a Keltar- one of the prophets enforcer guards. Lyall fights another Keltar and almost loses his life- Shann helps him to recover and escape.
This makes Shann a fugitive who will be pursued by many Keltar including Keris who throughout seems to be questioning what she and the other Keltar are doing for the prophet. Eventually Keris will join with Shann, Lyall and Alondo in the fight against oppression. Keris will have to first meet Boxx, a Chandara(bug like being about the size of a child), who will have the evidence she needs to persuade her to go against her beliefs and join the rebellion.
From here the five of them are on the run from the Keltar while trying to reach a tower that has a transporter that will take them to the other side of the Sea of Storms. Throughout we learn of how the lodestones are used to help the Keltar fight and to fly. Shann is trained to fight as a Keltar and though Lyall doesn't at first think he needs to learn he learns to fight better than he has in the past.
Alondo has a neat deadly musical instrument which seems to almost come out of one of those MMORPGs that are so popular these days. There's an ancient communicator that talks to the past.There are plenty of conflicts on the way to make things interesting. Eventually thing go such that there is a need to make a voyage across the Sea of Storms.
Many aspects of the world-building seemed to be sketchy. The lodestones take the forefront. What's missing is how the three suns sustain a world with life and whether the planet rotates on its axis and if not how that might effect the atmosphere which protects the planet's life from radiation.(ie; there might not be a field that blocks the solar radiation that would burn most the planet life away.)Those are not showstoppers for me but some people need to know these things. Also more emphasis on the fact that the Kalanni have tails might have been in order since it seems to be important to the story. Sometimes they all seemed just too human; though it's easy to see they are not on earth and the indigenous life is all quite new and strange.
The story is well told though sometimes there are terms that leak in from British English and take a moment to think about. There are some words who's usage might be indicative of the same situation, but struck me as a sort of word of the day - use this word in a sentence- type of usage. It seems almost to be a signature trait.If the whole novel had been filled with colorful and flowery language these few gems, which are now among common stones might have been less noticed.
There are more novel's to this series but it was quite satisfactory in itself, though somewhat cliffhanger -ish.
If you like fantasy with some heavy world building and science fiction with a bit less world building and romance and mystery and adventure, this series has a great start with a lot of potential.
J.L. Dobias
This book is number four in the series and its one of those series that you can love and hate. The reason for this is that the pace is one that keeps building the adrenaline pump, only bringing you half way down before the next pump and it can almost get tiring.
Couple that with all the tension and wonder about how the hero's are going to solve all the problems and then add some -old serial novel traits- and it can almost become daunting. I remember reading some of those Edgar Rice Burroughs novels and getting near the last pages trying to figure out when all the plot twists are going to even out only to discover that it's not happening in this episode.
This means that many people who drop out, from exhaustion, at the third novel are going to miss out on the whole tie-up of loose ends. By the time I reached the end of the third book I felt about the same as I did near the middle of the Deathstalker series. You almost need a set of file cards to keep track of all the action and deception and intrigue.
There's also a match with all of the paranoid schizoid traits of half the cast. It's funny that some people often complain that the characters in a book seem one dimensional and unrealistic. I think it's safe to say in this book that you'll be happy for the one or two of those that show up.The characters in this story are pretty multifaceted and when they appear to deviate from what I expect I find myself reflecting back to see why they did that bit of surprise and find that it makes sense.
Mira has been jumping around like the needle on a compass in the hands of feeble trembling old man. She's naive by nature but has throughout the series undergone some changes- some for the worse at times. Some times it almost seems the naivete is cured then it starts to rear its head again.
We pick up the characters in Submersion with everyone captured and subdued by the evil Warlord. Even Mira's sister, Clara, is being held captive. The main group have been split up and everyone who survived the battle is suffering under the thumb of the warlord while building a ship, which will take him off to expand his kingdom.
There are two groups; the Sunfighters who are under the Warlords coercive control and the others who have eluded that influence but are prisoners of the Warlord and his sunfighters. None of these people are being treated well or fed and cared for well and my one quibble is that based on the chancy nature of how people are fed there should be a huge number of casualties of hunger and famine and disease and just plain loss of spirit.
Since this is a prisoner of war type novel this time through it could be rather trying if not for the constant build up and sometimes partial setbacks in the various plots to subvert the authorities.
There's a lot going on in a small space so this book really keeps the reader pumped up all the way to the end. Much similar to the third book Stasis. Thankfully the reader will be delighted with a bit more resolution to some of the conflicts that have run throughout the other three books.
There are a lot of elements revealed in this book that help drive into the last book, which is the fifth one named Carafe.
Make no mistake; despite some of the mentions above I loved this story/ series and I very much appreciate the pace that it's had to sustain. For those who love a good fantasy with lots of conflict and interesting characters those are all here and there's light at the end of the tunnel in knowing that it will wrap up beautifully in the final book.
J.L. Dobias
This is a beautiful middle book to a trilogy.
We have gotten to watch Jamie grow from an organized yet unfocused almost wandering spirit into someone who has found a purpose in life. Then almost at the height of that she discovers a great deception that could easily rip the heart out of the hardest of soldiers.
Now we're about to witness the downward spiral of a soul who's reached a point of trying to reconcile her past and present. It's almost like having an elephant try to actualize that he's an eagle- or vice-versa. It seems absurd but, because of the human element, that possibility of attempt at actualization exists. Jamie is trying to look at her heritage and reconcile that with what she seems to have actualized and has suddenly made that realization of the ridiculous nature of an elephant trying to be an eagle.
It's going to take a lot of push to bring her out of the spiral. It's going to take the discovery that her heritage is not quite what she has been led to believe.
And even when that is said and done there are so many other obstacles and decision that stand before her that she'll be tested to the brink of death and beyond.
There are so many images in this story that are bits of symbolism possibly derived from myths- I honestly have not tried to research any of it yet. There are rich descriptions of worlds that might exist only in someones dreams.
I do know that the author, Jessica Acosta, is studying Anthropology and I would have to suspect that she's putting what she's learning to good use.
If you like mythology, if you like the study of human behavior and development and if you like fantasy and science fiction you'll be delighted by these books.
Despite my own urgency to read the third book, which is a work in progress, I will urge Jessica to take her time and the third will be the best one yet.
J.L. Dobias
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
The copy I have of this is from the Gutenberg project. It is taken from the pages of amazing stories. And I want to share the little quote at the beginning.
[Quote] Marion Zimmer Bradley has written some of the finest science fiction in print. She has been away from our pages too long. So this story is in the nature of a triumphant return. It could well be her best to date.
Marion Zimmer Bradley. The Planet Savers (Kindle Locations 16-17). [/Quote]
I had not read this prior and it's fairly old. It's from Bradley's Darkover world and I think it's a masterpiece. Even after all this time it still holds together well as a relevant and well told tale.
This short novel easily demonstrates the author's massive ability at world creation and her skill in writing that makes this not only a marvelous work of Science Fiction but a literary masterpiece.
This is the story of Jay/Jason. A highly intelligent and driven doctor who is respected on one hand and despised on the other. He's aloof most of the time and has nothing but prejudice against most of the inhabitants of the Darkover world especially the trailmen whom he considers to be low life beasts.
Ironically Jason is also the man who as a child was rescued and raised by the trailmen in their remote mountain village. They raise him until they decide he's old enough that he needs to be returned to his kind.
It might be that this young man felt abandoned by them as he may have felt abandoned when his father died. Whatever the reason, he's pulled off a sort of Jekyl-Hyde or Sybil turn in his life where he has segmented the old Jason from the new Jay.
Now, at the time of the reawakening of a cyclical pandemic fever he is forced to bring out the Jason- trailman- side of his personality.
The Trailmen are immune to the illness because they suffer a milder form of it when they are young. The notion is that they might be able to make a serum from the trailmen blood. The problem is the trailmen never come down from their mountain. Jay even has to agree that this trip out to the trailmen is necessary because his greater understanding of medicine can see the value. They need Jason to help insure its success.
Submitting to a procedure that will bring forth this other personality he becomes Jason- a somewhat genial and reckless young man. The transformation he undertakes affects even his physical characteristics to a point that colleagues who have known him for years don't recognize him.
All this takes place in a matter of few pages all packed in expertly with the added bonus of creating the affect that the reader comes to identify and love Jason, while loathing and despising Jay.
There's a lot more to come in this story as they make the dangerous trek into the wild and up through treacherous mountains that tax even the local Darkovans.
Will they survive, will they find a vaccine, how did Jason get so messed up. All these and more will eventually come out in this gem of a short.
The skill with which Marion Zimmer Bradley weaves and fills this novel and the fact that it stands the test of time make it easy to see how she became such a respected author and remains that to this very day.
This book is a good read for anyone who wants to become acquainted with the author and her Darkover series. And for those already acquainted who may have missed this one, they should pick it up and give it a go. There is no way for you to be disappointed.
J.L. Dobias
I purchased this eBook off of a recommend and the blurb that Amazon has listed with the book. It seemed potentially to be out of my usual fare but as it turns out the scientific explanations for the magic were handled quite well and could plausibly place this in the Science Fiction realm.
I enjoyed the first book though I was left a bit puzzled by the ending and went on to read some reviews for the second book before I realized that to do a proper review it might be necessary to purchase and read the second book. That's just me and how my mind works.
I'm not sure why the author decided to make this two books as the total number of pages is less than 400 and the second book is only 158 of those. Still the first book does somehow wrap up enough to be considered complete. From the reviews there might be some confusion for anyone who tries to read only the second book. I didn't have a problem with it but then I had all the background from the first book to get me past any difficulties. I think for anyone to appreciate these books they should purchase both and read them in order. The price of each is not that bad and I would expect to pay as much for the 400 page book.
The first book Run, Witch, Run is the story of an orphan,Rachel, who is beginning to realize special powers that would be considered out of the ordinary. She's being tutored by, Katie, a person who has introduced herself as a Mountain Witch.
Rachel is hiding her talent and just trying to get through life with her adoptive parents and her situation, which seems to be leaving her isolated from other teens her age.
The Mountain Witch, who is a child size person, has warned her about others who will try to abduct her and is trying to teach her how to hone her abilities so that Rachel can evade these others. Katie also warns Rachel of other creatures out there that might try to harm her. All of these seem to come from some other dimensional space through some sort of gateway.
In what seems to be a side story there is a possible serial killer or kidnaper who has abducted several girls and the reader is introduced to Candice who is an investigator who later plays an important part in the story.
After a confrontation with her adoptive father while at church,(we never seem to know which faith it is except that it's not Mormon) Rachel decides to run away both to get away from the situation and to try to draw away the mysterious others who she can sense are all around her now waiting for a chance to grab her.She feels in a way she is shielding her adoptive parents from whatever harm may come.
While in flight she meets Dan and Eric, father and son. These two also will play important parts later.They consider themselves as devout agnostics. I'm not sure what significance the religion or lack thereof is to this story- probably not that much since it's not really mentioned much afterwards.
The tale of Rachel's attempt to survive on her own catapults the story into the second part which takes us into more of what looks like magic than science. It sets the reader up for the coming conflict that puts Rachel at the center.
It's an exciting story well written though I'm not sure I'd set it down to a YA without first examining some understanding about some of the minor charterer's prejudicial attitudes about certain types of people. I know of some older people that would agree with these misguided characters; who are clearly displaying enormous ignorance and prejudice.
It has an interesting take on the human soul and what happens when people leave this realm of life.
I enjoyed both books and think most people who like fantasy science fiction and stories with magic and witches will.
I would very much recommend to anyone interested in reading this book, to read both books in order to gain the full understanding of the story the author is telling.
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
