Rob
I really wanted to like this book. It has a great premise, very cool magic system and an interesting world. But the main character is extremely unlikeable, and makes idiotic decision after idiotic decision. The other characters seemed like shallow caricatures and the dialogue is a bit stiff. A shame, as the premise of the book is very promising. The author's other series - The Sacred Throne is much better, perhaps a reflection of Cole's growth as a writer.
Very enjoyable book.
I typically don't read indies, as it can be tough to “separate the wheat from the chaff” as the saying goes. This book was recommended to me by a friend, and since it was free,I figured what the hell. Very pleasantly surprised by this book! Well written and fast paced. Will definitely buy more books by this author (his nefarious plan to hook readers with a freebie worked for this reader).
The sci-fi and world building is excellent. I would give this 5 stars if it didn't have the romance part in it.
This is a very good horror novella from Off Limit Press. It's about a woman grieving the loss of her grown son, who passed away from a car accident a couple of years ago. She spends every day visiting the site of his accident as a way to spend time with her remembrances of her son, but things aren't quite as they seem. As she begins to see things that aren't explainable and things start spiral out of control, just how much is she willing to sacrifice, to bring her son back to life again? Or is it really her son?
This was a very good read. Prose was excellent. The main character, Chris was well done. You can feel her pain and feel the gradual loss of control as the story moves along. The emotional impact and grief of the loss of a child is well done, as well. Also, there are some pretty gruesome parts in the story, if you like that type of thing. The ending was pretty good too, a cool surprise that I wasn't quite expecting. Definitely recommended. 4.5 Stars.
Thomas Perry writes good books. This one is no exception! This book is about a prison break, many prisoners break out and havoc ensues in the small town near the prison. A dozen are still out there unfound, the guys that planned the prison break. A local cop is given the task of tracking them down. I don't want to give too much of the plot away, so I'll leave it at that. The characterization is well done, and it is a page turner. Very enjoyable.
I have a long history with Joe Lansdale. I've been reading his books since the very early 90's when I ran across Nightrunners in a used book store, and I still have that old beat up paperback. I firmly believe that he is one of the great living writers of today. Don't tell him that though, he'll get all uppity and stuff.
These short stories are in a word, excellent. I particularly enjoyed Sparring Partner and The Sabine was High. His writing style is conversational and makes for easy reading. You don't need to have prior knowledge of Hap and Leonard to read this collection of short of short stories. Highly recommended.
Gems like this are why I love the indie/small publishing scene. This was a delight to read. It's very well written and polished. The main story of the book is around an unemployed mid-30's musician that suddenly discovers that a song she is working on is a hit song on the radio, BY HER, but she never submitted it. Very mysterious stuff going on. I can't really get more into it without spoiling anything things, but the book has an x-files, horror, mystery collage going for it that works very well.
The characterization is done well, transitions are spot on, I enjoyed the ending quite a bit. This was an excellent read. Highly recommended.
I really enjoyed this book by Alan Baxter. He's one of those writers that are an auto-buy for me. As soon as he comes out with a new book, I pick it up. I actually read this a while back, but I was rereading it in preparation for the sequel “Recall Night” and realized that I hadn't reviewed this. Excellent book. This is a very fast paced noir style book with supernatural dashes thrown into it for good measure.
We open the book with Eli Carver driving a car and he has no memory, and a young woman next to him is tied up, and ghosts of men he's killed are in the back seat haunting him. And he's fleeing from something, something terrible that he just can't face head on.
Baxter does a great job of feeding the reader the pieces of Eli's memory slowly, through excellent use of flashback technique that is seamless and well done. The writing is excellent (as always from Mr. Baxter). Everything builds to an explosive ending that's very satisfying. There isn't much in the way of horror here, it's more of a noir/crime novel and it is a well done one.
