Blightcross by C.A. Lang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Blightcross by C.A. Lang
This is another I had in my wish list. I was hoping for a steam-punk novel and it almost had me at the start. There seemed to be an air ship and possibly Victorian values if not dress, but there was this massive creep into other elements that shifted it from steam-punk and into an alternate world whose era seemed to be a bit slippery. There seemed to be some technology that was beyond what I was expecting and then just a whole lot of magic and a feeling we were in some bygone era that had magic and was transitioning to machine.
Clearly at some point I felt more like I was reading something like a cross between Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars series and Simon R. Green's Death-stalker series with a whole bunch of magic tossed into the mix and then add in some dark fantasy similar to Stephen Palmer's The Rat and the Serpent.
The main character Capra is not what she seems which is a typical trope. She's apparently not what everyone else thinks nor does she have a clear grasp of who or what she is herself. But that might not matter because she's an adventuress and an opportunist trying to stay one step ahead of her past and apparently burning bridges as she goes. Dannac is her only friend and they are an unlikely pair since she is Valoii and he is Ehzeri and they are mortal enemies. And they are on their way to Blightcross where they believe people don't care as much about the differences between the two. But the question is; is Blightcross really what they think it is?
They are thieves and they are on one last scam that will net them enough money to retire, but that quickly goes south when their past catches up, Capra's past, and the people who are pursuing her as a deserter are close at her heals. Now penniless in Blightcross they have to look for work that will keep them in low profile and help get them out of danger while pursuing their dreams of retirement.
Blightcross proves to be a place that chews its people up and spits them out. It is also the place where myth, magic and mayhem have come to roost.
This is where the plots digress into a murderous hodgepodge that becomes difficult to follow and reminded me greatly of those Deathstalker Series. Capra is a strong character but she's one that is hard to sympathize with because we never quite get to know her or her story because an apparent part of the plot is to leave that shrouded in mystery and doubt.
I give the story high marks for entertainment value and the beginning was quite good though it gives the readers little clue to just where this story will end up. There are plenty of twists and turns in a fast but well paced story most of the way until we reach the pall mall helter skelter final pages.
I recommend this to anyone who loves the adventure novels with a bit of tease into steam-punk and then digression into dark fantasy with magic and technology blended together into a retelling of a mythological tale.
SFF Steam-punk Magic Dark Fantasy
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Into the Deep by Missy Fleming
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Into the Deep by Missy Fleming
On the surface this book looks to be a sort of cross between little mermaid and Splash, but don't let it deceive you; it's much more than that. It has elements of familiar tropes but manages to go just a bit beyond those tropes to reach out to the reader.
Zoey is in some way your typical teen girl living a life that's a lie that she doesn't realize and that's going to change. But down further is this young girl who at the age of six lost a limb to a shark accident. She has a great mother, but she knows nothing about her father. Her mother at one time was very much into water sports and that's why they were out on the ocean that day of the accident. Since that time Zoey has had a fear of the water and the dangers within and her mother has been helping to cultivate that fear.
Zoey is reaching the age of 16 and her mother is starting to act a bit strange about the upcoming event. At the same time Zoey is trying to conquer her fear and has decided to go to an underwater exhibit. In Zoey's world there is great reason for her to do this now because the melting waters of the ocean are causing all sorts of changes and what this exhibit has to show may soon all be gone. Also she and her friend Charlotte are making other plans to join a night on the beach with other students and this might upset her mother so she's kept those plans to herself.
Strange things happen at the aquarium that further frighten Zoey and events on the beach are destined to change her life forever when she finds herself draw toward the sea despite her own fears.
This book contains elements of Romance and Lost Love, Self Discovery and Reunion, Royal Blood and Betrayal.
At the heart of it all is Zoey who is coming of age and discovering a whole new world of magic and danger that she must come to terms with quickly in order to stay alive and to keep the ones she loves safe. She may even discover she is in the right place at the right time to save the world.
This is a well paced story with some few twists and turns that all make perfect sense as the reader breaks the surface and dives into the deep with Missy Fleming.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
A Rising Thunder by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A Rising Thunder by David Weber (Honor Harrington novel#13)
This novel is a major turning point in the series and I would only recommend this to someone who has read all of the other 12 before this. There is a lot that is absorbed in the other novels that is taken into play in this one and it can be a bit confusing or even drag the reader down if they are not up to speed. I tried reading this before I'd remembered that there were two novels in-between which I'd not yet gotten hold of. I found it bogged me down a bit trying to get into the novel for a number of reasons.
It takes quite a while before you see Honor. There are a lot of changes in players in those two preceding novels. There are several subplots that are concentrated into those two missing novels. There is a lot of world building that has happened throughout and this is one of the few of the more recent books where David Weber has spent less time rehashing old world building. Some of this is good, but I found I needed to at least go back and read the two novels I had missed and that's how I ended up reading the whole series over.
A Rising Thunder reminds me more of a Tom Clancy or even a Robert Ludlum thriller more than it does your typical Science Fiction. This is something that has been building in the series as it has been growing. We move from a heavy military SF to a military political thriller SF to Something that becomes almost a blend of Soft and Hard SF which includes all sorts of political social psychological economical and military elements blended with the Science.
Is it really possible that Haven and Manticore can bury the hatchet and face this new bio-tech threat while wagging a new war against the Solarian League. More important though is; can they recover quick enough to unveil the greater Mesan threat. How much more strain can Manticore take before they lose the edge of being the possible cosmic glue that will bring all of the star kingdoms together?
A Rising Thunder is focused on the world building of the Solar League. We see a pattern developing here and we'll have to wait and see how many more novels it takes to confirm the pattern. Manticore manages to have a war against a another kingdom and they seem to decide victory and defeat almost by which side is the most incompetent. While we also see the balance being adjusted for military leaders who are competent facing each other in battle because of the political incompetence. There's always a fudge factor of a few bad men in the military. And this is what we begin to see in the Solar League in this novel.
As a sub plot we have the building power of Mesa and the growing threat they are to everyone. The question is how will David Weber move all the elements around by the time the Mesa begin to make their move and what kind of terrible battle with that bring.
A Rising Thunder is a bridge novel between the Haven conflict and the Solar League cold war and is in many ways a bit tame compared to the last two novels, yet it is packed with enough Suspense Thrills and Intrigues to keep the reader interested. It's possible that anyone who likes the more political and diplomatic end of conflict might be able to read this without much lead-in but to really appreciate it I think the reader has to know all the players and understand the past conflicts and present political climate to fully appreciate the whole.
David Weber is definitely setting the bar for this type of Military/Political Procedural Science Fiction.
I recommend this for all SFF fans, but again with the recommendation of reading the previous twelve books.
After battling through the 12 I somehow subjectively found this novel somewhat superior in its relative simplicity.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Jacob's Log by Robert Neal Johnson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Jacob's Log by Robert Neal Johnson
This is about a novella size story that serves as a good way to get to know a new writer. It's a good effort that had for me a few road bumps along the way that were never enough to really spoil the story. I do feel that in a way the story gets shortchanged by being so short. There are a lot of ideas presented here and much great potential for the characters. Also many great moments of suspense and mystery as the main character draws closer to understanding the truth and I think that they all lead to a bit of slight disappointment perhaps because of the limited size of the story. Many times I felt as a reader I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, which never did because there is no other shoe. This was disappointing, but it was how the author chose to write the story and he still does tell a great story.
The story starts out as a story told from Gabriel's and Sarah's point of view. It quickly digresses into being mostly Gabrial's POV and then a lot of log files from Jacob's Log. I feel that Sarah gets short changed here in character development and perhaps again if this were a longer piece more time could be spent. In first books there is always the possibility of overdoing the world-building and back-story and trying to find the right balance in the method of delivery. Along with that sometimes there's an overt attempt to make the story as Simon pure science as one can get and that often eclipses the development of the characters. With these two potential road-bumps and the shortness of the story there are a lot of strange holes in the story. Having the suspense and mystery add to that mix as one of the lead causes for the author to run astray. Sometimes trying to not say something can spoil things in the way the author tries not to say it.
One thing that was annoying for me was the reference to weapons as number 7 rifles and number 5 rifles, which although seem to exist if I want to refresh my memory about them they really leave me,as a reader, a bit flat and I'd like a better description or name; but that's just me. Add to this that for some weird reason everyone initially is refereed to with a number letter designator until they do a sort of rite of passage name choice ceremony and this creates a sort of distancing in the writing that really makes it difficult to differentiate the characters and sympathize with them. In my version there are no scene change indicators and it is very difficult to catch all the scene changes when they happen, which caused some confusion to the readability for me.
It becomes clear early on: the story is more important than the characters or the science in this novella. The problem with that is that the attempt of keeping certain things from the reader make it difficult to follow the story and though it has a clear ending it's not clear that the reader gets a valid explanation for everything.
By that I mean that an apparently superior intelligence has contacted Earth warning of a catastrophe; but the people on board the ship don't know this and the reader finds out as they do. They aren't told any of it when they go to the planet and it's not until one of them dies on the planet that the reader gets a clue and then there is a bit of hand-waving about why everyone has been kept in the dark. But this message received has led to the creation, by some intelligent design, of a ship that will have an seemingly endless supply of material to create cloned-life and food and some form of glider craft that will take them to the planet by twos. In a way we have the true 'mother' ship, which is one of many things whose potential is overlooked in the development of the story.
Another thing that has been kept from them is that they are on this new planet possibly to rendezvous with someone or thing possibly the superior intellect that has helped them. Having gotten to the planet they keep crashing over and over because communications is not working and the mother ship sends out parties at a specific rate and no one can warn the next flight about the storm like spots that everyone seems to naturally gravitate toward, so people keep crashing. The gliders are intact enough that they could scavenge them; but they don't. There seems to be no provision made for illnesses so some have died from infections and possible viruses. They have some definite challenges.
Still, the novella is interesting enough to keep the reader's attention and I read this one straight through. It has a lot of good mystery; a tiny bit of suspense; and some science that makes sense and a well thought out plot. I had issues with the execution in that the science makes sense but the lack of planning and common sense don't and that lack is not well explained. The mystery and suspense are more for keeping the reader in the dark than they are for plot elements and so the reader expectation is deflated when you reach many of the reveals.
The whole superior intellect thread creates the largest expectation of waiting for some masterful shoe to drop which never really does and leave the reader with a notion that there has to be more to this story even though it does have a satisfactory ending that makes perfect sense to a resolution to the plot point of the story once the reader figures that out.
I could give this higher marks if some of the notions and potential subplots had been examined a little more closely and expanded upon and if more of the characters could be brought to life. It does serve as an entertaining read for those who like SFF that examine the notion of seeding other planets in the universe.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Unexpected Gifts by S.R. Mallery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Unexpected Gifts by S.R. Mallery
I've had this on my wish list for a while. For a change I actually was drawn to it by the cover but then the blurb helped me make the decision to put it in my wish list. I left it there until I noticed it again on Scrib'd and as with all that I decide to write up I find I have to pick up a copy on amazon to keep notes on.
Unexpected Gifts is a bit far from what I normally read, although one review called it 'time travel' which I do read so-gee now I'm confused. Anyway this falls more under dramatic fiction. And the novel is written using a framing technique of story framed within story. In this case it's several stories and the device to do this is a bit contrived but it's something I can live with.
Sonia is an interesting character who has mild OCD symptoms most of the time, which shows up mostly as a finger tapping tick; which I often found annoying in the story, but necessary. She is majoring in psychology possibly in part as a way to understand her OCD a bit more clearly. But she has more than the OCD going against her and it doesn't take time for the reader to see this. Enter the contrived part when she visits her parents and discovers there is an attic full of not just memorabilia but documents that give a fairly clear picture of her family history. She's about to find out that there might be some credibility to the notion that certain behavioral patterns are repeated throughout generations.
It starts out as a voyage to discover something that might help with dealing with her father who is a wheelchair bound veteran of the Vietnam War. She reads his letters sent to her mother: from Vietnam. This introduces her to the father she doesn't know because he won't talk about all of it. There is one small glitch in this in that there seems to be more information acquired here, this way, than we later on are led to believe could have been in those letters. But these letters and some diaries and other writing are all presented in small doses from her mother who seems to have some agenda in all of this to help her daughter.(The reader does not see the written material-but more of a flashback-and in some cases the flashback defies the maturity of the person who would be having the flash back at that time, but it is still effective in getting the point across and is otherwise done quite well.)
The outer frame of the story deals with the here and now and with Sonia's education and her friends and her boyfriend. As a reader I reached a frustration point where I wanted to shake her and wake her up about a few things. Part of this is because the style of writing allows the reader to know things ahead of time through things some of the characters don't really see, but this all works because the point is to have sympathy for Sonia no matter how much she seems to be sticking her head in the sand.
As the other stories unfold we see many of the people that are important to Sonia and to Sonia's mother are portrayed in ways that give Sonia insight into her family and in many ways to herself. A lot of this shows up as her making parallels from what she reads to things that happen in her life.
There is a lot of interesting and familiar history here because I would personally be about her fathers age so I went through a lot of the things he did around the years 1968 to 72 And that bit of history was neatly handled. The reader also goes all the way back to the suffrage movement seeing Sonia's family tied with many leaders of that movement. And there are a few other surprises but you'll have to read this to see them all.
If I were to voice any caveats to this work it would be one place where I felt Sonia fell out of character in an almost politically incorrect way(on top of it just not being her nature.) One of the characters has Cerebral Palsy and is in a wheelchair and Sonia's boyfriend Mike has just called the girl a mental retard. In defense of her new friend Sonia objects to that phrase and then does one worse by saying
"Mental retard? You don't even know what you're talking about! She's got Cerebral Palsy, Mike, not Down's Syndrome!"
Mallery, S.R. (2013-04-01). Unexpected Gifts (Kindle Locations 3116-3118). Mockingbird Lane Press. Kindle Edition.
Sonia's suffering OCD and she is taking Psychology classes so I don't think she'd make this kind of disastrous comparison. But she did and so were stuck with it as a reader and it dampens my sympathy for her at that point.
That aside Sonia is a well crafted character with some few faults and the overall story is well constructed creating a sort of modern fable with an interesting point.
This is a great read both for YA and Adults who like dramatic fiction with a bit of historical references an interesting genealogy.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Looking Through The Mist by Rebecca J. Vickery
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Looking Through The Mist by Rebecca Vickery
I picked up one of Rebecca's shorts just to get my feet wet and of course since I love Science fiction it was one that was slanted in that direction. This author loves to write stories with a twist and since shorts are sometimes difficult to judge by; I liked what I saw, but decided to check a few other of her short stories and in short order I was looking for something a bit longer. I must confess I was bit skittish since she does love to add those twists and I wasn't sure what she'd do with a novel. This one sounded interesting on several levels and I thought I'd give it a try and I am certainly happy I did.
Rebecca Vickery's characters really came to life for me in this story- another reason to worry about twists- but it was easy to get invested in these characters and be concerned about them right from the very start and that's what I love in my stories.
The main character Jessica Walter is a retired consultant for the FBI who is looking to start a new quieter life in a small community. Jessica is also a Psychic and when we meet her, she's having a vision and her visions always seem to involve children in danger, so how can she not do anything about this. Distressed she calls her old partner also newly retired FBI agent Bob Strickland. After a bit of coaxing Bob agrees to talk to the police in the nearby town where a possible child kidnapping is happening or will happen. And this is how Jessica meets Detective Jonathon Lansing. Despite all her efforts to keep a distance from the police work Jessica will find herself inexorably drawn into it all, which means she'll have to convince a whole new group of people that her psychic ability exists and should be taken seriously if they want to recover the child.
Right from the start Jessica's struggle with what is right and how to maintain her own personal safety draw the reader into a strong relationship with this character. And though there might be a small benefit in having to work with Jonathan Lansing, it is clearly evident that her ability takes a toll on her both physically and emotionally without all the skepticism and unwanted attention she might receive if people start treating her ability like a side show. Rebecca Vickery does such a great job creating these two characters that it's a treat that she does an equal job with all the other characters that people the novel.
This book goes on the top of my list in this genre with my recent favorite Diamond Eyes by AA Bell and I have yet another favorite author for suspense thrillers. Another great book I just could not put down until I had it finished. Looking Through the Mist is well written and superbly executed.
I hope there are more stories with Jessica and Jonathon.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
A Chair Between the Rails by G.T. Anders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Chair Between the Rails (Vaulan Cycle)by G.T. Anders
This book can be, at times, an interesting but frustrating read. There's a leaning toward the poetic without a proper beat. The title itself The Chair Between the Rails at first embodies a notion of suicide on a chair between rails waiting for a train. The notion that this could then be twisted into a strange and somewhat surreal method of rebirth and in such a transition in the story, makes this a dark metaphoric journey within the head of someone who's rambling thoughts tend to fall into the category of mentally unstable.
That much said: I found it to be an enjoyable read from cover to cover. It reads like a blend of Bradbury and his love of trains and Hugh Howey and his outlandish dimensional space-scapes within the Molly Fyde series; then toss in a dash of anything from Ronald Dahl. Except I wouldn't recommend this for your younger children. The writing is steeped in metaphors that are some of the strangest metaphors I've read in quite some time. I'm still scratching my head about several of them. You'll have to read this to see what I mean.
James Feckidee and his son Austin are at Jame's Uncle Phil's funeral. But nothing is as it seems here, because Phil might not really be an uncle and James is newly divorced and struggling to maintain custody of his son, because of his own apparent mental capacity. Austin seems to also be somewhat affected, but it's not clear what the condition is. I could make a few guesses but it just isn't clear. The story quickly goes from ordinary, though funereal, to a horror thriller when some sort of beast follows them home and makes an attempt on their lives.
This all comes from the almost rambling narrative POV of Jim. It's a disturbing point of view and once again its not quite clear what is wrong with Jim; just that something is seriously wrong in the mental department. That might be one reason why we see pages on pages of repeated dialogue and repeated thoughts that almost become annoying enough to make a person put the book down. That may be some effort to create a beat and affect a mood within the narrative with the repetition, and it does in some way do that; but it is still quite annoying and part of what makes this a difficult read.
There are odd sentence structure; again perhaps waxing into the poetic that seem in most cases to work for the mood of the story; but they often make comprehension a bit of a struggle. There are a multitude of flashbacks that are clearly defined but have content that seems quite fractured and often is difficult to follow and sometimes is confused because the trigger is almost a parallel circumstance so even with being set off into indents the reader can easily get thrown off the rail for a moment until they realize-oh another flashback.
I'm not sure that I was all that impressed with the strangeness that the story took at a certain point in that it started to make me as the reader wonder if this was all just some demented episode of Jim's; because he had gone way off the rails. And I would guess that it's part of the style decision to have created that impression. So in about the best way of description-be prepared to be jerked out of your comfort zone several times while trying to piece together a mental image off of imagery that could easily be comparable to some of C.S Lewis's images in The Great Divorce.
There seems to be a large attempt to create some analogies to christian belief and doctrine, though I don't think that this story would have suffered much without those; and they in fact are drown out by the surreal nature of everything creating suspicion in the readers mind as to the mental state of the main POV character. Once again some Christians might have that moment of being jerked out of their comfort zone with any of the things that narrowly touch on theology.
There are a number of images that become internal metaphors for themselves and once again you will have to read this to understand what I'm saying. The story itself is taking place near the end of thee second world war and there seems to be a bit of a soapbox introduction to anti-nukes that keeps getting bandied about. Though this book attempt to create some metaphors and images that try to be serious it's difficult at best to take them that way since death and suicide are treated more as a means to get to another place in the story.
This makes a nice read for Fantasy lovers who want a bit of pseudo religion in their fantasy.
It might make an interesting reading for those who gravitate toward the literary, though this seems largely to come off as stream of consciousness over poetic prose in many cases, because of the reliance on portraying the mental state of the Main Character.
Though this could be treated as a light read, the style of writing will constantly interfere with that- so be warned.
This could be a 4 star with a little less emphasis placed on the declining mental state of the main characters.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Neverwhere and Neil Gaiman are probably in that area that's not well defined, where someone tells me you will love this book and you will love this author. It usually comes on the heals of having either loved some other book or hated some book and author; prompting a response from another, concerned, reader who thinks I should read this book. The problem with some of that is that it creates several ephemeral bubbles of expectation about things I know nothing about, that grow into unfounded hope. And with that I open the pages to disappointment.
But to begin I was thoroughly entertained by this novel and never felt that I should throw it against the wall or in the trash or burn it or give it any other of those many forms of quick death. When I think back-I can't honestly say what I was expecting. I somehow think it might be that I was expecting an insightful novel written in a manor that I could point to and say, 'If you want an example of how to write well and be well read then you should look at this and take notes.' Maybe I was reading too much into what people were saying.
Fortunately getting that out of my system only took reading the first few pages. I should qualify that I usually read around ten to twenty pages while deciding to continue to read.
Before I start, I'll give my usual caveat for those who are pernickety. In my e-copy I found some sentence structure within that cause me more than once to reread lines to determine what they really meant to say; and in some cases was left wondering why that spurious thought was eveb there. There are a few errors such as extra words and missing words that crop up. There are even a few places where something jars, but seem to be out of what appears to be perfect planning. In one scene a character is running off to get food and another character says 'Curry please'. Where one could easily mistake that they might have meant 'Hurry please' but when the other character does get things with curry then the whole thing explains itself.
The story begins with our protagonist Richard Mayhew who is preparing to leave his small Scottish town and enter the big city of London. He's getting a proper sendoff from his friends and this is the moment we begin to see that Richard might be feeling a bit of disillusion with the direction of his life. But we will find that one of Richards faults is that he doesn't see the disillusion and so he really can't do anything about it. Oddly Richard seems to be similar in many ways to Quentin in "Lev Grossman's The Magician"-except for the obvious fact that Quentin is aware of his dissatisfaction. On this night Richard meets an elderly lady and offers her his umbrella to protect her against the elements-which tells us a bit about him- but before the chivalry she will offer to read his palm, where she cautions him that he has a long road ahead and he should watch out for doors.
Richard takes it all light-heartedly while agreeing to watch out for doors. As a reader I was certain doors would mean something else and most certainly he'd not recognize it before it hit him in the face or the backside.
Fast forward to London; a young lady is being pursued by thugs. Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar and Mr. Ross are in hot pursuit; but the first two are using Mr. Ross as a sort of advanced scout. This proves prudent since the young lady has a talent that proves quite deadly. Their plan is to get her to use the talent and then overtake her while she is recharging her magic.
Richard is leading a normal life -he has a girl friend- a great job with many friends- plenty of challenges at work and is definitely showing signs that there are not enough hours in a day- suffice it to say he thinks he's happy. His girlfriend Jessica is controlling and manipulating and quite organized and focused- who could ask for anything more. Into this relationship falls the seriously injured young woman. We get to really see what Jessica is all about when she tries to ignore the bleeding and pleading person she assumes is homeless. Richard lets his better nature win at the risk of losing Jessica, although reason seems to go south as he agrees with the wishes of the severely injured woman and takes her home instead of to the hospital. His home.
The girl whose name is Doreen, is of course the mysterious Door since her nickname is Door. There are more than the obvious reasons for that nickname. By taking her in Richard puts himself at risk in more ways than one and soon finds this out when Mr. Croup and Mr Vandemar show up at his door. While they push their way into the apartment they all discover that Doreen has somehow vanished from the apartment- much to Richards relief. As soon as they leave she shows up and claims to have always been there; and that begins the stranger part of our fantasy. Now we enter a world that matches many of Disney's classic cartoons where people talk to animals and it even rivals Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland as Richard finds himself sucked down the rabbit hole into an alternate underground of London.
This begins a series of what look like inconsistencies within the magic of the story that seem to exist solely because of an effort to hide other surprises that the author has in mind for the reader.
Richard loses his existence in the real-world because he saw and got involved with Door. He becomes a non-person who no one in the real world can see. But now we have the question of why he and Jessica could see Door to begin with. This gets answered, but there is such a lag between the question and the answer that as a reader it was annoying because many more questions started to pile up for the answering.
This comes about not so much from an actual need to withhold the information as much as it is that the author has something else that might be deduced too early if he makes the reveal too early, which results in a reader, like myself, having difficulty with the suspension of disbelief when internally the magic has some problems. I have seen this same phenomenon in other books where the author tries so hard not to say one thing that it creates a withholding of information that's important to the scene and in many cases creates a false anticipation of events that never occur; and then a letdown to the reader.
There are many other example of this same style choice that become very annoying. One such occurs when a character appears to betray everyone, because we don't have enough information. Then when we get more information the readers has to say, well then why did he do it that way; that was stupid. And then even later when we have the rest revealed and we now know why he acted so stupid; we have reached a point where without a proper understanding in the cascade of revaluation, the whole thing looks like Deus ex Machina, which might explain why someone complained that there were a series of Deus ex Machina that occur throughout the novel.
The novel as a whole contains so many threads that seem to be derived from a long list of other works that include The wizard of OZ by Frank L. Baum; Princes Bride by William Goldman; The Night Life of the Gods by Thorne Smith; Alice in Wonderland Lewis Carroll and the Narnia series by CS Lewis, and there is hardly room for character development. The most striking character for me is marquis de Carabas. Though Richard has some bit of depth and is working on the issue of understanding his own dissatisfaction with his life he comes off as being easily directed rather than driven- which could be another flaw, but that one is never properly addressed. Hunter could have been a favorite except she suffered from that same need to keep things secret until we surprise the reader. This unfortunately makes hunter come off as and unknown variable with absolutely no depth.
It seemed like the characters had to be molded to fit the various borrowed themes and were restricted from any chance to reveal their own depth of character. Even the pivotal scenes where Richard obtains an object they need and later when he becomes a sort of warrior hero; these scenes lose their power because in both cases we don't know Richard enough to say that it went outside his character; although it looks like it's way outside his character.
Ultimately when all is finished all the plot lines and themes resolve out well finally and the magic seems to mostly follow it's internal rules. The story itself if a really good type of fable. It's quite an enjoyable read though it takes a bit of perseverance to wait for some of the explanation that help the logic. Such questionable logic as why would someone who has the power to open anything needs a key, let alone have to participate in a quest for the key. (This question is actually answered but it's there with a whole bunch of similar questions the reader has to wait some time before they are answered.)
This is really a good read for any Fantasy fans and those who like a light read with some built in colloquial humor based on pop references.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Birds of Lore: (Book 1) Silver Paperback Edition by Ryan Durney
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Birds of Lore by Ryan Durney (nickle(digital)edition)
Birds of Lore is one of those disturbingly alluring books. Though I'm not sure that I would have bothered with it had I not found it on Scribd. The art brings it to a serious adult level while the nature of the stories seem more like myths and fables set out as though they are part of a journal.
This book starts with an interesting poem entitled Here there be monsters. It has a recurring line Here there be... that never quite finishes though we get the point. The interesting thing about the incompleteness of this line is that it should warn us about the book.
This is part of a series that begins with the first a one of two about birds. The first bird is from a dream giving a clue to her location at the Garden of Iriy which prompts our Mythologist to hop in his Machine: the Omni Inter-dimensional Traveler. In the blurb it mentions it is stolen technology, but there is no clue of that in the first part of this book.
For the second bird; he enlist help in locating them, this time the help of a necromancer because these birds are associated with death. In the story this does not go well for the necromancer and this sets the pace for the rest of the book; in that every helper he enlists seems to end up being as expendable as the next tissue in the box. From here the Mythologist moves forward to strange different mythological birds. Each bird associates in some way with an erotic image of a woman and the graphic depictions seem to confirm this. At some point along the way the Omni is mentioned and seems to be used to convey him on occasion in this journey.
Each creature in each leg of his journey pose a threat to the Mythologist though it seems mostly fatal to those who assist him and he is somehow able to escape harm. Up until now most of this seems to take place in some altered past where he can blend his reality with myths to meet these legendary creature. When thing seem to get too tough he decides to head to the future for some more technological help in finding his legends. We can only guess that the future he goes to might be a past to his origin.
Emerging technology in 2313 catches his eye and he enlists Cale Corbett, a college student, to help him break into the technology. It promises to be able to use a painting and his imagination to create a virtual experience with another legendary bird.
This first part of the book seems to be set up to showcase the Myths and the authors knowledge of the myths mixed with the creation of a strange story about these birds and Myths. And since the birds themselves show up in the interior art panels that seems to lend some weight to their part in the story. This sets the emphasis on the illustration and the myth rather than the prose. So far the style of the writing keeps us distanced from the narrator and we really learn little about this person other than he is a dangerous person to hang around. Things do not go well for Cale Corbett. It's very difficult to tell if it's the birds or the technology or himself that are to blame for this.
The Mythologist seems to back-peddle for the second chapter going for more conventional birds and their myths. It is hard to tell if this might be because of what happened or just the next progression in the character's search. After the somewhat brief respite the Mythologist is able and willing to search out the mind exploration technology again. Here he enlist two people-perhaps with the hope there is safety in numbers. Dr. Braxton and Ivy Lane come from the future well after the mind exploration technology has been replace. All three go back to a turning point in history where they can use some of the functional mind technology to help create a virtual world where they can meet some of the birds the Mythologist is searching for.
This is where the story slips into Alice and Wonderland mode as the Eph-(the mind device) and the three adventurers begin the strange journey. For me this is where the story really begins. The rest seems to be some sort of introduction to get you to this point.
Though I find the illustrations to be superior and the mythology to be of interest I have to admit that when it began to gain momentum into a full blown story I was at a loss as to try to figure out what the main plot was and even some of the subplots. Somewhere in here we get a better notion that the Omni Inter-dimensional Traveler might be stolen and we can't refute that because of the Mythologists propensity to purloin other technology for his purpose. There is mention (several times)of the phrase "much wants more and loses all." from the goose that laid the golden egg- so perhaps that is the theme that hatches the plot that's gone missing.
So there's the illustrations and the special take on mythology that I could give high marks for but the attempt to bring it together into a sort of story or overall fable falls short because the story telling pales to the rest. So this makes a nice picture book with fables and perhaps a cautionary tale buried somewhere within that could have been brightened up with slightly more characterization giving the reader more sympathy and investment into the Mythologist.
And though one could say that the illustrations and the take on mythology can carry the books, it would seem the books of the series are to be connected by the presence of the Mythologist ( But I don't know that for certain.)
The Time traveling technology thief using Mind altering technologies and traversing into alternate times and earths creates a fantastic backdrop for huge possibilities that I'm not sure were fully taken advantage of, but I recommend this to any of those who like to delve into thoughtful pieces of whimsy for entertainment and edification.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Mechanical by Pauline C. Harris by Pauline C. Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mechanical by Pauline C. Harris
You know you have a great thing going when you finish the story leaving the reader wanting more and you've left them with a soft cliffhanger and you have a trilogy planned. There is so much to love about this novel, the most important is that it's well written. This is one of those rare instances when I stumbled across this by way of a friend in Facebook who was a friend of the author.
The big question is what does it take to have a soul and what happens when man creates androids. Where do they fall in this equation. But this story has a bit more than that and a few twist along the way that, as a reader, I saw coming; but that just made the whole thing better.
Drew is young girl who is not a young girl because she's just been activated, or in this case reactivated according to her memories. She's set out on a mission for the Creator or creators in this case. She's everything that can be superior to her human counterpart. Or is she?
She and Yvonne have been friends for a long time, as much as a mechanical persons can be friends, but this time things are different and Drew is having some issues trying to figure out what's so different with Yvonne.
She's soon going to find out there are things different about herself. And when she learns that humans have souls, something a mechanical can't have, she discovers the one thing in her whole creation cycle that she's ever wanted.
To go any further would give away too much of this story. The reader gets to watch Drew go through a transformation through the narrative that comes from her POV. There are many other moral questions posed to the reader that make this one good thought provoking novel.
This is listed as YA and it is a great story for YA but it's also great for all fans of SFF and as Pauline C. Harris matures into her writing she's going to give us some stuff that will rival such greats as Philip K. Dick and his classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
There is more to read after this one and all I can say is keep them coming.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Synchronicity Trilogy Omnibus by Michael McCloskey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Series: Synchronicity Trilogy, Omnibus (1-3) By Michael McCloskey
I wasn't certain how I would react to reading the same story three times. Thankfully it didn't feel so much like that. There was some overlap but since this written from West World block POV and East World block POV and then Alien POV it worked out quite well.
I think that internally the story stays true to the science presented and as has been pointed out there is a expectation of suspension of disbelief in some parts. But this is science fiction and most of that does expect some suspension of disbelief.
It was a bit difficult to find any single character or set of characters to empathize with or root for and I think that it falls back to part of what the story is all about. What each story has in common is that the people we meet are all living on the edge and in many cases dealing with things that leave them in danger most of the time.
There are the corporate espionage people and the UN police force and the Chinese special forces and then the aliens who seem to be game players who have lived on the virtual edge for so long they are having trouble dealing with reality and have only a marginal understanding of the dangers of living on the edge in reality.
Then there is the ultra intelligent AI's that they all deal with which are the most dangerous feature of their daily lives. They are also the best tools for the needs of each group so that that temptation will always be there even though they know that it could lead to something worse than skynet form Terminator.
The aliens represent a cybernetic human/machine hybrid and are far advanced in many ways and become the target of the greed of all these people.
There are a good share of ethical questions brought into the story with slavery and forced labor and the use of virtual worlds and mind control and then there's the aliens.
Although it could be argued that some of the situations seem too far out, the real point of the story is how each group of people are reacting to what is happening in this particular what if situation. The pace is good the writing might need a bit of polish; but overall it has to be pretty good, because I read all three straight through hanging on to see what happens next.
It has an interesting end.
Great SFF for those not too keen for the Simon Pure type and who like to do a bit of thinking about how they would react to these things.
I definitely would like to know what happens next in this strange universe.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Broken by Susan J. Bigelow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Broken by Susan Jane Bigelow
This book truly blew me away. I was expecting a superhero type of novel with the usual get the villain save the day type of plot. Don't get me wrong this does have some of those elements the good versus the bad and such. But it manages to skirt nicely around the usual issue of Deus ex Machina that all superheros are susceptible to.
We start with the mysterious shattered hero living the life of a homeless person with a wish to die and being as they are a self healer that wish is constantly denied. She had a good life once but the things she valued the most have gone from that life.
Then we have Michael Forward the man who sees the future and it's a future that both looks bright occasionally and often looks horribly bleak. Michael is still quite young and not ready to handle all the responsibility that he's been given and now he has to protect a child whom he believes might some day be the man to save the world or the terror that will destroy it.
Michael already knows he will meet Broken one day and that together they have at least one possibility of giving Ian a chance to learn his full potential, but there will be a world full of people who want to use the child and they have to get past all of them to succeed.
Together they start the task which becomes a journey of self discovery or rediscovery for each, but as they grow closer to future Michael Forward is beginning to face the reality that he might not be able to pull this off. But the future is such a slippery beast.
This is a great YA SFF for those who like thought provoking stories with a few extra-ordinary characters.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Tesla's Stepdaughters by Wesley Allison
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Tesla's Stepdaughters by Wesley Allison
This book surprised me in a couple of ways. First it surprises me that there are no reviews for it and second it's a darn good read. The premise is nothing spectacularly new; that one side of the human race has almost been wiped out. This time there are mostly women in the world with small enclaves of men because of a man made virus that killed most of the male population.
The story starts when the Ladybugs arrive on tour in their dirigible and someone blows it up which brings the Science Police into the picture and our main character John Andrews who is the sole male officer in the force trying to make his way in an all woman world. The virus is still a potential threat but men have been slowly sifting back into society and out of the safe enclaves. John has become a Science Police officer and has been assigned to help protect the Ladybugs and investigate the case.
He, of course, becomes a distraction as he is the only man most places that he goes; and these women have not been around men and the male pheromones have an effect the first time women meet him, but once that happens they seem to be inoculated against the effect by that exposure. Not sure about any scientific basis for that but is kind of cool to have women swooning over him all the time.
With an all woman band and being the one man around it's not hard to do the math that equates to a strong distraction for John from his work. His partner Agatha has his back though while she tells him that it might work out well for the case if he becomes an extra target for the people trying to hurt the band.
So in this alternate earth where there are steam-powered dirigibles I suppose we could almost call this one a Steam-Punk novel. They also have and interesting thing called airflivvers that have wings like a dragonfly.
While John is having trouble concentrating on his job and becoming worried that he'll be tossed of the force because he's a male, the killer is drawing closer to the final act.
The novel is well paced and though it's written around John as the main character it seems to be mostly written in the third omniscient point of view. It works quite well written that way and I was able to get fully engulfed in the novel right from the very beginning.
This is a great SFF and SteamPunk novel for fans of both genre. And a thoroughly enjoyable read.
I will definitely check more of Wesley Allison's work.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Safety Tests by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one more in my test drive of Scrb'd, it's a pity that the review I do here can't be placed also on smashwords where this came from, without buying this piece there; since I already checked it out of the library there. Yet another minus on the Scrib'd smashwords front. Also the window for the review is so tiny it's like I'm typing on to a ticker tape and there are only three lines of text while the thing wants to scroll five when it scrolls. As usual none of this counts against the work and this is a five star story.
Safety Tests by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
This is cute little SFF procedural drama comedy short.
This is the first I've ever read of Kristine Katheryn Rusch and probably not the last since I really did enjoy it. Comedy usually doesn't mix well for me because it's so subjective. But the main character, Devlin, has a specific attitude and comedic nature that brought the story to life.
The first part expresses Devlin's boredom with his 9 to 5 that seems to be somewhat dangerous; and how he and his assistant Connie try to control that. It reads like the typical nightmare of rules and regs that can send a first time driver into nervous fits when applying for a license to drive. In this case its a license to fly space craft. And Devlin and Connie are determined to cull the applicants down to as few if any for the real test.
But Devlin's about to get more than he bargained for and he probably deserves it in a small way though the reader can't be too upset with him when he seems to be right so many times when it comes to those qualified to fly.
The question is will he live to fly another day.
Great short in the SFF department with interwoven Procedural stuffing. A good place to start to get to know an author for the first time.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
![Empire Dance 1: Echoes of War]()
Empire Dance 1: Echoes of War by Steven Poore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In my ongoing evaluation of Scribd. This book is available at Smashwords for a fair price and if you subscribe to Scribd you can read it there. The Scribd interface has pleasing elements of readability but it has no note or highlight functions nor do the usual internet lookups work so the reader has a bit of struggle looking things up or making notes and that is compounded by the inability to copy portions of text for notes because of a peculiar encryption pattern. Scribd is definitely not designed well for reviewers. As usual this portion has no effect on my rating.
Empire Dance 1: Echoes of WarSeries: The Empire Dance, Book 1 By Steven Poore
I really enjoyed the writing in this book and the author’s style of writing because it comes close to that of David Weber. What I think Steven Poore may have benefited most from would be to choose one story line that would stand out and dominate; so that the reader ends with a sense that there is a plot.
If you enjoy science fiction that has a lot of procedural element in it, this is the series for you to get to know. There’s world building and thankfully it is not quite as intrusive as what we see in the Honor Harrington series. But it still is enough like that series that it contains about 4 different story lines that don’t quite intersect that well and can be a bit confusing.
The story begins in the Kaleva Drifts with Captain Al-Azra hosting the Imperial and Irian representatives who are there to investigate the remaining wrecks from an apparent confrontation between their vessels. I suppose if we tried to make a plot for the whole it might be the notion of the conflict between these two super powers as demonstrated by their representatives in Kaleva Drifts space.
After that we have the Imperial Palace intrigue story line, the Irian fight against rebel smuggler story line, and the Imperial forces that are shaking down for battles with pirates. One thing I am sure of is that the intent is for all of these to come together. The problem is that none of these story-line plots seems to be resolved so in reality there is no plot that is resolved within the entire story. Or at least I missed that
Usually with a trilogy I don’t complain that much about the plot being resolve unless it becomes apparent that the stories have been broken up to create more books. Each story is about 50k words which is a health novella but not a novel. If they had some sort of resolution to them I’d be much happier, it’s when it’s evident that these could have all been put together to make a 500 page or less novel that it creates a problem. At least the first three could have been put together. The upside is that each novel is inexpensive enough to be in total: the price of a good novel.
I will have yet to see if the plot of the entirety completes.
One thing that uniformly exists throughout and is also something that at first confused me; is the LI (limited Intelligence) that seems to be in the structures and ships of each of these super powers. It took me a while to realize that one of these stories was the Irian’s story thread because they both seem to have these LI-s.
The book is well written with a good pace and a lot of procedural stuff and great world building. The characters take a back seat to this and are not as well developed as I would like but that’s just my preference and a lot of people I know love this kind of fiction.
The real problem I have is when the plot is difficult to define and in this case there end up being 4 stories told that swap chapters back and forth. Add that to the notion that four books could have easily been two books and it becomes one of those things like salt in a wound.
This is still great SFF for those who love the Political and Procedural world building and with the narrative that flows easily it shouldn’t take me that long to finish the 4 books that are offered.
This has an adult rating but I think it would work as YA. With a bit more character development and plot direction I could have given this and easy 5 star.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Zero Station by Amanda Hamm
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Zero Station (A Science Fiction Novella) by Amanda Hamm
This will be the first of several I intend to read from Scribd. This book is available at Smashwords for a fair price and if you subscribe to Scribd you can read it there. I'm just learning a bit about Scribd and its interface I'm pleased with its readability but it has no note functions to mark and notate as you read. So I've had to keep side notes which are devilishly difficult to do because of the encryption protection so I have type everything out into my notepad. So scribd is not very user friendly for my purposes but that has no reflection on the story.
Amanda has a pretty solid plot here from front to back and it's interesting that this is told in two parts with our Main Character Hazel in part one and the Aliens in part two.
Two alien races have already made contact with earth the first when Hazel was 7 the next 25 years later and this last a crash encounter is five years beyond that so that make Hazel about 37 years old and single. Hazel Brown is a linguist and is possibly a good choice for this job. Apparently because they don't know these aliens they are trying to find people with the fewest attachments to do the work in case something happens. And that's probably the thinnest part of the plot.
The Seedidites were the first race to contact earth after observing for a long time and the Vines were the next. These two races are important because they help determine some of the direction this contact group takes. Because this is a novella the reader gets less close third POV than I would like. There was a feeling of great distance between the reader and the characters. We have a majority of the story being told in an almost stale scientific manor which takes us to that thin spot again. Because the characters are not well established as to qualifications for being there, it become impossible for the reader to know why they have been chosen for this assignment. The few that do get a nod with larger pieces of personal or professional reasons are basically framed into the rest of the story in blocks. It effectively gets the job done quickly, as we need to know some of this because of the different reactions these people are having toward the aliens in the attempt to communicate.
Strangely as things unfold the team seems to work more efficiently as diplomatic team than a scientific team as they unravel a mystery and uncover the villains in the story.
The second part of the book is almost gratuitous in that it mostly reflects what has occurred previously, but from the alien perspective and since the mystery is uncovered by then it just adds a bit of extra insight for the reader. What I found distressing was the fact that it was handled mostly as recordings from the ship logs and mostly dialogues with few if any dialogue tags and a potential group of 14 aliens so it sometimes was impossible to tell who was speaking what. Thankfully the narrative hidden under that dialogue was easy enough to follow.
I could easily have given the whole 5 stars if there had been closer involvement with the characters and if the dialogue had had a few more visible cues. So I give it a 4 star.
Overall this is a good short or novella that has potential for being a lot more which would open the potential for that character involvement that I like so much.
I recommend this to those who appreciate SFF (very light procedural) Possibly YA SFF.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Mission of Honor by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Mission of Honor (Honor Harrington Series #12) by David Weber
This piece is the crowning of a three book arc that leads into the next arc of stories in the never-ending story of Honor Harrington. David apparently had originally meant to kill off this main character somewhere along the line but she's a bit more stubborn than that and just like all Manticorans - they don't 'run scared' worth a damn.
There is a lot to love about this book as long as you are okay with all the political and military procedural exposition. It looks like the focus is on a new set of bad guys so that all our hero's on both the Manticore and Haven fronts will get a break if they can just piece together a bit of peace between them.
We have in this book a parallel to the Pearl Harbor in a lot of life lost to a sneak attack. There is on awesome piece where David Weber focuses on Hamish as he observes Honor for the first time ever he gets to see the Salamander. It leaves him both chilled and in awe but you have to read it. I'd worry about it being a spoiler but its the inside page blurb piece in my book.
We get to see Michelle Henke in action again and she is almost a good at this stuff as Honor, but she admittedly doesn't have the cool detachment that is evident in the Salamander.
So of the last three novels this one and the previous are real gems though the one before them is a bit of a speed-bump at the beginning. Overall the three make a nice set and can be considered some of David Weber's best or hardest to get through depending on what the reader is looking for. I love characters over the procedure and exposition but I have to admit that David has won me over to his way of thinking for these books.
Yet another set the reader can love or hate or love to hate.
Great SFF for fans of the Military Political intrigue and procedure.
When the editors away the author will play-but I think he deserves the chance.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
Vitalis: New Beginnings by Jason Halstead
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Vitalis: New Beginnings By
I was not sure how much I would like this: especially considering the rocky beginning. The narrative is okay though sometimes it feels like the writing could be more polished. It also is difficult to tell if the glitches in the dialogue are deliberate though sometimes it seems more that there is a greater need for editing.
This novella also takes a bit of a leap toward being somewhat erotic which would tend to have me put in mature young adult if I were to consider it for young adults so from age 18 up with mature added.
It took about a quarter of the story for me to warm up to this story. It feels like we get a lax view of a star-ship crew at the beginning that makes us wonder how they might survive anything and then the Main Character turns out to have a second personality that puts her close to a Deus ex Machina planted into the story. Perhaps some bit of nod to the FireFly Series in a small way.
What this does have going for it are some interesting characters in a rather fantastic story where they manage to survive a number of attempts to pirate their ship from under them. I'm not really clear on the plot of the story because it seems to heavily lean toward the main character Kira who is also apparently Emily trying to come to grips with who she is and the fact that she leads a more interesting life than she believes.
Kira is uncertain how she lucked into this crew of misfits, but apparently Captain Sharp has been keeping his own secret: he was paid a handsome sum to take her aboard. But I won't go much further into that because you have to read this. As the author mentions himself you should read this one before you decide to continue to read on to find out what happens to our ship of misfits as they discover a new world.
This story standing alone makes a fair way for the reader to get to know the author and it's inexpensive enough that when you decide to purchase the omnibus which also, at the time I write this, is at a fair price: you won't have a lot invested into what turns out to be a fairly nice storyline.
This is great SFF for those who like their SF on the light side with a pretty even pace and my only speed bump was getting past all the erotica that seems to be there to accelerate a relationship between Kira and Eric.
I've already purchased the omnibus so I'm sure that explains enough about how I felt about the novella overall. That's saying a lot from someone not fond of having a story broken into little pieces to sell off for a few bits here and there.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
At All Costs by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
At All Costs by David Weber
I've now reached that place in this series where I am reading this one for the first time. I can honestly say that this is another of those turning points. Where the previous book War of Honor was long with few significant space battles, this book still has a lot of world building exposition pertaining to the arms race and the political intrigue, but I think David Weber wisely put a fair amount of action and space conflicts.
This book also is the first book to make it very clear that the message David means to send is that war is hell and no matter how hard the characters try to avoid it something or someone conspires to throw them directly into it and each character is now doing their duty on either side of the fight while resisting the whole process.
But when all is said and done when the battle arrives it is no holds barred and pulling out all the stops for either side to do their best. Still, because of all the time spent on building the readers knowledge of the armament being used on both sides with the bulk of description heavy toward Manticore it sometimes seems a foregone conclusion who will win and the true score card is the one that keeps track of which of Honor's friends will not come home from battle.
The Solar League plays heavy in things this time, though it appears they have had their hand in things from the beginning. So if it was hard enough to keep up with all the intrigue in Haven and Manticore now we add the Solar League and it's a real mess keeping up.
Once again and always I advise starting at the beginning of this series and work your way up the numbers to acclimate to David's style of writing and the Long Story that he creates. Although I will say this much if you want to start close to the end this one has the most coherent storyline to update the new reader to what's been happening and the best examples of the space conflicts David does so well. It's the best of most worlds and also contains all the juicy details about Honor Harrington and how she becomes Honor Alexander-Harrington.
The story begins where War of Honor left off. Haven has struck back into war from the belief that Manticore has been negotiating in bad faith, though the reader knows better from what we do know of what happened in that book. Now Haven's government and military must deal with the truth as it begins to unfold. The realization that they have dug themselves in deep because events have managed to isolate them from any probable chance of reinstating negotiations.
They still try but there are forces out there conspiring to make sure that negotiations never happen so the war must go on while the balance shifts back and forth with bold moves from both sides causing the enemy all sorts of trouble. Finally things escalate to a point where the ambitions of both sides have grown in proportion to the increasing deadliness of the arms. When everything hits the fan there will be no way to avoid mass casualties.
David Weber weaves a convincing story where no one can be the winner and no one can back down. Though some times gruelingly long this one continues the story begun in War of Honor and it looks as though it will continue into the Mission of Honor. Racking up a total of over 2400 pages of Honor Harrington history.
I recommend this to all fans of Honor Harrington and those who like SFF with political intrigue and suspense and some awesome world building.
Fortunately the next novel is available so when you get to the end and want to know more; you can just swing right into Mission of Honor. Good Reading to you.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
The Alembic Plot A Terran Empire novel by Ann Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Alembic Plot (A Terran Empire Novel) By Ann Wilson
Of The three Terran Empire Novels of Ann Wilson that I can locate this one was by far the most difficult read. It is still done as well as all the rest but it contains an element that I don't particularly agree with. But one thing that some of the best authors do is put the reader in an uncomfortable situation specifically to take them out of the comfort zone.
The World that Mike Odeon lives in is a colony of worlds that have been kept far from the influence of Terra because they had left on bad terms. In this world there is a church organization that might be called similar to the Catholic Church, but is so far removed that it's easy to see how they could have left Earth on poor terms, although one point here is that the current Terran Empire seems much more tolerant of all religion than any past earth empires.
In Mike Odeon's worlds there is a fight going on between the reigning governing body and an organization known as the Brothers of Freedom. The BOF are ruthless and are terrorists and the only way to deal with them is to catch them and torture them to death and this is all made acceptable by offering them a chance to repent before they finally die. And it all smacks of the Spanish Inquisition, so its no stretch to understand that Mike belongs to the Inquisitors.
It is no surprise since Ann Wilson's Terran Empire has a thread of Honor and epic religious lore that is traveling through all her pieces, that this book is heavy on the religious and somewhat prophetic symbolism. What is interesting is that the church is undergoing some change and it soon begins to look like Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land and Valentine Michael Smith. Only this time it seems that it is all being started by a female figure. Joanie the heroin -think Joan of Arc- is a military person who is captured by the BOF and tortured and Raped and left to die, but she doesn't die and she's bent on revenge and becomes a high Inquisitor with almost a Carte Blanche authority. She not only becomes the best in torture but creates a whole new way for everyone to see their religion. But she's not the expected savior because she's just the Herald.
One thing that this book does have to it's detriment is too much description and time spent on the torture and there is an erotic element placed into it all so this is definitely an adult novel here. Some people might become offended over any number of the uncomfortable things in this book. Even with some of it left for the appendix at the end it is still a bit much and the stuff sent off to appendix could just have easily been left in or for that matter completely left out.
All things as usual will lead to some connection with the Terran Empire which in this case the players are reluctant to address until they have to. But it seems that the one the Herald is bringing in won't be revealed until contact is made with the Terran Empire.
This gets us to the most disappointing part of this story and that is that it mentions the next story in line 'Resurrection' and it appears that the book may once have existed, but as of the time of writing this it is lost and the only known possible internet electronic copy is unrecoverable. So though this book is complete in itself it is the stepping stone to the most exciting part, which might be lost.
This is a great read for Adult SFF fans and it truly shows the maturity of Ann Wilson's writing from her fan fiction roots to a well polished author.
J.L. Dobias
View all my reviews
