Beth Tabler
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this story in exchange for my open and honest review.
There is a magic power associated with adolescence. It is a collection of moments where you step out of the warm and safe embrace of childhood. And stick your proverbial toe in the cold waters of adulthood. It can be exhilarating. It can be terrifying in equal and confusing parts — all newness of experiences and the rush of first-times.
Now throw in cancer into childhood. The big C. The silent lurking predator that ravages your body and soul while you attempt to survive while being stripped and flayed alive. Cancer is the stuff of nightmares for adults, but for children who have enough mental juggling going on, it is world changing. It is hard to talk about adolescence and cancer without going down the dark path of maudlin. But this story isn't about swimming through the muck and mire of disease.
It could have been in lesser authorial hands, but it isn't.
What this story is, is a nostalgic trip into childhood built with the strength and craft of someone who remembers what it was like. This is written by someone who knows the sweet and enduring pleasures of friendship, the fantastic wild fun of D&D, and the relationships those two can create. This story was an absolute treat to read.
One Word Kill starts like a lot of stories do with a boy and his friends. I'll introduce his friends, but that's it. All of Lawrence's stories hold their own. They don't need me to run down the plot, because that is no fun for anyone. Meet Nick, the narrator of the story, the protagonist in 1980's London, newly diagnosed with leukemia, has a brilliant and advanced mind bent towards Quantum Theory. Simon, who can do mental computations in seconds. Elton, who can move like a spider and practices kung fu with his five brothers. John, the rich and cool kid that is written without stereotypes. And Mia. Mia is a smart, goth girl who is the heart of the story in so many ways. Friendships like these are what can make a person brilliant as an adult. Lawrence combines so much into such a short and excellent story. Cancer, adolescence, friendship, physics, D&D, time travel, and a charming love story. It has everything you would expect from Lawrence as a writer plus so much more you didn't know he had in him. Lawrence, thank you for the nostalgia of my childhood growing up in the 1980s. Thank you for the friendship and these fascinating characters that I get to take with me. Thank you.
If you would like to read more of my reviews, please check out my blog at www.beforewegoblog.com
Hard DNF on this one. Damn, I wanted to love this story as it was one of my most anticipated releases this year. I did not connect with this character. I tried. I really, really tried. I picked up the book and put it down a number of times in different mental states. But Gideon felt as a character, forced. The snark that Gideon displays, which was funny on page 25, felt annoying on page 100. It felt contrived. The goth world building in the beginning that I started out loving, started feeling forced right around where I stopped reading. I give this book two stars instead of 1 because of the ideas for the world-building were awesome and unique in the beginning. It was a very cool way to approach a world.
Now, this is one of those rare books that is insanely polarizing. If you love this book, you really really love it. Like 5 stars, a huge fan of it and that is fantastic! I am so glad that there are books out there for everyone. So give this book a try. You might be in the “best book ever camp,” which would be wonderful and you will have discovered a new favorite book. Or you might be like me and this book might not have resonated with you, and that's alright. Not every book has to be for every person. It would be a boring world if that were so.
Thank you to Diversion books, and Netgalley for providing me an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
This story is a strange and brutal tale crafted by newcomer Kevin A. Muñoz. Often dark to the point of being physically unnerving and bulging with well-crafted battles between the main character, Police Chief Sam Edison of the Little Five, and hollow-heads, unkillable cannibals no longer capable of higher thought. All within the context of a small struggling community fighting to make a home again after an apocalypse of illness and destruction ten years prior.
The story revolves around our main protagonist, Police Chief Sam Edison. A once upon a time coast guard captain has fallen into the role of the Police chief and leader of a small community called Little Five. Sam struggles daily with memories of the past and the death of Sam's wife and daughter. Edison continually attempts to atone for deaths that were no one's fault and spends much of the novel recriminating herself. This causes a compulsive need to protect the innocent, much to the detriment of those around him. Two strangers arrive at the fence of Little Five, hoping for assistance. One of the strangers happened to be a young, pregnant, and abused young lady. They are promptly murdered within days of arriving. They were killed to protect a secret. To make matters worse, the beloved stepdaughter of the mayor is kidnaped. Sam feels compelled to right this wrong, find Phoebe, and bring justice upon those who hurt young women.
At this point, the primary basis of the story has been laid, and the pace of the novel picks up. We are treated to battle after well-crafted battle between Hollow-Heads, gunmen, and town traitors on Sam's quest to rescue Phoebe. The reader has a choice at this point, either cheer for Sam or scratch their heads at Sam's misguided stubborn refusal to abandon this quest. It is the weight of one innocent's death versus the death of many. That in itself adds to the horror and pacing of the story. I know that I often wondered at Sam's motivations and the motives of supporting characters that assisted Sam in his endeavors. This usually broke the suspended disbelief of the story for me.
Another quibble I have in an otherwise excellent piece of writing is the use of two plagues. One a strange catch-all cannibal creating disease that has affected the population at large. The other is vague allusions to oil going bad about the same time as the cannibal creating illness. The fuel going bad sets up plot points further into the story, but I found it unnecessary and even distracting. If facing an apocalyptic scenario, oil would go bad and become scarce as a matter of course. No people means no oil refineries. Bio-diesel would become a tradeable and necessary resource for a community to thrive.
One thing that Muñoz does exceptionally well is creating a believable apocalyptic world, aside from my minor quibbles about oil. He makes a setting in which the town, Little Five, is surviving and in some ways flourishing, but never for a moment is it forgotten how close to the edge of destruction they are. It is believable in many of the ways that most apocalyptic scenario stories are not.
The ending is a bit messy and less satisfying than I would like, but I will leave that to you readers to find out for yourself. All in all, this is a reasonably enjoyable read, a bit confusing at times and head-scratching, but still gratifying. If you are a fan of “The Walking Dead” and “A Walk Amongst the Tombstones” by Lawrence Block, I think you will enjoy this.
“Hell is hilarious if you're the one in charge.” ~ Lucifer
I absolutely love this series thus far. It was one of the books I wanted to finish reading by the end of the year via this list. 10 Books I Want to Read This Year.. And Why
My blog post from earlier this year, “Kill the Dead” by Richard Kadrey - I read the first “Sandman Slim” book, aptly named just “Sandman Slim” and dudddde, holy anti-hero batman. Yaas. Bring on the “I don't give a shit attitude.” I love that the language in Sandman Slim is punchy. Not overly wordy and detailed. I want some concisely written words.”
I received everything I asked for and more after reading #2 in the series. Sandman Slim should be on more lists and garner more praise. It should be up there with the likes of Dresden, and October Daye because it is just that damn good. It is so refreshing when there seems to be so much unoriginal urban fantasy out there. Always the same sort of schtick. Not this book...
“Twenty percent? What am I, your waiter? I got you five vampires, not a BLT.”
― Richard Kadrey, Kill the Dead
This story picks up a while after the first Sandman Slim story left off. We have our resident anti-hero having a hell of a time mentally, and in some ways physically while trying to the bills by doing the odd killing or menacing here and there. I don't want to give too much away, but if you enjoyed the first book in this series, “Sandman Slim” you will probably enjoy this one. They are a little different in style and texture. But, the dark humor and great story come through. There is a bit of a love interest, and a new interesting character getting fleshed out in Lucifer. I am going to keep this short, as this book is a pause in a longer story. But read the series. It is so worth it.
Check out my blog- more review to come www.beforeweblog.com
The Lore of Prometheus: A Modern Fantasy Thriller by Graham Austin-King reminds me a lot of a James Bond novel nestled into some urban fantasy. It is pure adrenaline!
“McCourt shook his head. “I'm not, John. I saw him pull the trigger. I saw the muzzle flash. And then I saw the bullet. I saw it just hanging there in the air, halfway to you. I'll never forget it, or the look on your face. Pearson died scared, but you, you had this look... I don't even know how to describe it. It was like you were taking a test or something. Like you were concentrating, but furious at the same time. So angry, I've never seen anyone so angry. And your hand, held out, like you were warding the gunshot off...”
The story starts with Carver, an ex-military black ops soldier, gambling in a casino. There is nothing incredibly unique or different with Carver. He is a man of a particular skill set trying to make his way in the world with wicked PTSD. Carver gets into some financial trouble with the wrong kind of people and ends up needing to take a protection job in Kabul to make some quick cash. By this far into the novel, you think you know where this is going, but you don't. Remember, there is a fantastical aspect of the story that we haven't discovered yet.
What could be fantastical with Carver? He sees hallucinations of his dead squad members and is destroying himself with guilt. But, that seems like that is all until you read that Carver is called The Miracle of Kabul.
“I might be a whore with a gun, but I'm an honest whore. Once I'm bought, I like to stay bought.”
The story quickly shifts to that of Mackenzie. Mackenzie wakes up in a dark room, extremely thirsty, chained to a wooden board. An absolute nightmare scenario. Austin-King does a great job here differentiating the voices of Carver and Mackenzie. Where Carver is cold and professionally detached through years of training, Mackenzie does what any average person would and screams. She shouts for help till her voice cracks. Two hoses are hanging from the ceiling; one has water and the other food. Mackenzie is like a hamster locked in a cage.
As a reader, you wonder where these two stories are going to collide. Carver is on protection duty in Kabul, and Mackenzie is... somewhere.
“What I have is some kind of PTSD. Hallucinations brought on by trauma and survivor's guilt. I've done enough research on my own, whilst avoiding support groups and therapy, to know that much. I know avoiding the help is a bad idea. Maybe I'm hoping it will burn itself out. Maybe I'm an idiot.”
Suffice it to say their stories do hit and become an exhilarating thrill ride. Austin-King pulls no punches; these two are fractured, broken, mended, and fractured again. The psychological manipulation of both of them is something. You know that Austin-King researched interrogation techniques because the scenes involving Mackenzie and Carver are well thought out, perfectly paced, and terrifying.
The question on my mind when I got to the end of the story was, “Are Mackenzie and Carver the good guys or the bad?” Maybe a little of both? They are believable characters as they fall in shades of gray instead of everything being black and white.
“We,” Janan nodded. “The others working in what we've come to call the Prometheus Project.”
Also, a great thing about the writing of this story is the lightness some scenes have. The setting can be almost savage, but the characters both have biting humor, which I appreciate. It helped stand in contrast with the book's serious tone and not pull the reader down into the muck and mire of it all. You watch these characters broken on the wheel of scientific breakthrough.
My only slight complaint about the story is that, for me, there was a slight disconnect between the story beats of the beginning, middle, and end. It did not flow as well as I would have liked from each dramatic section and felt a bit jarring. Mostly on the side of Carver. But the story beats themselves were all written very well.
The Lore of Prometheus is a brilliant take on government experimentation and the Men in Black boogeymen concept. The story is shocking in its ferocity because Austin-King holds no punches. It deals with PTSD in a real way, it deals with psychological damage brought on by trauma, it has realistic characters... it is pretty much everything you would want in an exciting book. And the finale will blow you out of the water. No, seriously, it was an edge of your seat exciting.
I hope there is another book.. because damn. I want to know more.
I was provided an ARC by Tor.com in exchange for my open and honest review.
It is a terrible and wondrous thing to be so stunned by a story you lose your ability to use words. This story literally stunned me into silence. The only response I could muster for the first day was, “That was fucked.”
I'll tell you why. I am from Las Vegas, Nevada. Born and bred. On October 1st of 2017, my hometown was visited by the worst act of mass gun violence in US history. I watched the news in horror as people ran for cover. I searched the videos streaming on youtube with tears streaming down my face looking for people I knew. I looking for my family. Thankfully none of my family and friends were involved in the shooting, but only just. I know lots of people who work in the hotels. On December 11th of 2012, the Clackamas Town Center mall was riddled with holes as a single gunman went in and shot shoppers. At the time of the shooting, I lived 800 feet from the entrance of the mall. My husband was home during the shooting, although he didn't hear anything and oddly enough I was in Las Vegas at the time. But, I was having lunch in the food court, exactly where the gunman shot people, 1-week prior. I was not directly involved in that shooting, but for a month I saw the masses of flowers and teddy bears laid out on the Clackamas sign. People died 800 feet from my home.
I am an American, and my life has been touched by gun violence if only by proximity to it and that is the point when it comes to this story. Gun violence by proximity. Most of the story is about people watching gun violence take place elsewhere. It is over there, in that mall with people you don't know. Viewers eyes are glued to the screen, and they wonder what is going to happen. They armchair quarterback what the victims would do or not do. It is chilling and so very real. John McDean's job in this story is to ask, “how do we get more people watching?” “How do we manage this and cause these scenarios to happen?” We create Fear. America is a nation of Fear. Let's feed that! He produces scenarios where Americans worst fears are played out for the masses in an engorged “Bread and Circuses” scenario. It is a vicious cycle that feeds on itself like an ouroboros and Bennett created the perfect story around that idea.
Mcdean is disgusting, he is immoral, and not too far from how the media handles these things right now. I have never been disgusted by a character as much as I was with him. In 10 years, maybe 20 who knows perhaps we will have a Running Man by Stephen King or a Vigilance by Robert Jackson Bennett television show on our hands. Or, maybe books like this will help us wise up and see what we are doing to ourselves. I don't know, but I can hope. Read this. Read it if you are American, read it if you are not. Just read it. It is worthy of your time and money.
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Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You by Scotto Moore is intriguing and quirky. I am a connoisseur of the offbeat comedy/horror book, and this story felt right at home for me. However, putting this novella into a concrete category is difficult. There are aspects of a lot of different genres present. Firstly, we have horror for obvious reasons, plus a touch of science fiction. Also, There is drama, and I also found it quite funny. It is a lot to unpack for such a short story.
The story starts with a music blogger, home alone. He finds a “hot new band on the scene, releasing one track a day for ten days straight.” I can empathize with the main character immediately. I feel like this when I discover a new story. I want to talk about it and share it with people. The band's name is Beautiful Remorse, and the band is creating the most glorious music he has ever heard. It speaks to his soul, probably a little too much. It makes the listener have an obsessive fascination with the band and everything it is putting out. The music blogger sets out to find out as much as possible about the band and the mysterious lead singer named Airee MacPherson.
Without much effort, he scores an interview with Airee, an invite to tour with the band, and help release the new tracks for Beautiful Remorse. Obviously, an offer that he couldn't refuse. But pretty quick into the tour, he realizes there is something sinister going on, and not all is as it seems.
The lead protagonist in the story is fairly fleshed out. He embodied the geeky nerd voice of anyone talking about their absolute favorite thing; I empathized with him a lot. However, the side characters were no more than cutouts. There wasn't much to them, which is acceptable in a book this short, 120 pages.
As I mentioned earlier, I love offbeat books. Something that is a little weird is usually up my alley. However, this book is certainly not for everyone. The sheer ridiculousness of the events that happen in the book can be a little offputting for some readers. But, if you want to read a story with an old-fashioned grindhouse kind of flavor, Your Favorite Band Cannot Save You is great.
The Last Smile in Sunder City by Luke Arnold is a fantasy novel about sin, redemption, and hope. The story follows a man-for-hire named Fetch Phillips. Fetch is a human working in a town full of mystical creatures. Humans are hated, and for a good reason. However, in a redemptive bid to atone for past sins, Fetch's job and his sole purpose in life are to help non-humans, usually in the form of PI work. Through this work, helping one creature at a time, Fetch seeks to help atone for the wrongdoings in his past, his greatest sin. His sin destroyed the world and magic with it.
“A good man is made through a lifetime of work. Great men are made by their monsters.”
The world now no longer runs on magic. There used to be a great river of magic that flowed underground and seeped out to all the various creatures of the world. Thus, the world used to be full of magical creatures, mystical entities, as well as joy and pain. The world and the creatures in it had purpose and drive, glory, and beauty. Now that magic has been ripped from the world; it is a sad shadow of its former self. Magical creatures who used to stand tall and shimmer in the glory of the magic that infused them, are rotting. Dragons fall from the sky in dusty, scaled heaps. Trolls that had been made of as much soil as magic have stopped moving and ceased to exist. Elves that used to live forever, either fall to dust from rapid aging or now have to look mortality in the face as they know they are going to die.
The day the magic stopped was the day that hope and the future inexorably changed. Magic was ripped from the world by jealous humans, and it is a sin that humanity will live with for the entirety of their existence.
“I'd seen plenty of things break in my lifetime: bones, hearts, and promises. This woman was breaking right in front of me. I watched as she somehow vacated her own eyes. The waves of hatred lulled to nothing. The door closed.”
Now Fetch has been given a job, find a missing vampire. Vampires have been withering away to dust since the Coda(the day the magic stopped).
However, this vampire is much beloved and missed by the magical community. Fetch's patron wants to know what happened to his friend. As Fetch delves deeper into the case, he discovers that the vampire might have disappeared due to something nefarious. It is Fetch's job to figure it out.
Through a series of interactions, Fetch begins to piece together the timeline and what might have happened; things become so much bigger than a missing vampire. And, in doing so, maybe help find a small grain of piece for himself. Maybe give himself a little hope in this tortured and busted world.
“He was three times my age and starting over. I don't think I ever got started in the first place.”
The story is told through a series of interactions, both now and in the past. These interactions in the past created Fetch in the present, and we slowly understand why. Arnold did a great job showing how different Fetch was before and after the Coda. Before the Coda, Fetch was wide-eyed and naive, dealing with his strange upbringing and marveling at this world full of monsters. After the Coda, Fetch is a broken man. He nurses a deep wound and is wracked with guilt that is slowly disintegrating him, much like vampires slowly sloughing away. There is a dark melancholy in the way that Arnold writes this story. Often when authors attempt to use this type of tone, it can come off as trite. Trite and pretentious, but Arnold used it as a means of showing the desperation of the situations that Fetch and by extension Sunder City are in, and it is a useful way of communicating it. The Last Smile in Sunder City is a sad Sam Spade type story, but underneath all that sadness is a small gem of hope. This hope allows the reader to feel something aside from the grief and inevitability at the destruction of magical life. At the beginning of the story, the little light of hope is seen flashing briefly in the characters from page to page. Always other characters than Fetch. Fetch is fully immersed in his mental anguish. But by the end, and through some excellent writing, hope the most elusive of emotions comes shining through for a few moments. Things might not be ok. Matter-a-fact, they probably won't be. But, there are things to be hopeful about. There are things to find a small bit of joy in even if it is something as little as a good cup of coffee.
There are good things, and The Last Smile in Sunder City demonstrates that. It is a great read, sad at times, and hopeless, but it still propels the reader page to page with hope for the future. Arnold has demonstrated great skill in weaving an emotionally realistic tale, and I am looking forward to the next one.
Thank you to Angry Robot and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my review.
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Sometimes you need to kick a little ash.
It's all fun and games till someone gets their ash kicked.
I am here to chew bubble gum and kick a little ash
To punny? Nah, there is always time for punny ash kicking.
First off, I LOVE THIS BOOK.
I love this story for a myriad of reasons. These are not limited to: the protagonist kicks absolute ass, the depiction of badass firefighting, the dragons, the Phoenix, the camaraderie, the dialog. Seriously, I can go on and on. This isn't a deep book, this is pure unadulterated fun. And we need to have some fun once in a while, not all books should be serious and thoughtful. Some books should be action-packed, full of jokes, and ones that make you fist pump. This one is like that. I fist pumped and said. “YEAH!” many times.
Ash Kickers is the second of the Smoke Eaters series following the cataclysm of the rise of dragons and later destruction of much of humanity. Firefighters are humanities last hope in fighting dragons. Specifically, specialized firefighters that are immune to dragon smoke. The first of this series, Smoke Eaters is about Brannigan. A veteran firefighter who is conscripted into the Smoke Eaters after 30 years of regular firefighter service. The second book of the series is about Tamerica Williams. Brannigan makes frequent cameos in Ash Kickers. But, the action centers around Williams who is first a firefighter and then becomes a chief with her own team investigating mysterious ash and burning dragons.
Tamerica is a great character. She is strong, weak, and everything you would think a real person, under the circumstance, with that kind of job would feel. She manages a team, personal conflict, guilt, regret, and decision making with as much aplomb as she can. Every so often she breaks down and shows a softer side that a reader can empathize with. It is not all ass kicking and rainbows. She may be an amazing firefighter, but her job is hard and she has lost many friends along the way. Every now and then a person needs to emotionally reset.
Ash Kickers also does a great job adding current events into the mix. Such as how communities feel about immigration. It doesn't feel hackneyed or contrived in an attempt to relate it to current events. Rather, it is a nod to what is going on in the world and shows it in a different light.
Also, I don't think a reader will have any issues picking up the second book and going forward with the story. I never read the first book and had no issues. I will, however, go back and read the first book tuite suite.
This story is all adventure and exactly what I needed. I had so much reading it. If you are looking for a whole lot of fun and great world-building centered around firefighters, you will love this. And dragons, I mean dragons always kick ash.