Review::The Good Soldier Svejk by Jarolsav Hasek

The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hašek

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslav Hasek.

Translated by Cecil Parrott.

This book was recommended by a friend of mine who come from Russia and had previously read a translation in Russian, which I can only guess might be closer to the native language. The recommendation came in part because my family originates from the same country as the author.

The Hard book volume I have contains the full volume in 4 parts and 800 pages that ends incomplete because of the authors death. Even though incomplete the work still stands well as it is and doesn't disappoint. It may well have inspired me to go on and read Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt 1725-1798 which also is incomplete for a number of reasons, although it's much much much longer when you find the entire set.

When I searched it out I found this volume translated by Cecil Parrott it promised to have the entire volume as written by Jaroslav Hasek up to his untimely death. Cecil Parrott's credentials seem quite impressive and I felt that the closest translation I might get, that I could read, might well be this one.

I believe Parrott does well in that the best recollections I can obtain from my friend as I read through seem to be as narrowly close to what he remembers. The reason for the need for a clear translation is that this is a darkly satirical work that pokes fun not so much at the first world war as it does at the political structure that brought it about and then goes on to poke at the intelligence structure of the military that seems at most times to bumble through the entire mess at the expense of the foot soldiers who seem to be considered of less value and worth to them than their counterparts in the enemies advancing columns.

Even so Cecil Parrott himself admits there are some parts that are difficult at best to translate that may often take the bite out of the humor. Much of this seems to be in the translation of many of the couched insults that are passed between the various languages that are showcased from the ethnic backgrounds of the surrounding theater of war. These are things that may not even travel that well between the original and the Russian translation and require extensive discussion to begin to get the feel of them.

What does translate through though is the irreverence for the church and clergy and perhaps this stands well as one of those works that best describes the disparity between piety in like religions on both side of a war. Religions that seem to collude in treating foot-soldiers as though they are the worst of heathens leading to the ridiculousness of trying to reconcile how they can believe they will win the war with gods help while employing heathens. Their reasoning only becomes clear as I understand that it's because the the true heathens are the ones giving the troops gods blessing.

There have been comparisons of this work to Joseph Heller's Catch 22 that I might differ with. I will admit that there seems to be some credibility to the claim that Joseph Heller was inspired by this book. Where The Good Soldier Svejk might be a dark satire of the first world war it does not seem to endeavor to shock as much as Heller's Catch 22. And I did not feel as close a touch with the culture and world of world war 2 in Catch 22 as I felt viewing the landscape of world war 1 in The Good Soldier Svejk.

I felt the satire of Catch 22 was more in line with contemporaries such as the film Dr. Strangelove in its darkness but less absurd than Dr. Strangelove. The satire of The Good Soldier Svejk is a different animal that though dark it seems more lighthearted than Catch 22 and though in many cases it showcases the ridiculous it is not quite as absurd as Dr. Strangelove. I can attribute that in part to the nature of the character Svejk.

Svejk is a simple man who is somehow complex while being considered an imbecile by those around him. What is the most interesting in his character is that as he goes through life he seems to just float around with tides of events that shape his life as though he has few cares in the world. But, it's the stories that he feels so free about telling that make this man understandable to me. He is full of analogues and honestly some of them I didn't quite always catch the point or at least how that point was supposed to be highlighting the subject matter that brought it on. In his forward Cecil Parrott does admit that while translating the book he felt that the authors narrative often digressed and that might be attributed to his heavy drinking while writing. If there is merit to that I would suggest that there might be a number of the analogues that grew out of that as much as they came from necessity of Svejk to make a point.

The one troublesome thing to me was that for some reason I felt the analogues belonged to Svejk and unfortunately there are a few other characters who were allowed to go off on a tangent now and then.

Svejk's story begins when he is in a public establishment expressing his view that the assassination of Ferdinand was going to lead to war- this declaration along with other too free speech leads to his arrest. Along with several others who are similarly awaiting conviction for crimes against the monarchy.

Eventually, and even though he physically is unsound, he's inducted into the army. This takes a circuitous route through the medical community of the times, whose job seems to be to uncover every fraudulent illness in all the shirkers at whatever means possible including various forms of torture.

Svejk doesn't seem at most times to care where he ends up in the system and he seems more interested in consoling himself with his own analogies. For this he is considered an idiot and an imbecile. But, clearly all of the people around him seem to be comedic caricatures that might mirror some of the people that Hasek has run across in his own life. Their absurdness is drawn out to a point of the ridiculous to demonstrate how that contributes to the inefficiency of the command staff in charge of the army.

I found the first part and the last part the most interesting, which in a way contained the disappointment that the last part is incomplete. The middle two parts are mostly the long route taken to get to the front where the battle is. There is a lot of detail about the conditions of the country at that time and the accessibility of provisions for the troops and the problem of morale and morals within the ranks. Svejk a few times uses the phrase six of one half dozen of another, which prompted me to look up the etymology of the phrase and find it's possible it was an exact translation. The reason I mention this is because often in the story the people caught between the troops in the war may have thought of each sides presence in their province in that six of one half a dozen of the other way. Conditions were poor and often it seemed to be in part because of the incompetence of the military and though I only saw the military of one side it might be easy to translate this assessment over to the other side in this tale.

I enjoyed this book and much if not all of the humor made it through; even through my thick self. Anyone who enjoys historical novels and loves satires and can enjoy dark humor which to some may not seem like humor at all then this book will entertain. If the reader is like myself it will take a few days to a week or two to trudge through. There was a possibility that some of the flavor of the humor was seasoned by contact with the British humor of the translator so perhaps someone of that ilk might be able to steer through the murky water a bit more quickly. All in all I'd recommend this translation to all who are forced by necessity and perhaps their own laziness to read it in English. You won't be forced to read it as it does entertain.

J.L. Dobias



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Review:: Timekeeper (Timepeice series) by Heather Albano

Timekeeper by Heather Albano

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Timekeeper (Timepiece series) by Heather Albano

I love a book that makes me work and this one did that.

Well not just this one, there's the stack of historical romance novels that all boast the name Trevelyan on them somewhere and then there's the previous series of Steampunk I've read with a Lady Trevelyan and now this with one with minor major characters of the same name. So of course being a neophyte of both Steampunk and Historical Romance and possibly even History itself, I needed to explore to find out about the obsession here.

Were talking Victorian era and that's usually most likely associated some how or another with the UK and others of the EU. There really is a family of that name that seems to have quite a colorful history with the UK and some show up nicely in this time frame. I would hope or imagine this is more in reference to G. M. Trevelyan who was a noted historian after whom was named a college. As an aside to that I noted that Trevelyan College of Durham University ( named after the historian G. M. Trevelyan) presently boasts a professor Trevelyan of mechanics in the school of engineering and that Cardiff University boasts a Dr. who obtained his PhD under the supervision of same said Trevelyan. So there may even be relevance today for the engineering skills of this Trevelyan character.

That said I loved this story as much as the previous but felt in a way that as far as the real plot of this one it was encapsulated within only a small portion of this book and probably could have been inserted into the end of the previous novel. That's just an observation and not a judgement. Surely had it been condensed into the part that seemed appropriate to the plot if we were to continue from the plot of the previous book then we would have missed out on the gem that showcases the authors skills in writing. Since I really enjoyed the story and a prevailing theme is about people making informed choices I can't possibly complain since this sets these people up for an informed choice.

We have here, largely, the story of Gavin Trevelyan and Brenda Evens; Katerina Rasmirovna and Frederick Kent. All of these we have met or heard mention of previously in another reality. This is mostly the story of what they must decide to sacrifice or not in order that our time travelers, Maxwell, William and Elizabeth can move on and attempt to muddle up history again. I can't say that I'm totally happy that it seemed they were almost forced (by events) into the decision in the long run, but at the very least it thrusts our characters back into the main plot-line, which is the important part.

I could almost envision William and Elizabeth as two authors who are writing and rewriting the story of these people. They should try to realize that the more they rewrite the less they may want to actually get to know these people, especially since introductions seem to include having at some time to reveal that they could inadvertently be the architects of these peoples lives. I suppose Maxwell had escaped that by trying in most cases to not reveal too much of who he was.

There is one more time traveler in this one; but you will simply have to read it to find out who it is.

This book brings us to a satisfactory conclusion while leaving the door open for more novels in this set. I can honestly say by the time it finished I almost felt I had spent more time at Waterloo than Napoleon and Wellington. Thankfully Heather keeps every visit there visually entertaining and somewhat modified: each time.

If you've read the previous book you will enjoy this one as much. If not you should: it should interest anyone interested in alternate history and SFF and SteamPunk ; although this one seems more Victorian Romance than Steampunk. In that respect it did lose a bit of... Steam.

I might slowly be coming to be a fan of Steampunk and even some limited-ly so of Victorian Romance. I'm definitely becoming a fan of Heather Albano.

J.L. Dobias



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Review:: Timepiece by Heather Albano

Timepiece by Heather Albano

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Timepiece by Heather Albano

As I've protested before, Steampunk is not my genre. Nor am I a fan of history although I'm not entirely bereft of some grasp of historical events. So, when the book begins at Waterloo in the midst of battle I'm pretty sure I have a grasp of where we are and what the outcome should be. Although I must admit that as I often do before giving a review I paused at some point to recite aloud to Virginia a few items I enjoyed about the book with a brief synopsis of the book itself. So when I started to mention Waterloo and came stuck upon the name of the British duke, Virginia was quick to fill in the blanks with a confident: Wellington. You see it pays to be a reader of romance novels now doesn't it. Virginia's genre is Romance.

I thus felt it fell upon me to check what I could. You see the book hinges entirely on being in a world where there are monsters much like Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. These monstrosities were created, by the British, prior to this battle and are now being held in reserve. The biggest puzzle would seem to be the why, to Wellington using them. Was there a change in the original battle that made matters worse for Wellington's troops or are we to believe that Wellington's confidence in his green troops is so low that the change mostly comes from having such a thing in reserve as these monsters as enough to tempt Wellington. It's a difficult puzzle even so because it would seem that Wellington is not happy about his own decision which leads on into history by placing his name upon the whole thing by calling these creatures Wellingtons monsters. Giving them the glory for the victory and taking it away from his troops.

If I see things correctly this leads to the Steampunk nature of the story revolving around the events that follow this great battle.

But we don't get there directly since the main characters are still within this same time sphere which is what makes this primarily a time travel novel over Steampunk. Elizabeth Barton is anything but a prim an proper young lady. Perhaps she'd be best described as a tomboy despite the efforts of her parents and her aunt. Let me say her aunt is singularly cruel above and beyond the call of duty as regards molding Elizabeth into a fine young marriageable woman. At the age of seventeen Elizabeth is hardly ready to settle down with any suitor. She receives on this day in the mail a strange watch that not only has multiple dials but also a strange movable picture. (Definitely something not of this time.)

Next is William Carrington, a former military man who was wounded seriously and has lost the function of one arm. Rather despondent that he is unable to accompany his brother in law back into battle, when Napoleon escapes from prison to begin his 100 day reign. Now unable to join the battle and feeling quite crippled and maimed he has serious doubts of his ability to make a show as a husband in his present condition. It is while getting away from everything that reminds him of his inadequacy that he takes a stroll that leads him to the same place that Elizabeth has gone to escape the mechanization's of her family in trying to match her with anything of flesh and blood and breeding that will tolerate her.

She has also gone to examine her watch more closely.

William finds her with the watch and confronts her about it. When he opens it to look at it he's mesmerized equally as much as she has been, but because he has some familiarity outside of the cloistered community that oppresses Elizabeth he has a better chance of recognizing that this is something that does not come from anywhere near or far from here. Because of the strange features within the watch there are a number of dials moved and an accidental pushing in of the stem. They both sense that something has happened. When Elizabeth takes possession of the watch and begins to fiddle with the stem William starts to caution her. Too late she presses the stem and they are thrust into immediate darkness.

And the adventure begins.

They first meet Max-an apparent fellow time traveler who will be able to fill in some gaps and give us the laws of time travel for these stories. Max helps them to find a place to lie low in this world where they are out past curfew and in danger of running afoul of the mechanical monstrosities that were created to put down the Frankenstein like monsters who rebelled against their creators. Those in charge of the mechanical wonders took the advantage after saving everyone and now have control of the empire.

The notion is that the creation of the monsters put emphasis on their saving the day in the battle at Waterloo and ensuring that the confidence level of the British foot soldier is lowered enough to change all of their history to a complete reliance upon the monsters to do battle for them. Thus the changes in history that lead to this society of steam and metal are all tightly bound with the first anachronistic event in history.

One major law of time travel seems to be that the time traveler is only allowed one attempt to change specific events in specific times and the traveler gets blocked out from those timelines once his presence in that timeline has occurred. (Explained here as not being able to be in the same place at the same time.) We get the sense that Max has already tried several things to zero in on the event that most strikingly determined the outcome, which is, to his unknown timeline, apparently history. Max mentions that his parents were time travelers and he sort of inherited the whole business from them. He possess a watch similar to the one Elizabeth has.

This is really a fascinating time travel story. We see mostly that the time travelers are quick to learn that even the most dramatic changes in some of the important or even less important events are not enough to stem the tide of time and history. Now with the three of them working on it perhaps they will have an impact, but will they be able to reconcile the consequences of the outcome of meddling.

This is a great book for history fans who aren't too particular about maintaining accuracy or overthinking the fact that there were so many things happening those days at Waterloo that it's difficult to say what would have occurred had any part gone differently. This novel has good solid world building for a Time Travel and Steampunk novel so there is lots here for the Sci-Fi and SFF group to love.

This is also a love story that's building slow but believable with the relationship between Elizabeth and William and there's a bit of mystery about Max's over concern at getting those two back to their time line and I think it has something to do with that locket around his neck which Max guards possessively.

A fun and fascinating romp through time and altered history.

Although I don't need to say it; I will be reading the next novel soon.

J.L. Dobias



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Review:: Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Lady of Devices (Magnificent Devices) By Shelley Adina

I purchased this and it's been in my kindle for a while and I'm not sure when I really planned to read it. I don't read a lot of steampunk so I won't claim expertise in that field. I do follow Genius Girl and I've read a handful of books touted as steampunk. This book seems to qualify neatly into that genre. Anyway, I just received my copy of The Good Soldier Svejk and His Fortunes in the World War by Jaroslav Hasek and I'm about 150 pages into the 800 page dark comedy and satire of world war I. I've decided I needed a break and pulled out the Kindle and I'm glad I did because this was just the thing I needed; as a break from the kind of novel that requires my full attention and meticulous careful reading.

I was almost afraid this was going to be a bit too light, but I was delightfully surprised by the engaging story and mostly the engaging and energetic main character Lady Claire Trevelyan (The lady of devices). Many of today's novels would like to jump in and grab the reader and thrust me into the story with the jarring end of a fish hook; an experience every good reader should thoroughly enjoy. This one does not so much. It does start with a bang- the explosion Lady Trevelyan causes when trying to obtain the answer to a question her tutor saw fit not to give. After that we become acquainted with the society she lives in which is the typical Victorian type with the flowing skirts, laced corsets and bustles. The prim and proper young ladies who know their station in society. And, the ever dominating men who are expected to drive society forward into the next era.

The perfect world, where Lady Trevelyan could only feel over protected, stifled, and ignored while she's trying to assert herself and further her education towards a career. The earliest part of the novel is her constant attempt to stop the flow of a powerful river of social behavior that flows by itself carrying those around her down a predictable path. For some I suppose this could be considered a rather boring and mundane story. For me; I found it difficult to stop reading as I was caught in a similar flow of words and description that somehow had me reading this to myself in a rather stiff stoggy voice that may or may not have matched the mood the author intended.

Getting carried away that way would mark for me that this author is a grand story teller and I was never once disappointed by the flow and pace of the story as I made my way from cover to cover. Like some I was a bit perplexed by the perpetual motion being wasted on a cleaning robot but I could hardly mark this as strikingly anachronistic to a storyline that is in effect out of a genre that's expected to be anachronistic in nature. What is important is that the author's world is setting up rules for the technology that is dominant and that she is sticking to those rules and being consistent. And, frankly, from the none steampunk expert point of view, I'm not at all sure that steampunk lends itself easily to being pure science- fiction. So I'm not a stickler about being that pure here.

As to the romance it's here with the recognition that there will be several more novels in which to watch it grow. I'll grant that it is a bit short on romance but I'd be lost to reading this had the Lady gone in the shortness of a few hundred pages into the arms of just any man since it seems to be a bit outside of her character.

I will be the first to complain about the seeming flagrant mercantile use of ebooks to sell bits and pieces of serial at any price and I've never been afraid to mention it. I don't feel that this qualifies as that type of abuse because it is a novel length and what has in the past annoyed me the most is those shorter than short story segments that sell for 99 cents that lead to many more sold at anywhere up to and beyond 2.99 each. This book is well written and developed and the ending is quite satisfying while leaving me with the desire to know more about this character and I might add quite happy because there is more.

After the unfortunate events that lead to the end of their family fortune and her fathers death Lady Trevelyan is almost squashed by the gears of society. If not for a series of unfortunate yet somewhat fortunate events that occur as the the story takes off, she would have been left in that boring life from pages gone by. We next jump into a sort of twist on the Oliver Twist story that takes our character from high society to the dregs of society from which she musters the force of her character and forges into a new life. I honestly can't praise this book enough in some respects.

I've purchased the 4 pack of this which amounts to over 800 pages so it looks like I'll have something to act as a companion to Jaroslav's work and both authors couldn't be in better company. (That's purely my own wistful opinion.)

I'm certain most steampunk fans will enjoy these novels. Possibly romance novel lovers will enjoy them and some of the usual Sci-Fi Fantasy crowd would not be disappointed. I would say keep writing them Shelley, but I'll wait until I've gotten through the lions share and it looks like there's a fifth novel anyway.

Thanks for the good-read.
Magnificent story telling-with a satisfying though somewhat incomplete end.

J.L. Dobias



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Review:: The Warden Threat(Defying Fate) by D.L. Morrese

The Warden Threat by D.L. Morrese

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Warden Threat(Defying Fate) by D.L. Morrese

I don't judge a book by its cover and rarely by the little blurb on the back or some times an inner page, which is thankfully a good thing because the cover of this book wasn't helpful for me, although it does somewhat serve to show elements from the story. It just that the dark figure in the background would have to be ten times or more larger to be accurate.

I really enjoyed this book for what it was, which is why I'm a bit disappointed that it really doesn't live up to what it's billed as since it's cover proclaims Book One of the Humorous Science Fiction Epic. First I have to admit that humor can be subjective and I might just be too thick for the humor in this book. But at the point that this book leaves us it can't be billed as well as science fiction as it can as being a fantasy. The science fiction part of this story is there- like some extra appendage that intersects because of a sort of six degree of separation from the main characters in the story. I'm sure as the series progresses that will improve, sadly my skewed sense of humor might not be able to help that other half of the bill.

Again this is not saying I didn't enjoy it, just that it wasn't what I expected. There are plenty of novels out there that deal with magic that ends up being a side effect of some technology that exceeds the imaginative scope of most of the fantasized characters. This one is not unusual in that respect. There are also equal numbers of books that have dystopic themes that blast mankind back into the dark ages into a fantasy world that remembers the magic of technology so this is also nothing extra ordinary or out the norm so to speak. Some of these have actually demonstrated some tongue and cheekiness to entertain.

What drives these types of stories is the characters and I think they do a good job though I had some issues with the consistency of a few characters. None of these were enough to overshadow the entire work. I believe the humor in the story is supposed to be satirical. And the very first chapter sets a pace that might come to rival some not so recent movies I have seen. That pace doesn't sustain itself well though and I'm not sure exactly why. We start with Prince Donald out among the common folk to get a feel for how the other half live. With him is his trusted adviser/guide Kwestor whom Donald has hired although at the beginning for some reason this wasn't quite that clear to me. Donald is a dreamer, Kwestor is his foil or perhaps the realist. I almost obtained an image of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza , although I was hard pressed to make that image stick. In the onset they run across Muce the notso (There's a whole thrill of waiting for the punchline to this that never quite gets there.) They meet through a comedy of errors which set a high bar that they never reach again. I often had this tickle that reminded me of some of Swifts writing, in particular Gulliver's Travels but perhaps without the proper era and history to point to I couldn't get the real feel.

The story revolves around the heads of the three characters most of the time but there are occasions when were reeled around into the head of some of the supporting cast and I think possibly these are some of the expected humorous parts. Perhaps its the long bits of tell that fall into this area that leave it a bit flat. One particular telling instance is when Muce is confronted by a fortuneteller who takes advantage of him. We can see what is happening easily from Muce's point of view, but for some reason we end up in the woman's head getting all of her 'intell' on the subject and perhaps that's what made the humor fall flat for me. It doesn't look like tell as much as some exposition but what happens is we get into a characters head and begin to get a description from their thoughts that helps us understand their motivation which perhaps tries to explain why we should see the humor. I've no problem with telling but those who are sensitive should realize that it's here even when disguised as something else. I've personally always thought, when telling a story there will be times you will have to, well, tell, which is why I don't downgrade stars for telling.

What's more important here is the development of the characters and the interaction between them. There is a whole bit that goes on about Muce and food that we really never have totally explained or told to us, one of those instances of showing. But the real nub of the problem falls flat because the other characters always cut him short at the beginning so we rarely get a true picture of what he's capable of doing that annoys them so much. I for one would mostly be getting hungry every time he started into some story about food.

The pace of the story is pretty steady and kept me going most of the way to the middle but something happened there where I fell out of the magic and I think it might be this:

Donald and company run afoul- well at least Donald does- of a messenger who is left unnamed until later where we learn she is Trixie. The messenger almost confronts the prince for his clumsiness but is dissuaded by companions whom Kwestor recognizes as being from the kings court. She's important to the story- I'm sure future volumes will tell us this. Yet she is mostly an appendage here who meets the mysterious storyteller, Grandpa Nash, who defies Trixie's attempts at categorizing his ethnicity. This will lead to the eventual reveal that shows us that this is truly a science fiction novel. Unfortunately this part never intersects with our heroes and remains yet a mystery that we might not have needed just yet ( Except to try to turn this into science fiction). As it is I found Trixie somewhat engaging and her story at this point was more interesting than our three travelers. So, I think I was more anxious to see more of her story than the rest of Donald and company.

This now becomes two stories; the story of Trixie and Grandpa Nash and the story of Donald, Kwestor and Muce.

The rest of the story for Donald and company seemed mostly predictable yet necessary to develop Donald and demonstrate that neither Kwestor or Muce seem to be as they seem to be. If one can excuse my use of passivity here. It all seems like a cautionary fable. It is quite interesting that Kwestor comes off as a sort of Jekyll Hyde or at least dual personality. One the acerbic skeptic who has no delight in life and is not afraid to inflict his mood upon the prince who seems too chipper most of the time. The other is almost a wise sophist thinker who can't seem to get the other personality to live life the way he sees things.Even though Kwestor's skeptic side seems the loser its more so for the sophist side that feels the the pain that he's found himself unable to convince his other half. Muse seems to be a dullard and brute at time but seems also to possess more than the average intellect when one can wade through his culinary inspired dialogue. He's always coming up with some gems I'm hoping will come up later but, not so far.

This is a great book for fantasy lovers and some sci-fi fans not so much for Science Fictionados- maybe the next book. I can't recommend it as a humorous volume where it seemed there were more serious tones than satirical ones. Perhaps the names of characters were supposed to help push the satire, I'm just not certain. If there is satire here its mired down in a thick morass of molasses and honey, which mired my senses. Maybe the discerning reader will trudge through it all better off than I.

It's a thoroughly entertaining book without the need to laugh myself silly and I'll be looking to the next volume with the hope that these two stories are truly going to meet.

J.L. Dobias



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Review:: To Catch a Bad Guy by Marie Astor

To Catch a Bad Guy by Marie Astor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


To Catch a Bad Guy by Marie Astor

So, I like to look at the reviews before I decide on a book. It really helps when there are more than a handful of bad reviews. I suppose there must be some thing odd about admitting that I took a closer look at this book because it had such bad reviews. But, really, I'm not sure I would have read the sample without that bit of discouragement. It didn't work out poorly either. I liked the bit that was there and I picked it up for my kindle. Besides the bad reviews were only 25% of the whole.

Usually I recall seeing people start out with, I picked this up because with all the good reviews I thought I'd have to love it. Then there's at least one more sentence to explain how horrible it was.

I usually don't pick up a book by its cover but this is what caught my eye. Who can't resist the terrier with the pencil in its mouth.

So, like everyone else I was disappointed by being misled. Oh, there is a dog, and it plays some small part but really I was hoping it was going to help solve the case. But, that's the other problem. Hmm, The case.

Okay, I must agree with some others this is not a romance and this is not a mystery. It's almost a white collar crime novel. There is just a hint of romance but it just doesn't quite take off. So, that would qualify, at best as a tease.

Let's get to what it is:

It is good writing with solid editing and consistent plot and characters. The characters have flaws, yes, don't we all. Maybe this could be considered satire if you consider the complaints about the characters being wrong for their perceived intellectual level. If I were to complain my one complaint would be that the portrayal of women in this book, professional women, seems a few years backwards yet. I'm wishfully hoping that the educated women are not so shallow as to be using that education just to land a good husband so they can kick up their heels. But, that's just one character. The other just seems to have this blind-spot toward, well a lot of things including the man who might really be interested in her.

Dennis Walker aka Dean Snider seems your regular guy who's been caught up into the white collar intrigue by his own accidental venture into the criminal end. He's fully aware of he possibility of being innocent while yet nearly being proven guilty and should have some sympathy for some of the people he has to set up.

This is where the major conflict for this story comes from and this white collar crime thing goes deeper than the surface area that this novel touches so it's almost understandable that it comes off as just a bit blase at the end. The reason that Janet has ended up in the situations she is in has something that remotely intersects with the matter at hand and her own expertise in the field is what brings her and Dennis together and create those teasing little sparks that I suspect will go on into the next novel.

So, while this is not a satisfying romance nor a deep convoluted mystery to thrill the reader it is an entertaining read about a couple of people trying to stay within the law and catch the ones who have stepped over the line while trying to clear their own names and reputations.

It's more than that though because this type of crime seems conducive to creation of characters that have stepped over the line who are otherwise likable and who you almost might feel sorry for.

Almost.

This is a great read for anyone looking for light entertainment. The crime is mostly out there to see without a lot of deduction so it's mostly a matter of how are we going to sink our teeth into these guys kind of story. I look forward to reading more and hope the terrier has a bigger part next time. Hmm, maybe he's just the 'cover' story.


J.L. Dobias



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Review::Sara Dwells & the Book of Answers by Paul Waters

Sara Dwells & the Book of Answers. by Paul Waters

I've only found a small number of reviews for this book and they sum it up while falling short of the mark by offering no explanation for the short expressions of praise they dish out.

I really enjoyed this book even though at times it frustrated and confused me, but I'm an easily frustrated and confused person. The book starts out rich with the depth of emotion in a story that could have been quite sustainable within itself. The author chose to take it into several divergent directions that mostly confused me because it quickly switched the genre at almost the turn of a few sentences. What follows that clearly reminded me of a weird blend of several of my favorite authors works.

This is why I need more explanation when someone claims its a book unlike any novel ever written.

And of course I've never been a fan of the short review with one extended sentence praising the book as a page turner and the author as a master without offering up the proof in the pudding, so to speak.

This book deserves more than that.

Mysteriously it also deserves more than what time Paul Water spent to publish it electronically-- unless of course the poor formatting was actually a style choice, and that's something I would surely hope was not the case. So as usual I will caution any reader who gets agitated by the serious malformation and destruction of the paragraph--this book will annoy you. There are entire sections that start new paragraphs in the middle of a sentence and a thought. Then there are other spots where it becomes difficult to separate paragraphs as they lose their indentation. This might be more easily avoided by reading through the Style Guide by Mark Coker, which is available here on Amazon (free). Many of these problems are a result of poor interaction between the document and the interface that constructs the e-book. So, although they are annoying, I don't attempt to penalize the author.(That does not mean we shouldn't check to make sure these conditions are minimized.)

I found this book because I was searching out a copy of The Good Soldier Svejk by Jaroslov Hasek--a black comedy about the first world war. This book was listed as related somehow or another. Sara Dwells & the Book of Answers does take place between the two world wars so there is that connection.

The story starts on stormy winters night in the village of Whipper Wheel-- you will have to read to find out how it gets its name. Mary Dwells is giving birth to a healthy baby she will name Anna. The whole village is there including the doctor the pastor and the oldest living resident. I liked this beginning because it has some flare to it that remind me a bit of George Elliot's Silas Marner. There was even some potential for it to build strongly in this but the author took a different direction.

After giving birth and everyone has gone home, Mary has complications that end up being Anna's twin who appears to die at birth. The doctor and the pastor have made it out in time to deliver the baby but it dies. The doctor and pastor brave a storm to take the baby's body to prepare for a funeral. Caught in the storm with both men and their horses nearly freezing they are able to make it to the church and make themselves comfortable to ride out the blizzard. Over night a miracle happens and Sara, the yet to be named child, revives. After much drama about being trapped in the church the doctor is able to take the baby to the hospital (his home) and tend to her while others notify the parents.

There is a side story that occurs with the death of a family friend of the Dwells and this is part of what confused me in that I'm not sure just how relevant to the story this part is. It is expanded upon in later portions and its possible that the conflict therein is resolved, but it has no true intersection to the story of Sara. Again it bears reading to see what I mean. This is not a poorly written story and it has many compelling aspects so I encourage those who might be inclined to test the waters, so to speak.

Now some few years later when Sara is twelve it is evident that she has not gone unscathed by the traumatic birth and she is not popular though she is quite bright and talented. She is a troubled preteen. And this is where the story takes a sort of 90 degree turn into another dimension similar to what some of Robert Heinlein's characters did in several of his later works.

What happens next felt to me like a blend of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, Baum's Wizard of Oz(Dorthy), and any number of classic fantastic adventures such as Vernes' Journey to the Center of the Earth, Doyle's The Lost World and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar series. Squeeze into that some of the odd descriptions in C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce or even some scenes from Dante's Inferno. And perhaps its this mix of various notions that make it unique that someone has tried to mash all these into one story.

The thing is that it's all done quite well, but it leaves me hanging as to putting an age related genre recommendation onto it. It reads mostly like a young adult and could survive that were it not for some bits and pieces that would make it more a Mature Young Adult at best. There is also a strong thread of philosophical religious thought-- that runs through the whole piece.

Again I'll have to encourage everyone-of a certain age- to read this. At least try the sample, which contains minor examples of the formatting difficulties. After reading that much you might be hard pressed to avoid reading the rest. It really can be a page turner if you can get into the story.

A five star effort with caveat's for pernickety (persnickety) readers.

J.L. Dobias

Ebook-Cripple-Mode: Electric Touch"e

Possible cover to up coming book 2 of Cripple-Mode:Series

Review::The Robinson's Dark Matter by Michael Raymond

The Robinson's Dark Matter by Michael Raymond

I really loved this story.

When I first started reading it I was thinking mostly Juvenile Science Fiction. The main characters are fairly young and still in school. Their parents are working parents and the children are left home alone a lot. They discover a strange door in the basement that leads to a room where gravity is shifted. Since Nate is your typical older and protective brother it devolves to Victoria to be the one who believes in conspiracy theories and aliens as in Roswell. So this room is Victoria's biggest vindication.

It is a bit troubling that it might point to them as being the aliens.
(This is the Robinson family and I couldn't get my mind off of references to Lost in Space.)
This book hooked me right from the start, no matter what I might have expected.

There's an element about the mysterious aliens that reminded me a bit of Buckaroo Banzi so when Nick ends up in a band it doesn't surprise me as much as it does him. There are also elements of Howard the Duck in here with portals or wormholes to other worlds with waiting armada's of space invaders. This makes sense when we work out that there are two, no maybe three, different alien groups working here.

Most interesting and perplexing though are the references to Indiana Jones and that franchise of films. It's like a running joke that can only be understood if you've seen all the films and it intimates a possibility of those in different generations who may perceive differently. Especially if someone missed that first movie. You'll just have to read it to understand.

When Nate and Victoria's parents are kidnapped by people infected by some alien mind control they have to delve into the secrets in their basement to help save their parents. They quickly learn they can trust no one, not even the military who have apparently come to the rescue.

With a little help from friends and a mysterious AI they slowly unravel the secret of their parents lives and their own. As they go they pool together their resources to break into a place their parents have been keeping secret from everyone. They don't realize that throughout it all they will be watched.

To say more will really spoil things but the most interesting part of the story is the building of the characters and the telling of the story so you can't go wrong with this one.

This has a well put together plot, with even pacing and some neat speculative science.

For all fans of SFF- Science Fiction Fantasy. Great start to a promising series.

J.L. Dobias

Review::The Trilisk Ruins(Parker Interstellar Travels #1) by Michael McCloskey

The Trilisk Ruins(Parker Interstellar Travels #1) by Michael McCloskey

Trilisk Ruins is a nice entertaining Science Fiction.

At first I thought I was headed into yet another so so spy action thriller disguised as a Science Fiction novel. It really seems that way through the first half. Even to the point where they were trapped in the cheesy alien building with the shifting walls I was still thinking this was only mildly interesting. What saves it all for me was when Kirizzo's part kicked in. The alien, though only one of three major characters in the story steals the whole thing.

Kirizzo is at war, stranded and under attack of the Bel Klaven he has vital tech from the ruins of the Trilisk. He must evade the Bel Klaven and get this tech to his people. In a last ditch effort he enters a strange circular portal of the Trilisk that is still operational.

The story then slips over to Telisa Relachik daughter of an infamous UNSF Captain, is applying for a job with Parker interstellar Travels in her capacity of a xeno-archaeologist in a universe where only the UNSF has legal need for those services. In other words these are smugglers and Jack and Thomas decide that Telisa will be a perfect addition to their team.

Along with Magnus, a trained fighter formerly of the UNSF, they all take off aboard the Iridar to a recent new find of Trilisk artifacts. This venture is illegal, but they have a good team and have covered all the bases. What they don't plan on is the danger of the artifacts themselves.

After finding a portal similar to the one Kirizzo disappeared into the story becomes interesting.

The smugglers, an agent of the UNSF, and the alien Kirizzo are all trapped in some strange alien trap set by Trilisk technology. They must work together to get out and that means that Telisa needs to find a way to communicate with Kirizzo. No one plans on the Seeker arriving with Telisa's estranged father aboard.

The plot definitely thickens as you go along in this story. There are familiar themes of abuse of power and the fragility of tentative alliances. Magnus at first has some distrust of Telisa because of who her father is. As it is there will be plenty of reasons to justify that. It would seem that although she has been afforded a lot of freedom, the daughter of an UNSF captain is actually on a shorter leash than she knows.

This has it all, a little romance, lots of adventure, smugglers versus the authorities and lots of alien artifacts. It may prove out though that the alien at war might shift the balance here and prove that everything else is just petty squabbling.

Great Science Fiction story telling for those who like a bit of adventure and romance. Of the three main characters Telisa, Magnus and Kirizzo none out shine the other, they make a nice balanced ensemble.

This tale reads somewhat formulaic but it makes a great stepping stone into a new series.

J.L. Dobias

Review::People Of The Tiger (The Rational Future Series) by Wayne Edward Clarke

People Of The Tiger (The Rational Future Series) by Wayne Edward Clarke

I enjoyed portions of this book, if not the whole.

I could give this book a five star if I could take sections out of it, but I don't really want to rewrite someones work.

This book is written well, despite the authors claim that he is presenting dialogue the way it should always be and that every other writer is in error. Well that's taking liberty with paraphrasing his words. His style of writing never really put me off despite its sometimes strangeness and his introductions sense of aloofness.

That much said we should address some simple issues.

This book contains erotica, and I have the modified version that might contain less. It's not chock full of erotica, but the erotica seems to puddle in places rather than being strung out. It's not particularly the best erotica I've seen, but perhaps that's because it's been altered because of complaints. On the other hand it is the closest to illegal that I've ever encountered. By illegal I mean that it contains the presence of children within the context and if this were to ever be made into a film it would violate some stringent rules.

To address this issue I'll give the author this much. The premise of the story is that we are in the future where Rationalists have dominated and created a new order. I'm of the impression this new order pervades the globe. In the story we seem to be in India-primarily. These rationalist are apparently not an outgrowth of Rationalism as much as they are perhaps a mix of Pot smoking free love hippies with aboriginal tenancies. Unlike most distopia novels these people seem to be an outgrowth of the former technological society that never lost the advances but have chosen to segment peoples into various classes all of whom have access to the technology but some who eschew it more than others. Hence, the various peoples with names of animals as their tribal designation. The green people, the naturalists have all gone back to nature.

The story begins with Tika and her mother Tira. It is Tika's sixth birthday and she moves from Infant to Training Child. It seems that Infants are brought up to whatever level they might endure in fighting and hunting arts but only become Training Child when they are ready to accept responsibility. Tika is not your average child nor are most of the children of the People of the Tiger. This is never made clear and it weakens much of premise for how the author treats them. My best guess is that at this age they are equal to someone who is roughly thirteen through seventeen in our society. That does not even cover the notion that Tika is genetically above the rest. This seems to be the reason the author wants to treat these children like young adults.

If they were all genetically engineered to be more mature then this would hold well in this story. Unfortunately another premise in this book states that they eschew genetic engineering and whatever was done to Tika is, in fact, considered illegal. These two notions create a moral conflict for at least this reader when the highly explicit sexual situations are brought into the story right into the face of these children. There is a play by play description and narration by an Elder while the scene itself plays out. Though the author attempts to keep it in an almost clinical sense, its this detached sense that is part of what destroys those scenes.(Too mechanical)

The author cleverly tries to tie the erotica into the whole book by way of explaining the rape that led to the birth of Tika, which is revealed in front of the children and then perhaps, trying to diffuse the emotional impact, by giving the children a contrast to the rape through other intimacy.(I'd say true intimacy but there's a problem here.)

There is no real intimacy involved in the erotic scenes,(well I wasn't feeling it) which is detrimental to the character development and the believability of the love part of the free love aspect. This all contrasts also to the gruesome nature of these people who will seem so intimate and yet in a similar clinical sense will do great bodily damage to each other in their fighting arena. (These people are the master of the disconnect.)

I loved the story of Tika and where she came from(the mystery) and the en-devour of her friends to find the answer to that question. For me the story and the conflict was the notion that until we know what happened to Tika's father we don't know what will happen to Tika. Tika is the strongest character draw in this novel she is the central character.

The first part of this novel does have some distracting philosophical notions.
[Quote]
but enough that over millions of years all people will become a little better because a few fools were killed by their own stupidity before they could breed.

Because we hunt for a living rather than for sport, we tend to make our work easier by hunting the weak and the slow, as other predators do, leaving the swift and the mighty to improve their breed.

and we also allow the tiny chance that the weak and the slow and the stupid among us will be hunted by predators.[/Quote]

Clarke, Wayne Edward (2012-02-02). People Of The Tiger - Metric Pro. Edition (The Rational Future Series) (Kindle Locations 259-260). Wayne Edward Clarke Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I don't particularly agree with these but it's primary to the novel that the characters do.

It espouses the back to nature part, but it fails to truly justify the running around naked in the forest full of dangers and predators. Most distopia novels at least try to pretend we lost some civilization and just don't know better.

The book spends a lot of time developing the tier system for honors for the people and basically coming up with the reason that they have to constantly challenge each other to duels.

I had a few troubles with the whole concept of going so backwards in time that they were challenging each other for their land, which technically didn't belong to anyone anyway. There is a portion where our hero and her family displace people for their own selfish purpose and that even leads to the death of a neighbor who eventually we try to justify by painting them in a pale light while they are supposedly expected to honor them.

There's a lot of emphasis on honor and it constantly runs contrary to the need to be truthful and the need to display pride publicly. The characters run through these like they might run through water and I can only think they need a therapist.

All this is building to the lengthy overdrawn out knife and claw and hand to hand fighting that goes with their Olympic like challenges. Again it would work better if these people were genetically altered to be better because no matter how close we bring the medical staff to the fight, these people do serious damage and should be killing each other.

If you like erotica and blow by blow fighting this is the book for you.

I enjoyed more the pursuit of Tika's past and the building of the potential for some sort of faster than light travel which will possibly help Tika in her search for the truth.

If you like Sci-Fi and Fantasy and don't mind delving into odd sociological restructuring and can convince yourself it's not child-porn you might be tempted to test drive this one to decide if you want to purchase the next in the series.

Despite some of my own misgivings in regards to what I felt were shortcomings, I found enough to enjoy with this that I read it completely.

I like a challenge and I don't mind leaving my comfort zone for a minute. So this has offered me some room for thought with People of the Tiger as I try to look at the way all these elements are woven together and decide how much seemed totally necessary to the story.

A person needs to read this to make a proper judgement and this would make a hot topic for someones reading group.

J.L. Dobias

Review::The Lost Girls by Jason Halstead

The Lost Girls by Jason Halstead

This is one of those tough books that you have to dig past a few things to get to the place where you decide you like it.

As with some others this one took me out of my comfort zone right from the start with what seems at a glance to be jumping right into the middle of a fight. Then it turns out to be a rape. Worse yet it turns out to be mutilation when the victim apparently has her fingers augmented with blades that make her into a sort of wild unpredictable Cuisinart stuck on slice and dice.

I might have set it aside at this point but Kat, the cop who's nearly raped, is an interesting enough character to draw me in. She's petite, but dangerous. She's had augments done to her and there's a story behind all that but it takes a while to wheedle it out of her.

She also calls herself a lesbian a dyke and gay at various stages. She has a massive distaste for men. But the interesting part about her personality is that she's every-mans dream and nightmare. She's strongly independent and in some ways throughout the narrative somewhat indistinguishable from a male except when describing her own body parts. She loves women and hates emotional involvement, or maybe is afraid of that kind of involvement.

Right from the get go she gets hurt and inflicts a lot of justice on her assailants. She's almost a rent-a-cop in this world which has some portal-ish connection to a world of magic which all sounds fantastic unfortunately it's only incidental to this novel. After getting patched up Kat will have to undergo some Psych time, which is how she meets Natalie who is married and straight yet hits on Kat.

Kat loves the attention and flirts a lot which just sends all sorts of conflicting messages because Kat is a loner and knows better than to even try to get involved with a confused straight woman. As I mentioned there is a back-story to Kat and; Natalie, being a therapist, is supposed to get to the core of it. This makes for a hot and cold romance.

After a couple of more incidents Kat is injured badly enough to need more augmentation until it appears she'll be mostly a cyborg before she's finished. Natalie is put off by this(not the cyborg-the job), but she's already compounded things by hiring Kat to look into her husbands illicit affair. True to her almost male like nature Kat gets immediately involved with Skyler, a lovely escort she hires to help go undercover to check out a modeling agency while still working on Natalie's case.

This story quickly becomes a convolution of plot that puts Basic Instinct to shame. In fact, this is Basic Instinct with a mostly female cast.

Anyway, everything will come together. Oddly the best part though is finding out what Kat is all about when she reveals her past finally.

This is a great character study that makes for an interesting and sometimes gruesome beginning to a series.

Good book for Suspense and SSF lovers. Contains elements of lesbian content although I'm not sure how representative Kat might be. She's mostly augmented and bad ass and driven.

J.L. Dobias

It's like a Zen moment... When a writer realizes they don't really want to rewrite every other author's work.

It's like a Zen moment...
When a writer realizes they don't really want to rewrite every other author's work. That second we realize that rewriting other peoples novels is not a viable profession, that we really don't have that much time on our hands.

Unless we are ghostwriters.

As a writer, I've fallen victim to at least the passing thought that I could write something better. That the author chose the wrong style. That this piece of crap is annoy the daylights out of me and I can't continue it. I should make it better.

So when someone approaches my work from that level I realize that it's something that will happen. I try to step back and try to to absorb the parts of the critique that have been helpful. After all, if they sent you any sort of note that means they care enough to say something.

When we publish something we invite criticism.

That's why we employ editors, to minimize the number of events. Unfortunately there are some subjective elements to style that make it impossible to please everyone. Someone has to make decisions about those and that means that it will go well with a percentage of people, though not so well with another percentage.

The key is to invite criticism. With this, should come the realization that you will be sifting through that to find the key pieces that will help to hone your work.

As a writer one of the main tools I've found that I use is reading other peoples work. I don't read for ideas. I read other work for views on experimentation with styles. The biggest stumbling block to this tool is those few times when I have difficulty finishing because of something I perceive as a problem.

I would like to think I'm getting better at it. Although, I will admit to recently upsetting at least one author by suggesting I hadn't finished the novella because of a few minor details. That didn't go over well. The trouble came when they decided to write derisively about my critique not being a critique, and their fans descended upon me with overpowering abuse.

The evil part of this is that I did read it; I just wasn't honest. If I had been entirely honest, perhaps it would have gone differently.

There were some major inconsistencies in the timeline of events which caused me to reread it several times to affirm that those existed. The plot was otherwise simplistic so there really shouldn't have been any need to lose track of the time of events. The characters were more one dimensional than anything else, which may or may not have been a plan since this was a pure science science fiction blended with a small element of slight fantasy but chock full of acronyms and quite recognizable descriptions from out of today's space program.

The bottom line here is that I should have said what I saw instead of a short bit about how I thought he should have at least spelled the difficult words he was using correctly and he might want to chose more recognizable words that make sense in the context.

I have been striving to improve.

To that end I have been completing books despite the level to which the author sets to annoy me and attempting to only place my annoyance in as a passing thought without allowing it to affect my overall review.

The point is; I give a review.

I attempt to be helpful and demonstrate what I like and mention what annoys or perplexes.

So, when someone tells me that a specific style choice of mine annoys them I try to listen. What is annoying to me is that sometimes people don't approach me at all about the things they find annoying let alone what they might like.

It should be mentioned that, especially so with style choices, I say I listen, but that does not mean I will change or alter the style I use. There are times when the style choice made has been decided after a lot of thought. That never means it's the best or most correct choice, but it does make it's more difficult to say I will fix that.

To name a few that I've heard.

Oh, you used first person- I can't read that - it's too much young adult - self published and first time authors use first person and don't know how to do it well.

Oh, you use present tense. Present tense always creates an urgency and immediacy in the narrative that become tiring and has no break or pacing.

Oh you use Said or Says all the time and its too annoying and I'm bleeding out of my ears eyes and nose from it.

Not all of these people have thrown the book down or quit reading, but I thoroughly understand the bleeding part and there is no reason to go on only to end up with a 911 call.

These are valid complaints, to an extent, and sometimes when I'm reading other work these things annoy me. Although, I somehow have reached a point where I can now look past them and that might be bad, but I've come to enjoy my reading much better. If the author uses too many of the generic dialog tags I just sort of block them out as long as I can keep track of who is talking. Tenses and POV even when handled poorly are really not that annoying when I begin to understand the style of the person writing.

I understand that not everyone can manage that and I know of quite a few who do throw books down and in the trash after a few pages.

When I give a review I give merit to the story and I'll often mention that it would be easier on the eyes and the mind if the POV was not so much head hopping, or the tense of the narrative could be more secure.

For me the truth is that these are not rules as much as guidelines and they are not laws as much as style guides. When handled poorly, they are also not things that are considered good writing, but they have to be consistently annoying before they affect my star ratings.

On the other hand if someone is using a difficult possibly less used word, then I expect it to be spelled correctly. That means the writer should look them up no matter how much a master they think they are at that word. And while they are there they should check and see if its common usage, the way they used it, or if it might be more of a colloquialism. God forbid they might not even know what it means. So when you use susurrus it should be spelled susurrus and not sussurus. If you don't spell that one correctly how am I to look it up or even know if you know what it means if you can't spell it correctly.

There are spelling mistakes that make sense in the sense that they might even get past an editor because the mind and eye might fool one into believing they spelled that correctly because it's such a common word.

The question would be; is susurrus a common word for you? Because, if it is I still think it should be flagged and checked because it wasn't common to me and the way it was spelled was not something common in my dictionary.

By the way; the author didn't think that was very helpful criticism.

All that aside, when someone asks how I handle criticism:

I try to point out that if I didn't want to invite it I wouldn't have published. And thank you for the input and thank you even more for having finished reading my entire novel despite the flaws that were found therein.

If you didn't finish it because you were too frustrated or pissed off then thank you again and at least I know I evoked some sort of emotion from you although not the one and the way I had hoped or intended.

J.L. Dobias

Review::Ryann by Paul Dorset

Ryann by Paul Dorset

I enjoyed and thoroughly loved this Novella. This is 106 pages and reads well enough to be a novel. I'm hoping there is more to Ryann's story.

I've had this one in my kindle for a while-waiting. I've avoided it. Maybe because it seemed it might be Young Adult and it seemed shorter than what I prefer. The upside to that is that no matter how long it sits it's not getting any better or worse while it's there. There might be some books that ferment over time but this wouldn't be one.

I say that from the point of view that a fermented book is probably going to be pretty nasty.

Expecting YA doesn't always make something YA. I in fact have seen a few that I've decided that I'd not encourage any young adults living at home (particularly my home) to read. This one almost hit that barrier with the rough treatment of the slaves. Thankfully we moved on from there and paced all of that to a reasonable level that clearly is designed to make the reader dislike Bramwel the son of Lord Cala. It also demonstrates why we should hold little if any regard for Lord Cala.

I think that Paul Dorset does a great job even without the beatings at making Bramwel a detestable cowardly self-absorbed and shallow young man.

On another level it's nice to see that no punches are pulled when dealing with the subject of Serfs servitude and slavery. At times it almost seemed there were inconsistencies but there was a strangely precarious balancing act going on between Bram and his father, which may explain the appearance of inconsistency.

It was insightful to look into the economic dynamics of the system. It's a marvelous system that always favors the house with little chance of having the major player break even let alone win.

It becomes apparent that the only way out is to die.

Ryann gets a first hand glimpse of that truth from the very beginning when the whip beating of her friend Megan leads to Megan's death. The disregard for life is demonstrated when the loss of life is only lamented in that the household can not afford to replace this slave.

Ryann begins to tread a thin line with Bramwel, wishing for her freedom and already trying to come up with ways to engineer revenge for Megan. It's clear, though, that getting freedom will be an long seemingly endless process. She may never have enough money earned, to test the rule that she can buy her freedom with twenty silver.

This story demonstrates the misuse of power and authority to subjugate people to a point that the masters lose sight of the necessity to build good will with the servants. When the servants are turned into slaves and conditions are stacked against them towards never being able to buy themselves free the outcome can only lead to a disregard for their life and well-being.

Having been in management many times in the past I can actually draw parallels to this even in our free society. Especially so where raises and promotions are tied to a system of evaluations and reviews that easily fall into the hands of people who enjoy wielding power over people and hanging that carrot in front of them with the full knowledge they never will obtain it.

Not everyone or everything is this bad but I would recommend this to everyone to read to help gain a clear idea of what to watch for and avoid when choosing a profession.

Don't get me wrong here-this book is not preaching anything. This was just my own creepy impression over the length of the narrative. Most of the narrative is the setup to explain what Ryann does.

And I'll even cut Lord Cala a small amount of slack in saying that he'll at least once redeem himself. I'm in no way satisfied that that's enough to totally redeem him.

Great fiction with a good message that everyone needs to consider. Young and old alike no matter what Genre you prefer you can't go wrong with this little Novella.

J.L. Dobias

Review::Jericho (Kinetics Book 3) by Andrew Peed

Jericho (Kinetics Book 3) by Andrew Peed

I love this book and I've enjoyed this series.

It's been a breath of fresh air on a familiar subject. It looks as though there could be more stories stored in there somewhere and we'll have to wait and see. As it is though each of these stories in this trilogy of stories has stood well within itself and brought the reader to some few conclusions as it went along. If I had a quibble it would be that if this was meant to be a trilogy-and the mention of trilogy here falls mainly on my perception-it would have been far better to at least give an illusion that all the major threads have been covered.

Since there seem to be threads hanging, I would then conclude that there are more stories to come. That's not all bad, because I've enjoyed Grace's story so far and I would be happy to see it continue onward.

This the third story brings us up to date. Grace has recovered the family that she could and had to face that a part of the family is now gone forever. A lot has fallen on her shoulders and she's tried to keep it all to herself. Now she has to decide to let things go into other hands so that her friends can help her.

But, before that happens the group has to work hard to find a cure for the virus that Graces former captors have injected into her bloodstream.

With the knowledge that James of Aurora is implementing the Jericho protocol, which could result in the death of thousands of User ( the gifted people), Grace must use her group to formulate a plan to put an end to the evil that James has been perpetrating upon them. To that end we gear up for full frontal assault.

As usual this book keeps with the pacing between the planning stages and the conflicts. There are more mysteries and more that Grace must learn and absorb. And things might not yet be quite as they seem as they get ready for what should be the final battle.

Anyone that has read the other two should really enjoy this one. There are a lot of answers and a lot of twists and turns that lead to what could still be a complete ending to the series. It's not necessary to answer all of the questions at the end. There is some risk though with some readers if there is too much or part of the more important parts left unresolved or at least left in some grey area.

As usual I will caution that those people having objections to a lot of grammar and spelling problems, they exist here. I usually highlight those and will only mention them when my highlights go beyond ten. Considering that I probably missed a good share, there could be more. You can't get them all even some of the major publishers have that problem, but there is an argument here for another set of eyes that are looking at the material.

That aside this is great story telling for Sci-Fi fantasy lovers. Definitely not a bad series to become involved with especially if there turn out to be more stories.

J.L. Dobias

Review::Concealed Power (The Healers of Meligna, Book #1) by K.J. Colt

Concealed Power by K.J. Colt

First off I received this book free. To be honest I might not have read it if it hadn't been free. Mostly because it is just a bit out of my usual favorite genre. I really loved this story because it made me very angry and I'll explain that. I purchased a copy afterward, on amazon, because the story and the author deserve that much.

This book reminds me of all those old classic favorites of mine which also are a bit away from my favorite genre. It's reminiscent of Charles Dickens in its richly described atmosphere and well told characterizations. It has the mystery and intrigue of many of my favorite Alexander Dumas. Except, K.J. Colt's style is her own.

I have no idea of what the era of the story is. All I know is that its a time of backward benighted people who treat all illness as some sort of curse caused by witches and devils. And, Adenine is caught up into it with a heart of gold and the innocence of a child.

The reader is introduce to the story through a series of events seen through Adenine's eyes. Not only is this the way that K.J. Colt has chosen to tell the story, I'll venture a wager that it was the way the story chose to be told. First person is not always easy and has to be mastered in order to come out well at the other end. K.J. does this. It's always too easy to slip into making the story sound like a shopping list or laundry list when doing first person and I never once felt that way. Instead we are brought right into the world of Adenine without any unnecessary overhead.

What this does for the story is it creates a series of mysteries that will unfold as Adenine is able to discern them. And this is where I got angry. It's always a triumph when what you read takes you out of your comfort zone, which is what Concealed Power does. It's even more of a feat when it can move the reader with real emotion.

I was angry that these things were happening to Adenine. Disturbed that her parent left her with her uncle when her uncle was in such a shattered state and that it all led to disaster. Distraught that it seemed that Adenine was being treated poorly even by her parents. And very confused and distressed that she had been blinded and that I wasn't sure, but it seemed her parents were actively responsible for this.

I Can tell you that at that point I resolved that K.J. Colt had better have some good reasons for all these thing to have to happen to this poor little girl of 11 years.

Adenine lives with her father Adronian and mother Capacia in a sheltered life because she has some rare Death Plague that will infect anyone she comes in contact with. She watches life from her window while her parent run their shop Mystoria. On occasion her favorite Uncle, Garrad, takes care of her and sneaks her out of the house at night to visit his shack. Her life seems like a bad enough life as it is, it's about to explode into something worse.

Adenine will lose her sight and half her family and when what's left is too sick to care for her, Adenine has to venture into the world she's been kept from. She's about to discover her life has been a lie and she's going to have to grow up quickly to be able to take care of herself in a world that may be set to reject her.

K.J. Colt delivers but it takes quite some time, almost half way through the story for the reader to begin to get some answers. I can't agree with much of what her parents have done and it seems there are quite a number of other characters in the story who, for various reasons, will eventually agree with that assessment.

The important thing is that this story evokes emotion and delivers a well paced story with moments of the mundane contrasting the trials and tribulations that confront Adenine. The heartbreak and thankfully some of the joy.

This book is for anyone who loves Fantasy fiction and has enjoyed many of the classics of yesterdays authors. It has a well built world of specific customs and values that, though often frustrating, make perfect sense for this story. This is a great story for anyone who doesn't mind being jerked out of their comfort zone for few moments to set the stage for the rest of the story.

The best part is that you don't have to agree with how the characters act because there will always be another character within the story who will agree with you about that even if that character has some disagreeable qualities. And the actions for these characters make perfect sense within the story for the character no matter how frustrated or angry it makes you.

I like a story that makes me think and love the one that makes me feel.

J.L. Dobias

Review::Morpheus(Kinetics Book 2) By Andrew Peed

Morpheus(Kinetics Book 2) By Andrew Peed

There is more and more to love about this series each book. Once again we are dealing with issues that seem to be common themes so it's very important that the characters are developed well. And that's exactly what Andrew Peed set out to do in this series.

Grace is a strong character with a lot of flaws that are going to bite her. One of her biggest flaws is not quite understanding herself. She's going to assemble around her some of the very people whom she can rely on. There will be some who aren't so agreeable but most of these people will support her, if she'll let them. There's the problem. Grace has so many reasons that she needs to do everything herself. This is a common problem among people who are otherwise suitable for management-or in this case Command.

Grace Madison a former orphan has discovered she has a sister and parents who are still alive but being held captive. She needs to find them and she has two possible locations for her parents. She also has some other problems. Presently she is relying on the AI's that run her parents home(Chuck, Alrick and Alice) and the self contained power of the home has been compromised. It's a specially designed power supply that might only be fixed by Darrel Aarons who now works for the evil Aurora Corporation.

Worse than that though, Eastcroft is being taken over by the government and Sam is to be replaced. That's not all, it seems that the governement is sending out a group called seekers who are to retrieve and detain the most powerful of the Kinetics. With that in mind Ryder, Ronnie, Sandy, Rachel and Kenny move in with Grace. This works out until the seekers show up and Rachel determines that they have no intention of detaining them.

So now with the government and Aurora after them and having to look for another place to hide out it's time to be proactive. But, can Grace give up control enough to let people help? Will she be able to find and save her sister Isabella. The next time they meet up with the seekers the seekers will have learned and adapted and Grace's command will suffer another setback.

This book is quite well paced most of the way through and it kept me on the edge of my seat and kept me reading for a one sit read. It gets a bit intense at the end and is not something you'll want to put down when you get to that spot.

Great Sci-Fi fantasy and young adult fiction with some elements of cyberspace fiction.

Next book is Jerico

J.L. Dobias

Review::Daddy's World by Walter Jon Williams

Daddy's World by Walter Jon Williams

This is a short story.Probably somewhere around twenty to thirty pages. But it's really good as a short story and entertaining. It's also thought provoking. It asks some simple questions, which may or may not come up in the future.

Jamie lives in an idealistic life, which sounds like it's out of some children s novel. It's peopled with characters that could only live in books. But Jamie's Mom and Dad are there and so is his sister Becky. His days are simple filled with time to play but also time to learn.

Until one day when everyone seems to freeze. Stranger things happen where he sees parts of a person and hears a voice. This is the first indicator that things are not as they seem, which is actually pretty much a relief because this was reading too much like a children's tale.

Soon his sister makes a suggestion that they play matchmaker between Don Quixote and Princess Gigunda by deceiving Don into believing that Gigunda is really Dulcinea who, of course, Don Quixote loves. This antic heralds in a time when Becky, who is younger, starts to age faster than Jamie. This perplexes him but he's not ready to face what is happening.

As with short stories this becomes difficult to review because it's so short and a person doesn't want to give the whole story away.

This story is almost a cautionary tale. A modern fairy tale or fable. With the what if being what if we could download the mind of someone we love, who is dying, into a computer. It takes time to examine the ethics and legality of letting someone have that much control over your mind when you pass from this earth.

There are consequences as the conditions lasts longer than originally planned and eventually Becky, who has to live in both a real and fantasy world is a catalyst to Jamie gaining back more control of his life. But, just how will that work out for any of them.

You will have to read and see.

This short is a good introduction to the mind of Walter Jon Williams and his world building. I personally recommend his Implied Spaces novel as another good starting point.

Good Thought provoking SSF for all Future of the digital age related Science Fiction lovers.

J.L. Dobias

Review::The Infinite Life of Emily Crane by Jaron Lee Knuth

The Infinite Life of Emily Crane by Jaron Lee Knuth

I like this book it's written well. What I had trouble with is following the development of the main character but there's an identifiable reason for this.

This book is a slow starter and comes off as a Young Adult teen angst story. Then it sort of digresses to shock fiction and then segue's into some philosophical fluff. So it's really three stories and that's where I got confused because it made it difficult to connect the three character personalities in the story.

As the story begins we have the angsty overweight possibly Plain Jane teen Emily Crane who is lucking in having had a boyfriend, but unlucky in having lost him to a car accident. She's trying to deal with that along with being an outcast in school. She also has to deal with the fact that she had just broken up with the boyfriend prior to his accident and that she witnesses other students being abused by the peers in a fashion perhaps worse than she has been abused. She does nothing about it.

This leads to disaster when the twins get tired of the abuse and go on a killing rampage and Emily is in the way and is one of the casualties. Emily dies, but that's not the end. Emily is an immortal and can't be killed so easily.

The next part of the story is a rather gruesome piece involving everything that a certain secret group of government funded people do with Emily to try and understand what makes her different. Were talking worse things than what happened with Stephen King's Firestarter - and everyone knows how that worked out for those people. Emily is trapped in a nightmare situation with no way out. Emily does get a buff body out of it but it not as funny or entertaining as Bette Midler in Ruthless People.

The last or third part is of course the escape and the people who are like Emily who come to save the day. But are these people any better than the one's who have systematically tortured her for over twenty years?

The one single troublesome detail I found was created by the very gruesome nature of the second part of this novel. What it involved is Emily's road to recovery from those long years of torture- yes at the beginning she wants to kill them all but she gets over way too quickly and I'm not sure I understood how or why she lost her anger despite recognizing the toll it was taking on someone who was becoming close to her..

To say anything more would be too much spoiling.

This story is a good tale of the transformation of Emily- not from mortal to immortal but from angsty teenager to a well rounded woman and is not a bad tale all the way around and this book gives me one of the few times I can honestly say that the end has TMI. I think as a reader the transformation of Emily was the story and that diatribe wrap-up at the end seemed a distraction.

The place in the middle with all the abuse has it's place but is overplayed and should result in a Firestarter ending. But to understand or disagree with this you are going to have to read the story. That's a good thing because it's entertaining and mostly well paced.

For once I'd have been happy to have been left hanging there as to how the rest of the story was about to pan out.

Interesting Science Fiction Fantasy read for all lovers of that Genre: contains elements of horror that make it questionable for Young Adults.

J.L. Dobias