Chris Janes
Rex Riders is an enjoyable read, even as someone well outside the intended YA audience - admittedly, it would be a sad day that had me say I didn't enjoy a book that involved cowboys and dinosaurs together! It's a cracking blend of old west and science fiction, it features some some fairly standard stereotypes (the evil rancher who owns most of the town, the good hearted but not so well off rancher, his friends / family and a general range of friendly town folk). Introduce into this an alien who rides a T-Rex, a land grab on another planet and you're in for a darn'tootin' good time![return][return]There's a fair dose of violence sprinkled throughout, but it's never overly graphic. With no swearing it's more than suitable for anyone who's either a dinosaur or cowboy fan, aged 6 upwards. It's an excellent adventure tale that follows some tropes a bit too closely, but for all that it's still well worth picking up.
NOTE: I was sent an electronic ARC of this book and asked to write a review once I had finished it.
The Lost Level fits firmly into the pulp adventure genre, with the main character, Aaron Pace being an occultist who finds himself trapped in a parallel dimension of sorts (the titular Lost Level) that's home to a range of oddities from snake men and dinosaurs to lost socks and Nazi flying saucers.
There's a native warrior woman who does a lot to avoid the classic “damsel in distress” tropes that exist in other stories from the genre, she and a humanoid cat called ‘Bloop' (well, that's all the character says, so it's assumed to be a name) join Aaron and act as important conduits for information about the strange land they occupy - both for Aaron and for the reader.
The story is told as purely from Aaron's point of view and covers his first few adventures in the Lost Level. It's written as if an extended journal that Aaron is writing after a while spent in the Lost Level, so makes reference to topics that will probably feature heavily in future books.
On the whole, this is an enjoyable romp of an adventure that while not a classic, but it certainly makes for easy and entertaining reading. If you enjoy the works of Burroughs or Wells than you will probably find something to enjoy in The Lost Level.
Not being a major reader of urban fantasy, I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Frost Moon - I'm glad to say that I was wrong! Francis creates an interesting alternate world, with magical tattoos, were-things, vampires and more all live on the edge of ‘normal' life. Dakota Frost takes the lead role as a magical tattooist brought in to provide technical expertise to a police investigation, getting caught up in a world of trouble in the process.[return][return]The story sprints along at a breakneck pace, a definite page turner. There are some issues (nearly all the major male characters are ripped and model esque good looking for example), but they seem to stem more from the urban fantasy nature of the book rather than any deficiency in the writing. All in all, Frost Moon is well worth a read and the characters and ideas introduced can only benefit from a further outing!
It took a number of attempts for me to make it through Primitive, while the story has an interesting basis the characters never quite meshed and the writing made the experience stodgy and difficult to push through. It's certainly not something I'll be going back to read again at any point, which is something of a shame as the core ideas are strong.
The historical basis of the novel provides a solid basis for a story that provides an, at times, powerful insight into living through a siege. The characters are at times a bit thin and the Christian Hardy, the main character stretches belief by having a major role to play in every aspect of the siege defense.[return][return]It's an understandable twist of facts, but there's only so many close calls / heroic victories that a single person can go through before you feel that maybe, just maybe, things are being pushed a tad too far.[return][return]Even with the need for more solid character building and perhaps with more characters taking on some of the more core roles, Blood Rock is an entertaining read and well worth a go.
This is an enjoyable adventure story that smacks slightly of 80's buddy movies, with the new guy and the experienced veteran who unhappily takes him under his wing.[return][return]It's fascinating to read a roman story that doesn't focus entirely on the political chicanery but more on the life of the common soldier. The story flows well with a good build up to the final few action sequences and story twists.[return][return]I certainly intend to pick up the rest of the series and I'm kicking myself that I didn't go down to see the author when he appeared at my local bookseller recently!
While it works fine as a story, the continous references to 21st century nerd culture was painful - we're really meant to belive that a hundred years in the future and someone still even cares or is aware of disturbed and “let the bodies hit the floor”? Let alone Leeroy Jenkins and the multitude of others.
The main character is fairly bland and the love interest is over the top and effectively unbelievable. Won't be bothering with the rest of the series unless I get really bored.
NOTE: I was sent an electronic ARC of this book and asked to write a review once I had finished it.
Joe Ledger: Special Ops is a collection of short stories that sit within the existing DMS universe, the stories in the book are a combination of completely standalone stories and those that fill in gaps around the other books in the series, so some of them do contain spoilers. These “spoiler” stories are all clearly marked, just in case a reader hasn't worked through the main stories by the time they pick up Special Ops.
If you're an existing fan of the DMS series, than Special Ops is a great addition to the canon, it adds some back story to the characters of Joe and Church while providing some a good dose of the out and out action that Maberry provides throughout the rest of the series. Joe continues to be something of a one man killing machine, at one point provoking fear in a room of bad guys by just saying his name.
The ‘horror' elements are abound, with plenty of bio-science to keep Echo team on its toes - there's even an out and out ghost story in there too, just to help mix it up a bit.
One downside to the approach taken with each of the short stories is that you are re-introduced to characters time and again, as they reappear in each new story you get nearly the same bit of description repeated. This would be fine in standalone stories, but the chances are that you'll just plow straight through the book and probably not need to be told that Mr Church is Joe's boss every time he gets mentioned for the first time in any given story.
This repetition is just in the nature of the collection, but some further editing to refine it and remove some of the really unnecessary repetition would have been appreciated and it would not have had any impact at all on the stories themselves.
All in all, Special Ops is an enjoyable jaunt back into the world of the DMS, it helps tidy up some loose ends from the other books in the series and provides some fresh stories about what else Joe Ledger has gotten up to. A worthwhile read for fans (even with the repetitive bits), but not a great starting point for those new to the series.