Elitist Book Reviews

I've been thinking about the concept that lies at the crux of this review for quite a while now. I've come across it a couple times in the recent past--the most recent while watching Disney's Frozen--and each time my realization as to why I wasn't enjoying the story as much as I should have been eluded me for quite a while. Hopefully I've learned something about this concept after having seen it in action for the third time.

BLOOD AND IRON is the first in a new fantasy series by Jon Sprunk and feels like a step in the “larger” direction after his Shadow Saga novels. This novel immediately felt bigger to me, as the story being told was about large-scale wars, and nations, and phenomenal cosmic powers (bonus points for the reference on that last one...).

The story begins with Horace--a soldier from the west--in the midst of a storm at sea, and en route to a war with the foreign Akeshians. Instead of war though, he finds his way to solitary capture, enslavement, and then to opulent establishment. This due to the fact that he's a latent sorcerer, and comes into power after coming to this new land.

Also at the forefront of the story is Jirom, an ex-mercenary from far-off Zaral, that is biding his time as a gladiator until he can find his way to freedom. Quickly though he meets Horace and is affected by him in a way that he can barely describe. Their meeting and time together is brief, but after they part he finds himself seeking out this man from the west.

Two women also share some of the page time, although considerably less than Horace and Jirom. Byleth, queen of Akeshia, and Alyra, her hand-maiden and court spy for forces outside of the reigning nobility.

The strengths of the novel are easily the amount of action and overall pacing. These are strengths that Sprunk brought from his previous novels. The dude knows how to write action. The story jumps from one scene to the next and there's always something happening. If I'm being honest, some of the action near the beginning of the book felt a little forced. With Horace getting overly angry and lashing out without thinking about what he was doing. Almost like something was driving him to be angry, and I was hoping that it wasn't just the author needing to throw some more action in. A couple times I was pretty surprised when Horace's captors didn't just off him, as other slaves around him were getting some pretty steep punishments indeed. Still, good action, good pacing.

Something that Sprunk improved on in this book over his previous trilogy was his descriptions. There were very few times when I was reading and wouldn't know where a character was, or who was in a scene. Especially some of the more large-scale descriptions about the countryside through which Horace traveled while getting to his ultimate destination were well-done. They portrayed a good sense of scale for the world in which the characters reside.

World-building was completed on a similar scale, although not in quite as much detail. There is some sense of history and larger battles being fought between forces both external and internal to Akeshia. This aspect could definitely have been better and would have been the perfect fit to Byleth's character, if more time had been spent with her.

One of the weakest aspects of the book was the magic system. Horribly cliched: earth, wind, fire, and air-based magics, with a bit of a void-magic to boot. Even though there is time for Horace to be taught, for him to develop his powers (which is good--I hate it when newbies are never really newbies), the magic falls completely short of being anything approaching interesting. Only very basic ideas about how the magic is controlled are approached, and it felt like anything he could come up with could feasibly be whipped out at a moment's notice. The magic saves Horace's bacon repeatedly with him having no notion of what he's doing or how he's accomplishing it. Quite frustrating.

The crux of the problems with this story falls to a single issue: this story doesn't belong to Horace. It is, in fact, Queen Byleth's. In much the same way that the story in Frozen belongs to Elsa (Think about it--if you've seen it. Whose choices does every significant branch of that story turn on? Elsa's. Also, it's no coincidence that the story is based on Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen. Aka: not Anna.), the story told in BLOOD AND IRON belongs to Queen Byleth and not Horace.

And yet, Horace is ostensibly the main character, as he gets the most face time in the book. Even the summary on the back of the book focuses on Horace and the changes that he's going to make to Akeshia. The really difficult part is that Byleth gets so little POV time that it's hard to even realize that it's her story until nearly the very end. Even more difficult is the fact that Horace and Jirom don't even feel like secondary characters, because they're not directly influencing anything to do with the main story line. Instead, they end up feeling kind of like cameras, sent to show us what is happening along the way. Horace hangs out with Queen Byleth and we see what she is doing and what is going on in court, and Jirom hangs out with a group of rebels and we see what they are doing in the battle against the ruling nobility. This makes Horace and Jirom boring, even if we do see lots of action and interesting things through their eyes. Alyra was a great secondary character though, with her own motivations and fears, that interacted with the queen's story at a very basic level.

Although I gave this one a fairly low rating overall, I think that things could totally be saved by addressing the single issue of who the story belongs to. There are some really good aspects of this novel and others that show marked improvement over previous books. I mean, come on. If Disney can make a mistake like telling a story from the wrong character's perspective, then I think anyone can. The important part will be the process of learning from the past and doing better next time, and that is something that I think Mr. Sprunk has proven that he can do. Because he's done it with every book he's written. Progress and improvement are hallmarks of the best.

Recommended Age: 16+, profanity and violence
Profanity: Somewhat sparse, but it can got strong a few times
Violence: Crazy violent during the battles and gladiator fights
Sex: Some implied relations, no scenes though

BLOOD AND IRON

Roen Tan is a truly ordinary guy. He's got a software-coding job he tolerates, his roommate is smarter and better-looking than he is, he visits the bars on weekend, could use a gym membership, and can't bring himself to asking out that cute co-worker for a drink.

Until one fateful day when Tao, an alien stuck on Earth for thousands of years, is forced to find a host body ASAP--he cannot survive long in Earth's toxic environment--and Roen is it. This event changes Roen's life completely as he is thrown into a war between aliens, with his own life in the crosshairs. He must train while his identity is still unknown, or else risk dying and sending Tao on to another host.

THE LIVES OF TAO follows Roen's training and brings us up to speed on the Quasling's secret war among the humans. While humans were barely a thought, the Quaslings were stranded on Earth and were key in human development; sometime during the Middle Ages, they broke into factions, their differing philosophies of human development the reason. You can blame WWI and WWII on their struggle, and even events such as a the Spanish Inquisition. You'd think that beings who have lived for thousands of years would know better.

Personally I think this is more a guy book. I'm sure there are some women who'll enjoy it, but I found THE LIVES OF TAO goofy, campy, and boring. Chu tries to make Tao sound wise, but it doesn't come across naturally--like a high school kid trying to sound wise without having really lived it.

The prose was pretty utilitarian. There was enough description to get by, but the emotions felt tacked on, as though his editor told him to add some in before the final draft, or else Roen would have felt like a robot (he still kind of did). Roen has conversations with Tao in his head, but I couldn't always tell the difference between this and what he does say out loud, so that was awkward and confusing. It's easy to compare Chu with other Campbell Award nominees, such as Max Gladstone, and look at a couple pages of only the prose--it's easy to see that Chu has a long way to go before his prose loses its awkward choppiness.

Roen himself wasn't a very exciting guy. Not that he had to be exciting, but he didn't have much more than a standard personality. I guess that was the point, kind of like the T.V. show Chuck, how the regular guy ends up becoming an agent. But TAO falls flat. Does he have any hobbies? Interests? The secondary characters fare even worse, with Roen's roommate a mere caricature, his girlfriend woefully undeveloped, and even Tao the wise one himself felt bland.

The story is ok, even a little fun what-if. And I understand the point of the story as Roen deals with his new-found knowledge as well as the new military life that doesn't suit him at all. But it was so boring. I just didn't care about Roen doing another tai chi training, or splurging on pizza because of a rough workout, or his crush on trainer Sonya (the host of another alien). It all felt like a meandering lead-up to what should have felt like an exciting, explosive ending, except that his description of action is a perfunctory and bland recount of what fist went where.

My biggest gripe is what the entire story ends up revolving around: Tao forces himself on Roen, who ends up having to train and completely turn his life around for some alien with unknown purpose. How's Roen supposed to know Tao is actually the good guy? Roen ends up becoming a solider in a war he didn't sign up for and for which he's woefully inadequate, no matter how much training he gets. Just doesn't seem like something a nice alien would do to some poor shmuck.

Read THE LIVES OF TAO and vote for it if it's better than the other stuff on the Campbell Award Nominations list, but I doubt it is.

Recommended Age: 14+ pretty safe stuff for your teenage boys
Language: Not much
Violence: A fair amount, but not gruesome
Sex: Vague references

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THE LIVES OF TAO

Silver and her mate Andrew are the alphas of the Roanoke werewolf pack, the largest in North America. But they're more than just that, they've been sworn fealty by the alphas in all the other packs in North America, as well. There's a benefit to having two alphas--they can  divide and conquer, which comes in handy when there's an entire continent to manage.

When Andrew leaves for Alaska to intervene in a case for the human mother of an infant Were, Silver must manage everything else that comes up: the pregnant alpha of a sub-pack with a recalcitrant beta, a roamer from South America coming through her territory, and a step-daughter who doesn't know what to do with herself that doesn't involve causing trouble.

Her fragile mind handles Were issues fine, but when she deals with humans she risks looking insane--and that doesn't even include exposing the reality of Weres to the outside world. This makes her an obvious target of the vengeful European pack from Madrid whose balance of power was diminished in book two, TARNISHED (EBR review), as a result of her and Andrew.

The different thing about Held's book in the Urban Fantasy genre is her deep exploration of Were culture and behavior. I enjoy reading her take on it and the problems caused by the culture that have to be dealt with. It's something she handles with finesse across all three books. Silver is the star of the series, I find her fascinating as a broken Were who despite everything still has the dominance and confidence to be an alpha in her own right. She is insightful to others' problems and understands her own limitations.

But while I enjoyed SILVER (EBR review) and TARNISHED, REFLECTED felt flat for me.

It's pretty simple, really. Andrew spends 95% of the book off-stage (he's pretty cool and I wish we could see more of him). And while REFLECTED is told much from Silver's PoV, here Andrew's daughter Felicia becomes the central figure. It's been three years since the events in TARNISHED, so now Felicia is eighteen and must decide about the next stage of her life, whether she becomes a roamer, get a job, or go to college.

I don't dislike Felicia, but I also don't particularly enjoy her character. I'm coming to the realization that I haven't found many teenage girl characters I've truly liked (a hold-over from high school drama? dunno), and Felicia is more of the same wishy-washy, secretive behavior that makes this mom of a teenager go batty. I haven't been a teenage girl for...a while...and even when I was a teen I was more rational that most. So take that for what it's worth.

Even then, I think I have some grounds for being annoyed at Felicia's behavior with the roamer and the raw deal she gives Silver. The solution wasn't hard, she eventually finds it in the end after some colossally dumb behavior. Is the plot contrived? I think so. Did Felicia carry this story? She doesn't have Silver's charisma, that's for sure. These issues might have been glossed over by a YA audience, but the graphic sex scene at the start ruins that notion or else I might have let my teen read it. Perhaps the drama would have made more sense to her.

Recommended Age: 17+
Language: Minimal
Violence: Some fighting and blood
Sex: A detailed scene opens the novel; other references (more than in the previous novels)

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SILVER

TARNISHED

REFLECTED

Stranded on an alien space station when she's left behind by her colony ship, Tula is never able to contact them again. She must now learn to survive as a lone human among less than friendly aliens. Tula prepares for the day when she can have her revenge on Brother Blue, the man who left her behind, and who was responsible for the disappearance of the colony ship.

She begins to think she will never get off the station until one day, three years after being stranded, three humans arrive and are stranded themselves.

TIN STAR is easy to read, the prose smooth and surprisingly gentle for the subject matter. We are introduced to the station, the aliens, and the politics in an almost off-hand way. Not like they're unimportant, but that Tula's real attention is somewhere else--so explaining the details of the world she lives in and those who populate it take second fiddle. As a result the world-building feels incomplete and at times it's hard to truly visualize Tula's surroundings as the story progresses.

Tula is clever, but also isolated. Stranded as a girl, she spends her teenage years having to depend on her own self for survival. She learns how to communicate with the aliens in ways that they understand--even becoming friends with a few of them--and how to use trade to get what she needs. Since the book is told from her PoV we're limited to understanding the secondary characters, especially the aliens, and as a result their actions don't make sense until explained after the fact. This makes character interactions sometimes feel contrived, and it's those very interactions upon which a credible conclusion rely. (Hint: the ending, while exciting, wasn't exactly credible.)

The prose and forward movement of the story hides deeper problems. I found the same issue in THE 5TH WAVE (EBR review): the narration was so smooth and confident it was easy to accept the events and behaviors as real. Until you stopped to think about them, that is. The one thing THE 5TH WAVE did well that TIN STAR doesn't is the emotion. Tula talks about events so blandly that it gives readers too much distance. For example we know she wants revenge on Brother Blue...but do we ever really feel her rage?

I didn't hate this book. It was still an interesting read, and YA readers who are new to Sci Fi may find TIN STAR a good introduction to the genre without being overwhelmed. But just warn them that not all Sci Fi is this bland.

Recommended Age: 14+
Language: None
Violence: One vague fight
Sex: None

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TIN STAR

It's the year 1877, but not like we would recognize. Egypt's capital Memphis is the center of civilization, its Pharaoh the lord over Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. Scott Oken and Mikel Mabruke are agents of the Pharaoh, even though they have royal titles of their own (like the Pharaoh, they are descended from Cesar and Cleopatra). They travel the world to secure intelligence for the empire, to keep it safe and strong.

Oken is called home from an assignment and Mabruke out of retirement to be sent on a special quest for the queen: to discover what the Inca king is up to. Some suspect he's building a rocket ship that will go all the way to the moon, and the queen of Egypt doesn't want to be left out of the endeavor.

As Oken and Mabruke travel across the ocean to the cradle of western civilization, they discover that the plans are much more nefarious than expected--of course.

I liked this book on the surface, it was entertaining and clever, particularly the technological elements. The prose was lively and the novel itself was easy to read...only if I didn't think too much about it. After it was over and I had some time to understand what really happened, I was disappointed. Wheeler sets up the story well enough, with lots of initial details to suck you in, and with plenty of exciting situations our heroes must find their way out of. Unfortunately, despite all that effort, THREE PRINCES falls frustratingly short.

It falls short in the world-building. Since it's an alternate history novel of Egypt and Maya civilizations that continued instead of collapsing, Wheeler attempts to show how they would have modernized. But even an amateur historian like myself was left with a lot of questions. There are references to people like Queen Victoria, Galileo, and so on, but how can they exist in a world where England and Italy did not evolve in a way where they would be the same as in our world? How did the Maya not collapse? How did Egypt retain its power and spread? What events allowed this to happen? I wasn't expecting a history book, but some hints would have been helpful so I could find this alternate world more believable.

While I enjoyed Oken as the PoV narrator, I never once felt like I could take the characters and situations in THREE PRINCES seriously. Maybe that's what Wheeler intended, a sort of cartoony off-the-wall zaniness. Maybe a campy kind of Egyptian James Bond. I don't know, but it still didn't quite work. Everything was too perfect: all the food was delicious; everything was luxurious and well-made; the bad people were not only insane they were stupid and easy to defeat and had no clear motivations; the women were all beautiful and clever; the heroes were smart and perfectly justified and a little too modern in their sensibilities. It didn't feel like a real place or that these people could have existed.

And isn't that the point of alternate histories? To explore the 'what if' and to carry it out in a way that would follow logical conclusions based on reasonable hypothesis? The premise is there and it's cool, but the story relies too much on coincidence to give it the structure it needed to carry the story to a reasonable conclusion.

Recommended Age: 16+
Language: Almost none
Violence: Scattered and some blood, but not particularly graphic
Sex: Implied and referenced

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THREE PRINCES

James and his wife Linda are scientists at the famous biotech company GeneFirm, where they've engineered a gene therapy that will eradicate cancer as we know it. But the world's population may not get the chance to enjoy a cancer-free future when a deadly supervirus outbreak becomes a world-wide pandemic.

Pat is paid a visit by agents of The Department of Homeland Health Care (HHC) to inform him that his BMI over 30 has qualified him for a mandatory "health retreat" where he will learn to curb his caloric intake as well as explore the benefits of regular exercise. The retreat ends up being as horrific as he expects; but the ray of light is the exotic co-ed Modest, who's inherited her mother's gene-manipulated pink hair and cat eyes.

Joshua Alan Parry starts VIRUS THIRTEEN at a sprint, and the story's pace ramps up as we're carried along as James tries to discover what's really going on, as Pat tries to survive the rigors of the retreat, as the HHC agents go about their job--all clear up to the explosive ending. But despite the pace, the "thriller" label, and the mere 310 page length, I took forever to read this book. Here's why:

I just didn't care.

Maybe it was the flat characters. James--even though he's the main character--wasn't more than a superficial supposedly brilliant scientist with a beautiful wife and smart kids. Pat was the fat guy who...wait, I'm not sure what his purpose was in this book other than to show how horrible the new government bureaucracy is. There's the HHC agents Mac and Marnoy who provide an odd sort of comic relief. There are various other characters we slip into the minds of. All shallow.

Maybe it was the omniscient PoV narrative that flitted between characters within the scene. At first it was okay, but the last couple of chapters caused a severe case of whiplash.  The prose was easy enough on the eyes, but the descriptions were clumsy, including the awkward cliched metaphors.

Maybe it was the simple plot and predictable ending. The science is interesting at a basic level, but it never really fleshes out beyond the idea. Not to mention the inconsistencies and flaws in the narrative (brain surgery but walking and having sex the next day; etc), so many things are left unexplained. Maybe I didn't care because it was all these things together that made this story forgettable.

Recommended Age: 15+
Language: Scattered throughout
Violence: Some blood and death, but not gruesome
Sex: Referenced and brief scenes

Find this book here:

VIRUS THIRTEEN

Some reviews are difficult to write. Others fly off of my fingertips near light-speed. Some are simple. Others complex. But every once in a while, I come across one that seems to just be begging for discussion of a larger issue. This book sparked one of those latter types in me. The issue: writing character versus story.

THE MONGOLIAD, BOOK ONE is an interesting kind of book and not one that I come across every day. There are seven authors that collaborated to write it (Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Erik Bear, Joseph Brassey, E. D. deBirmingham, Cooper Moo, and Mark Teppo). Quite the list. Most of them are either established science fiction authors or new enough to the publishing scene that I couldn't find a lot about the books they'd written besides what was on their Amazon author pages.  As such I was kind of expecting to find this story to be very similar many other fantasy offerings that were written by science fiction authors.  i.e.: not that good.

What I found kind of surprised me and kind of didn't.  As with other books that have multiple authors (I'm thinking mostly short story anthologies and such) there is a range of goodness to be had in this one. The story centers on the Mongol invasion of Europe, circa 1240 A.D., and is split between three major story lines. The first involves a group of moral knights that has been slated to fight in a Mongolian version of a gladiator arena but decide instead to embark on a quest to kill the Khan. The second story line, and one that engaged me the most, dealt with the Khan's court and a couple of its participants. The third, and weakest of the three, is a string of connected characters portraying the "gladiators" fighting in the Mongolian arena.

For the most part, the writing is accessible and decent. World-building is quite sparse. The difference between the three story lines, although significant in locale, didn't feel all that different from one another. The story-telling was also quite procedural. Each event led to the next, which led to another, and another, and so on. Characterization was very thin. Like on the level of 2-3% of what I would expect in a novel. Pretty abysmal.

In fact, the lack of characterization was easily one of the most difficult things about the book. Instead of reading characters in a story, the point-of-view characters became more like vehicles through which the story was told. With little to no character history to be had, and so very little of the story being about the impact that these events are having on our characters, they all became very cardboardish and one-dimensional. Most times they seemed to disappear entirely, and I forgot that they were even there. They were more like cameras on tripods, carried around for the benefit of the reader.

The one exception to this rule was Gansukh, a member of the group in the second story line I mentioned. He was sent by the Khan's brother to try and reign in the Khan's drinking problem. This single character was well-written, and although there were still times that I was left somewhat confused as to what he was going to do next to try and solve his problem, I found that I always enjoyed his part of the story. He engaged me, while the others in the book hardly even made an attempt.

As I thought about this difference between how each of the characters were written, I realized that this single point was really the crux of the problem surrounding my expectations of the novel. Because so often I find that science fiction authors write books that have stories impacted by a set of characters; whereas, fantasy authors tend to write books that have characters who are impacted by the stories surrounding them. I can't say that one is necessarily better than the other, as both kinds of books are enjoyed by flocks of different people, but I have found that once the mix of the two techniques falls too far to the story side of the balance (as I see so often in science fiction novels), that I lose my ability to enjoy the story. I love character too much. It's why The Fugitive is one of my favorite movies of all time; why I was literally on the edge of my seat during my entire first viewing of Inception; and why the end of Up had me weeping uncontrollably. It's character that impacts me. Not story.

There are two last things I should mention. The first is the fairly egregious use of foreign words (I can't really say "made-up" here because it could be that they're all real, although in the context of the story for most readers they'll be just as good as made-up) in the story. They're the terms that get used once, explained, and then usually forgotten. The second is the complete lack of an ending. A better title for this book would have been, “THE MONGOLIAD, THE FIRST THIRD OF THE STORY”, as the thing just stops mid-stream.

Although I did seem to harp on the book quite a bit, it wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't all that good. Even though it was full of decent word-smithing, lots of historical fact, and had a large array of characters, it didn't do anything to pull itself up out of the pool of mediocrity surrounding it. It never became more than its constituent parts. As such, I'm not really expecting much of the continuation of the story (there are still parts 2 and... ahem... books 2 and 3), but will probably get to it sometime soon.

Recommended Age: 15+
Language: Really mild for most of it, and then a few sections that get fairly vulgar
Violence: Pretty gory and violent, sword fights, gladiator-like arena
Sex: None

Your link:  The Mongoliad, Book One

So pretty much everything I said about AN OFFICER'S DUTY (EBR review) I should just cut and paste into this review...because its sequel HELLFIRE is almost the exact same book. Save yourself some time, read that review, and come back and I'll try to be succinct.

Ia is now the captain of the Space Force ship Hellfire, which contains their ultra secret new weapon against the alien Salik enemy. The only problem? It's too powerful and only a precognitive can safely wield it, otherwise anyone caught downstream would die.

The ship and Ia's crew are ready just in time: the second Salik war has begun and Hellfire becomes Earth's secret weapon. Because she's a precog Ia knows exactly where to go in order to do the most good. Sometimes it means convincing the Space Force leaders, but Ia time and again proves that she can predict what's coming with chilling accuracy.

Johnson attempts to step up the tension a notch with the war. Now that everyone knows Ia is a precog it does change the dynamic--she openly uses and talks about her abilities to convince her crew, and to sway Alliance alien governments as well as her own superiors in the Space Force. The majority of the book is spent on the Hellfire as it flits from fight to fight in quick succession, making the plot feel circular. While I enjoyed the technical aspects of the ship, ship's life, and military life at war, it quickly grew stale because of infrequent change of scene.

The biggest problem with HELLFIRE is that Ia bugs me. I was able to get past her character 'flaws' in the previous books because there was still the question of whether she would be able to achieve her goals--not so, here. In HELLFIRE she becomes shrill and repeats over and over the same sanctimonious dialogue from the previous books. She always knows exactly what to do or what to say (which consists of contrived and clunky dialogue so there's a suspension of belief there for me). She's so powerful she's not only a precog, but she's a biokinetic (self healing), electrokinetic, pyrokinetic, postcognitive (can see the past), telekinetic, and even a little telepathic. She's risen through the ranks so quickly she's a ship's captain in her early 20s. Her crew idolizes her and her man loves her unconditionally. She's self-sacrificing to the point of unbelievability. The concept is cool, but the execution makes Ia unsympathetic.

Johnson also attempts a subtle underlying theme of chess with Ia as the grandmaster: pieces being placed, a little nudge here, a warning there, and then making sure she's always in the right place at the right time. Again, the concept is interesting, but I don't see where the plays are lining up in a recognizable strategy/plot, and at this point in the game it feels less like chess and more like bowling: with Ia as the bowling ball, knocking everyone flat who gets in her way.

Recommended Age: 15+
Language: Made up words only
Violence: Mostly the spaceship variety (lasers and missiles blowing up things), very little blood
Sex: Innuendo

Find this book here:

HELLFIRE

I made the mistake of starting AN OFFICER'S DUTY before reading the book that came before: A SOLDIER'S DUTY. I was completely lost and from what I read, the PoV character Ia was an insufferable know-it-all so I stopped. It reminded me too much of the annoying Kris Longknife books, only with more infodumps. As a result I wasn't interested, but with Steve's prodding I tried again--from the beginning this time.

In SOLDIER we learn that Ia is a precognitive and when she was 15 years old saw the end of humanity itself. From that moment forward she dedicated her life to taking the steps necessary to prevent the coming apocalypse when an alien race would wipe out mankind.

So she joined the military. Because, really, it was the best way to get done what she wanted. Plus, a Marine precog? Yeah, imagine how those fights go.

Anyway. In OFFICER Ia continues her plans to manipulate future events, and during her leave she visits her family and prepares them for the future. Then, after her leave is over, because of her field commission she must attend officer academy. It's all a part of her long-range goal of captaining a ship on Border Patrol and setting herself up to where she can ruin the alien Salik race's plans to start a war with the Alliance. But when she gets to the academy she runs into a grey spot in her psychic predictions: her own roommate, the handsome and brilliant Meyun Harper.

The premise is actually kinda cool: a space prophet. That's basically what Ia is. She's predicting the end of humanity in three hundred years and the arrival of a savior. But in order to prevent the end of mankind certain events must take place, and the only one who can make sure they happen is her. But in order for her to do that she must first hone the necessary skills and place herself in positions of authority. This means joining the Marines, spending years on tours of duty, making a name for herself, strengthening some powers, manipulating people, etc. She has a Big Plan and Jean Johnson's Theirs Not To Reason Why series documents Ia's execution of that plan.

It's interesting, no question. The fights are cool and unique, especially those that take place on the space ships; the interactions between family, friends, and co-workers felt genuine; comments on different alien cultures and physiology are interesting; and it's easy to understand why Ia makes the choices she does. Johnson's prose is uncluttered and easy to read, Ia's PoV is straightforward and moves quickly (sometimes too quickly glossing over events, but there are years to cover in each book), and the tension is enough to pull readers along.

However, OFFICER is a frustrating book to read. Maybe it's me because there are people who do like (unlike me) the Kris Longknife books--those kind of people will love this series. Or maybe it's because of the excessive SciFi/military information (i.e., we had to learn all the ammo types in her Basic Training in SOLIDER--and that's only one example of the plethora of infodumps). Or maybe it was frustrating because Ia's abilities make her too perfect, and since she's perfect, her holier-than-thou attitude grates my nerves. We're talking some seriously melodramatic dialogue/monologues as a result--and she says this stuff over and over. It's hard to sympathize with a person like this.

Or perhaps I'm too much of a stickler for a recognizable plot. Ia doesn't broadcast her plans more than the bare minimum and it's frustrating because I don't know where the story is headed, except a string of events that eventually lead up to an exciting and over-the-top crazy ridiculous climax (can anyone say deus ex machina?). How could one person have all of these abilities? The woman is super human, there's no way she can lose. Where's the tension in that?

I'm currently 50 pages into the sequel, HELLFIRE, and it's high time this girl ran into real problems, because no one is this perfect. But then again, she is a space prophet, so what do I know?

Recommended Age: 15+
Language: Made-up words only
Violence: It's military SF, so guns and blood and severed limbs
Sex: Innuendo and implied (in case you're worried this is a romance because of the author's previous works, I'm here to tell you that it most emphatically is not a romance novel)

Find this series here:

A SOLDIER'S DUTY

AN OFFICER'S DUTY

My review of book three, HELLFIRE, will be forthcoming.

After the exciting events of KITTY STEALS THE SHOW (EBR review), Kitty returns home to Denver to get down to the serious business of building a strong base of allies in the war against the vampire Roman and his plan to change the status of vampires among humans.

But even the best-laid plans seem to go awry. The local vampire master Rick--her #1 ally--is approached by a secret sect of Catholic vampire crusaders and contemplates leaving Denver. A new pack member is causing trouble in the ranks. Cormac/Amelia seem determined to be a thorn in Kitty's side in the name of "helping." And even Kitty's own dysfunctional family demand her time and attention. How is she supposed to defeat Roman if she can't even keep her own life under control?

The eleventh book in Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series, KITTY ROCKS THE HOUSE is a continuation of the buildup from the revelation of Kitty's plan to bring down Roman in KITTY'S BIG TROUBLE (EBR review). As a result of it being buildup this particular episode feels like filler, and even though its multiple plot threads resolve, the book felt too short. I want to get to the meat of the overarching conflict with Roman and didn't see the point of these seeming side-stories. I guess we'll have to see if they're relevant in book twelve.

At this point in the series I'd also have liked to see Kitty be more assertive in her role as pack alpha. In some ways she does show this, but it's inconsistent and she seems whiny. There also isn't enough fallout from Cormac's brash and destructive actions, and Rick seemed more wishy-washy than usual. All these issues made the plot feel forced, which was too bad because the pacing was great. Fortunately Kitty and Ben's relationship is as good as usual and we got to see more of pack dynamics.

A mediocre addition to the series, KITTY ROCKS THE HOUSE really just paves the way for what's coming. It doesn't ruin my enjoyment of the series, but I'm getting impatient for what's coming.

Recommended Age: 14+
Language: Less than five instances
Violence: Some blood and fighting, but minor
Sex: Implied

Find this book here:

KITTY ROCKS THE HOUSE

After 5 books of mayhem, Ann Aguirre's Sirantha Jax series comes to a close with ENDGAME.
Jax finds herself on the La'hong homeworld, fighting for the freedom of the enslaved natives. She's promised her friend Loras that she will do whatever it takes to pay him back for the way she treated him when he depended on her--even if it means sacrificing herself to see the rebellion he's leading to the bitter end.
With her is her friend Vel, the bug-like alien who is akin to a soul mate to Jax; Zeeka, the frog-like alien she has a motherly affection for; March, former enemy turned lover and mind reader; and March's nephew Sasha, a strong telekinetic. It is because of Jax that they're on La'heng fighting a war that's not theirs. But that doesn't mean they won't give it their all. Other friends/enemies show up, as well as remembrances of those who are gone--fans will love the tying up of old and new stories.
Told from Jax's PoV in a present tense, the story itself is narrated quickly with very little downtime. Jax's life is full of excitement, and as the war builds up steam, she finds herself in the thick of things. You are never in question about what she thinks about something or her motivation (it can get repetitious at times). Despite Jax's occasional emo interludes, she can still kick your butt, should the need arise. She's a fun balance of woman and warrior.

At the forefront of her mind are the people she loves, particularly March, who struggles with her platonic but deep relationship with Vel. They spend the book working through their issues, and while at times it's heavy-handed and I was tempted to skip it because it doesn't influence the main plot, it was an interesting exercise watching two very flawed and strong-willed people work through their problems together.

Because of the scope of the novel--it covers years of a war for freedom--there's time and events that are glossed over for the sake of a more tightly plotted novel. While the too-quick pace was necessary, I second guessed the use of this method with the genre of book involved. There were a few plot twists to keep us interested, but they can feel out of place, even when they aren't in the bigger picture of events. Certainly we see plenty of the nitty-gritty of guerrilla warfare and the broken relationships that are its result, but even the ending felt rushed and too tidy.

The entire book takes place on La'heng, where humans took advantage of the slave mentality of the La'heng people, who were chemically altered 200 years ago. Jax brings with her a cure, restoring to the people the ability to fight back. It's a simple enough set up. But for me it was the methods of the freedom fighting and the watching it in action that interested me most--as well as watching the people involved change as the result of the war.

Ultimately, I'm sure that reading the final book of a 6-book series without having read the first 5 ruined the impact of the resolution for me. But what I read here wasn't enough to get me excited about going back to read what came before.

Recommended Age: 16+
Language: Moderate
Violence: Guerrilla warfare, battle scenes, sometimes bloody
Sex: Several scenes with mild detail

Find this book here:

ENDGAME

There was a canyon where I lived in Utah with a species of flowers that grew on both sides of the canyon, and over time the ones on the south vs. the north sides diverged in their taxonomy. This happened over a matter of decades, the main culprit being how much light they got. PANDEMONIUM by Warren Fehy takes that concept to the depths of the Earth: completely separated from the surface and its influence for millions of years, how would subterranean species evolve?

In terrifying ways, apparently.

Biologists Nell and Geoffrey are specialists in new and dangerous species--having recently survived an encounter on the lost and isolated Hender's Island. Their expertise catches the attention of a Russian tycoon who has purchased a Soviet-era underground city and wants to turn it into a paradise, so he gives them an offer they can't refuse. He neglects to tell them, however, the real reason why they're there: species from Hender's island have escaped and he needs Nell and Geoffrey to tell him how to stop them.

Fehy includes photos at the back of the book for the creatures from Pandemonium and Hender's Island, which are based on mollusk physiology, and behave aggressively--survival of the species is their mantra. If they escape the underground city, it would only be a matter of months, maybe years, before they wipe out the human population.

It's pretty easy after knowing the above what's going to happen with the story. Nell and Geoffrey prove their moxie, the tycoon gets his comeuppance, military personnel are brought in and have a limited time frame to save the survivors before the place is nuked in order to save humanity. Yadda yadda.

The predictable story is framed with lame dialogue, an omniscient PoV that's all over the place even within a scene, and stock characters without clear motivations. Fortunately the pace moved quickly--enough to keep me going, at any rate--and the descriptions of the deadly species are interesting enough.

It was exciting but also forgettable at the same time.


Recommended Age: 15+
Language: A handful of instances
Violence: It's a horror story along the lines of Jurassic Park, so yes there's blood and death, sometimes grisly
Sex: Vaguely implied

Find this book here:

PANDEMONIUM

Bryn is addicted to a drug that keeps her alive. Being tested for military purposes, Returné contains nanites that keep a body from decomposing even after it's been killed. Bryn is, in essence, a drug-induced zombie. Now, in TERMINATED Bryn will do anything to stop the Fountain Group from seeing its nefarious goals come to fruition: eliminating the addicted test subjects and selling the upgraded drug to the highest bidders.

There are good and bad things about being indestructible. For one, when you're being hunted down by assassins (lead by the also upgraded Jane, Bryn's boyfriend Patrick's ex-wife) you have a better chance of survival, even if you get blown up or shot you still come back in as good of shape as before. The bad thing is that being blown up or shot is traumatic in itself and when you return you remember every detail in all its excruciating pain. That changes a person and even though Bryn tries not to change, she sees parts of herself in the monstrous Jane.

Fortunately Bryn has Patrick, and her friends Joe, Riley, Pansy, and her sister Annie. Together they may be just enough to stop the Fountain Group. The pitfall of only having read this book and not the previous ones is that while these characters were interesting, I didn't get the depth necessary to feel connected to them. The only person I really got to know was Bryn, the PoV character. She feels the urgency to survive and stop the Fountain Group, but it means doing what's needed to anyone who gets in her way, and sometimes it's violent and innocent people get hurt. Caine does a good job portraying Bryn's struggle with what needs to be done and trying to keep from becoming Jane.

The story moves very quickly. Bryn and her friends have to cover a lot of ground in order to find the key players of the Fountain Group. They trek across the country, cover thousands of miles, dodge assassins, hide out from missile-carrying drones...it all gets pretty exhausting, there isn't much downtime. I think perhaps that while the breakneck pace is a reality of the situation, it also hides a bigger problem: key plot events are contrived. It felt like a typical 'running from the bad guys' thriller without seeing the bad guys face to face or what they're really capable of, with the necessary back story thrown in to explain away twists in the plot. It was frustrating.

Still, Caine's prose is clean and straightforward and she provides an exciting and satisfying resolution. The series might be fun on a weekend when you need some mindless popcorn entertainment.

Recommended Age: 17+
Language: A few dozen instances scattered throughout
Violence: Lots of fighting, death, and blood
Sex: One scene with detail, rape referenced

Find this series here:

WORKING STIFF

TWO WEEKS' NOTICE

TERMINATED

An anthology of vampires and other dark creatures that go bump in the night, BLOOD AND OTHER CRAVINGS attempts to explore the unexplained. While the concept is interesting, the selected stories are a mish-mash of clever, creepy, predictable, and just plain weird.
 
The majority of them were so-so for me, mostly because they were confusing and unexplainable--the style not unlike the stories you heard around a late-night campfire as a kid. If you like dark fantasy for the sake of the mysterious and creepy atmosphere, you'll probably like BLOOD AND OTHER CRAVINGS for the ambiance alone. But for me, I guess I like my stories a little more tidy and explainable, less vagueness. Maybe I'm too demanding (yes I was the spoil-sport who rolled my eyes at the campfire stories).

A few of the stories did stand out, however:

"Needles" by Elizabeth Bear - A vampire and a lamashtu walk into a tattoo parlor...that kind of makes it sound like the start of a really lame joke, but in reality they are two immortals who help each other to fulfill their nefarious needs. Great dialogue and fluid movement, with an engaging story and the display of folklore in action that turns deliciously twisty. If you pick up this book and read one story while standing in the bookstore, this one is worth your time.
 
"Mulberry Boys" by Margo Lanagan - George is chosen from the village boys to help Phillips (the man from the towns) who gathers the silk for trading. When George learns the true horrors of Phillips' work, he takes matters into his own hands. All at the same time horrific, sad, and satisfying, Lanagan mixes up sociological with an everyday concept.
 
"Sweet Sorrow" by Barbara Roden - Brian's friend from school, Melissa, disappears one day never to be seen again, leaving an unfilled hole in his heart. Until one day Brian begins to see a pattern in the disappearances of other little girls. Straightforward and predictable, but still effectively written.
 
"Toujours" by Kathe Koja - From the PoV of a man who watches his protégé make a terrible mistake but is powerless to stop it. A little garbled at first, Koja makes up for it with the manipulating evilness of the antagonist.
 
Other notables:
 
If you like mental illness stories then check out the interesting "Keeping Corkey" by Melanie Tem and "X for Demetrious" by Steve Duffy.
 
If you like vague creepiness then read "All You Can Do Is Breathe" by Kaaron Warren, "Blood Yesterday, Blood Tomorrow" by Richard Bowes, "Shelf-Life" by Lisa Tuttle, and "Miri" by Steve Rasnic Tem.
 
Recommended Age: 16+ for general creepiness but watch out for the sex scenes (noted below)
Language: Maybe ten instances in the whole book
Violence: Some, including deaths, but nothing particularly gory other than references to blood
Sex: Referenced in some of them; "Mrs. Jones" wins the award for the weirdest sex I've ever read with "The Third Always Beside You" being the second weirdest

Find this anthology here:

BLOOD AND OTHER CRAVINGS

Jarra lives on Earth. But what sounds normal to us doesn't to those who live in 2788, when man has since left Earth for other worlds, thanks to the invention of portals. Unfortunately, not every human's immune system can handle what the universe has to offer. One in every thousand born can't survive on other planets and must return to Earth within hours of birth or they die. Jarra's parents sent her to Earth right after she was born and haven't been a part of her life since.

The year Jarra turns 18, she decides to do something risky: apply for a non-Earth university's archeology program. The first year requires time spent on Earth for practical history studies, during which Jarra plants to fool the class into thinking she's normal--it's hard to not be resentful when the rest of humanity thinks you're a Handicapped 'ape.'  In the process she unexpectedly learns that norms aren't so bad after all...and that she could even come to love one of them.

Right from the start of EARTH GIRL, you're struck by Jarra's first person PoV voice--smart, young, and maybe a little crazy. Most obvious of all is her issue with being stuck on Earth in a day and age when it's considered a freak of genetics. She's tired of it and just crazy enough to pull a stunt in a bid to vent her frustrations.

In the meantime, we watch her interactions between her diverse set of classmates. It's obvious from the start that she loves history and it's no accident she choose this area of study. There are a lot of details about the way the class's archeology digs work--in particular here it's the abandoned New York City--it's not uninteresting and shows a lot about Jarra and her classmates. It can get infodump-y at times because there's a lot Edwards wants to tell you about this bright future for humanity, but she does her best to be concise and interesting.

Jarra felt believable as an 18-year-old young woman trying to find her way and struggling to understand her own identity. She can be a know-it-all (maybe a little too smart), silly, a show off, shy--and she even withdraws into a make-believe reality (this part is a little contrived). Her relationship with potential love interest Fian is sweet and even a tad complicated (the best kind). The other characters are a little shallow, but recognizable.

The plot is very straightforward, if sometimes bumpy as Jarra causes trouble that has to be worked around. The end felt a little rushed, but was still satisfying. Despite its problems, EARTH GIRL's themes of prejudice is handled with finesse, making it accessible to a YA audience.

Recommended age: 15+ for sexual innuendo
Language: None
Violence: Non-human caused peril
Sex: Referred to mostly as innuendo; implied

If you're tired of dystopia, this would be a fun diversion. Find it here:

EARTH GIRL

I don't get as much time to read books these days as I'd like to, so I've widened my available reading time by opening up to the wonderful world of audiobooks. I found myself with a long drive ahead of me and nothing picked out to read, so I went to my library and checked out a digital audiobook. Time was short, so I didn't have much of a chance to research what I wanted to read.

Which is a long way of saying I wasn't quite sure of what I was going to get when I picked out Maggie Stiefvater's THE RAVEN BOYS.

Going into it, details were sketchy. I knew it had a 4.05 on Goodreads--with over 22,000 reviews--so clearly it had some appeal. I knew it was about a girl and some boys, and that's all I really had time for before I downloaded it and started listening.

I didn't love this book, but if I'd started a relationship with it, I would have given it the "It's not you, it's me" talk. Because I'm not the target audience, I soon discovered. This is very much a teen fantasy romance novel, and . . . I'm far from a teen fantasy romance reader. Despite this fact, I still finished the book, mainly because there were some fantasy elements in it that were strong enough to get me through the lovey-dovey stuff.

Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, and for as long as she can remember, her family has been telling her that if she ever kisses her true love, he'll die. Interesting premise. Add to that a plot of a rich teenage boy hunting the grave of a long lost Welch king, some cool fantasy world building, and well-drawn characters, and you've got a recipe for success on your hands.

Just not a book that I'm going to love.

There were long swathes of girls and boys thinking and yearning and debating who to kiss. Intense descriptions of hand holding and whispers that tickle ears and touches filled with electricity and desire. If that sounds like something you'd like, allow me to point you in the direction of this fine novel. If not, then you're probably better served looking elsewhere.

Even for you romance fans out there, I have a few caveats. First up is the fact that this is very much the first book in a series. I'm not going to spoil anything in this review, but be aware that there are some major plot points that aren't going to be tied up by the final page. Disappointingly so. I like my main plots taken care of, and I felt like Stiefvater promised some things that weren't followed through on. It's a literary bait and switch, and I don't like the technique.

Then again, maybe if I were a big romance fantasy fan, I'd be all aflutter with the thought of more pages with Blue and the Raven Boys. I have the ARC for the second book, but I don't think I'll be reading it.

In the end, it's a great book for what it's trying to be. Just not a great book for me.

Recommended Age: 16+ (with caveats about the language)
Language: Yes. A few f-bombs peppered throughout the text
Sex: Nope
Violence: A brawl here or there, but nothing beyond punching and some pointed guns.

Still want to give this a try? Here's your link:

THE RAVEN BOYS

I recently re-watched Back to the Future. A good movie, if I do say so myself. (And I do.) Though when it came time for Doc Brown's monologue about how he'd measured the distance from the “starting line” to the hanging wire he'd previously strung that Marty would need to start from at exactly the right time, so that at the precise moment that Marty's car reached 88 miles per hour, the lightning bolt would hit the clock tower, travel down the electrical line the doc had hung, through the long hook extending from Marty's car, and directly into the flux capacitor to send Marty back to the future...I had to take a moment to ask myself if I honestly cared that so much of the plot was based on ridiculously stupid timing and outright luck. And you know what I found? I didn't care. Not a lick.

THE LAZARUS MACHINE by Paul Crilley is the beginning of what appears to be a new series in the vein of Mark Hodder's Burton and Swinburne books, with an alternate England, historical figures of prominence, and gloriously fast paced. The difference in LAZARUS, however, is that Crilley's version of the England we know comes about because of the success of Charles Babbage (and his computing machine) and Nikolai Tesla (and his disbursement of electrical power), and the interesting science behind being able to capture the human soul and use it for various purposes.

Sebastian Tweed is the hero of the story. He's a seventeen-year-old con man who works with his father to bring the bereaved citizens of London happy messages from their recently passed dead, and perhaps more than just a few coppers to their own pockets. Sebastian is not happy with the situation, but the point quickly becomes moot when a mysterious group of individuals, supposedly headed by none other than the nefarious Professor Moriarty, kidnaps his father. From this point, all due chaos ensues as Sebastian employs every trick in his shallow bag to not only find out where his father has been taken, but why he's been taken at all. And, oh, you noticed the Moriarty bit? Yeah. Sherlock and Moriarty are also real characters in this story. So, it's not just historical figures. There are also some purely fictional ones added to the mix.

The chapters are written in the thriller style. For the most part, they're short, fast, and usually have a hook at the end to pull you into the next. Characterization is fairly light, with the greatest amount of time being given to the main character, Sebastian. World-building was really rough for me. Instead of being varied and nuanced like I enjoy seeing, nearly everything seemed to stem from Babbage machines and Tesla power. Even then, the “alternate” in this alternate history felt very light and almost more window dressing than anything of note or import. The main speculative element, the capturing of souls, had little to no explanation at all--it was just something that could be done.

While interesting and decently written, there really wasn't anything that grabbed my attention overly much. I wasn't very enamored with any of the characters. The typical shady-government scheming didn't surprise me. In this case, the inclusion of Moriarty and Holmes actually worked against the story, because seeing them made my expectations of the book so much higher. Thus, when I approached the climax of the book and things started getting ridiculous (like, for example, punch-card driven computers that could be accessed remotely, retinal scans and voice prints as security measures, or jumping out of the top of a building that dwarfs Big Ben into a river...and not being instantly killed) I really noticed them. Unlike my nostalgic viewing of Back to the Future, I wasn't so buried in the story that I could look past them.

That being said, if you find that you are easily sucked into fast-paced, thriller-type books, and can overlook some of Crilley's more over-the-top inclusions, it would be fairly easy to enjoy this read. I mean, loads of people like Dan Brown's books, and they seem to have many of the same characteristics as this one. If it were me though, on your side of this book-review equation, I'd appreciate the suggestion of a pass for this story. There's lots better out there. Mark Hodder's books for example. If, by some horrible twist of fate, I've failed to mention him to you before... you should try them. Ah, the goodness that is out there to be had. Unfortunately though, this one didn't fit the bill.

Recommended Age: 15+, though mostly just because of the age of the main character
Language: Very little, very mild
Violence: A few fight scenes
Sex: Essentially none

Link:  The Lazarus Machine

Sometimes it's difficult to keep up in the reviewing world. It seems like no matter how many books you read, there are always three more that show up for every one you get through. As such, there are times when I go to reach for that next book and my hand gravitates toward those that are the thinnest. I can't help myself. It's a choice of simple economics. This was one of those choices.

THE DOCTOR AND THE ROUGH RIDER is the third in the series of Weird West tales written by Mike Resnick and published by Pyr. For the most part, they revolve around “Doc” Holliday and his buddies in a Old Wild West that is a bit more “weird” than you remember. For Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline, two prominent geniuses of the wide world, spend their days and nights constructing inventions to make life better and easier than it would otherwise be out there amongst the dust and tumbleweeds. Running adjacent to that idea is that the American Indians hold sway over powerful magics that are significantly more influential than those of a more honest history. (For after all, fiction is really just a bunch of lies we tell ourselves, isn't it?)

In this volume, the barrier that the indian's magic has constructed to keep the United States from fulfilling their dream of Manifest Destiny and expanding all the way to the Pacific Ocean, has been given a chance to fail. Geronimo, the wisest and most powerful of the indian chieftans holding the barrier spell in place has seen the inevitability of the white man's expansionist dreams, and has decided to drop the spell in hopes of buying some mercy for his people on that future day. None of the other magic-wielding chiefs, however, are very excited about this decision. Thus they band their magics together to create a demonic beast that is so powerful that it will be able to destroy both Geronimo and the white man that he has chosen to deal with in this endeavor: Theodore Roosevelt.

The story revolves mostly around Theodore (Not Teddy) Roosevelt and his choices surrounding the deal with Geronimo. Roosevelt is a very strong-willed, influential, successful, go-get-em kind of man that has no qualms against riding off after this demonic indian beast and taking a swing at him. “Doc” Holiday also plays a role, although his part in it is decidedly smaller and less influential. He ends up being more of a gopher-boy for Geronimo than anything else, but fills the spaces between errands by shooting a few people, gambling a load, drinking more than his share of whiskey, and riding around in the sun.

Honestly, I really wanted to like this book more than I did the last one, and there were definitely portions of it that I did. In those, ROUGH RIDER reminded me of the first book in the series, The Buntline Special, that I liked so much. Unfortunately, so much of the fantastical elements were left completely out of this book. The world building was even more sparse than in the previous books, with only a few (I can almost say “few”, as in three, literally here) references to anything “weird” about the West this time around. It was completely lacking in that department. Instead, what we get is more conversation-driven plot, disappointing simplicity, and a push-button ending that left me feeling quite parched and in need of a stiff drink.

If you're looking for something to fill the time, that'll probably make you chuckle a handful of times, and that you won't have to think very hard at all about, this is probably the book for you. For me, ROUGH RIDER just wallows around in the realm of mediocrity though. I'd love to see someone else try their hand at this kind of setting. In fact...I seem to recall someone doing just that. Oh yeah, this book. I almost forgot about it, and I even remember liking it well-enough. Dang it all. Why haven't I read the sequel for that one yet? Now I'll have to go find it. One more book for the stacks. Although, after reading this one, I can tell you that The Rise of Ransom City will be taking a hefty step toward the top of my TBR stack—short book or no.

Recommended Age: 15+
Language: Strong and infrequent, but considerably more than the previous two books.
Violence: Some shootings, and one biological explosion
Sex: A few references to the seemingly-ubiquitous robotic whores

And your easy-access links to the lot of em:

The Buntline Special
The Doctor and the Kid
The Doctor and the Rough Rider

A generation ago the Norlanders invaded the Shadar, beating down the city and its people with bloodthirsty efficiency, making the Shadari their slaves in order to mine a rare ore used for powerful weapons.

Eofar, the son of the dying governor, doesn't think of the Shadari as a backward and worthless people like his sister Frea does--even having gone so far as to fall in love with one of them. Their sister Isa trains at the sword so one day she'll be as ruthless as her sister, but is treated like a child.

Daryan would have been the Shadari king if the Norlanders hadn't invaded, but after living as a temple slave he doesn't believe he has what it takes to lead the rebellion his friend Harotha has in mind--that is until she disappears suddenly and is feared dead.

Jachad is the King of the Nomas, which is more a nominal title than anything resembling authority. He follows around the Mongrel, a woman of mysterious origins with serious battle skills and a knowledge of the future.

BLOOD'S PRIDE is Evie Manieri's first novel in a new epic fantasy series called Shattered Kingdoms. Let's start with what she has going for her. Manieri has some interesting ideas, in particular the Norlanders, who come from, I'm assuming, a cold and dark place. In the Shadar, which is a desert, they can only come out at night, or else the direct rays of the sun burns them. They aren't vampires, but still are a very different race.

Manieri has some other interesting ideas about the different cultures and the power plays between them. She has a vision of an epic struggle between the races, with the powerful but young boy Dramash at the center of it all. I can see what she's trying to do with that vision, I can see all the elements that she lays down in her book for that purpose...but unfortunately she can't quite pull it off. She just hasn't quite pegged the skill set necessary to write the story of the magnitude she's attempting here.

So what's wrong with it, you ask?

For starters the characters weren't likable, the main reason being I didn't have time to get very deep into the PoV personalities. The genre calls for many characters, certainly, but the author has to spend time with them, and Manieri moves the story along at such a breakneck speed, we learn too little about them. Perhaps it's because of where the novel starts in medias res that we don't have time to become attached to them (for example, I had a hard time believing the love stories between characters--why do they love each other? I just don't know); unfortunately they continue to be shallow and uninspiring clear to the end.

While Manieri lays out an epic plot line, the story felt like she wrote a bunch of important scenes and then went back to fill in the rest with much less enthusiasm. The result is a novel that moves too fast with awkward transitions. There are serious leaps in logic, particularly in the dialogue, that only serve to move the plot forward, but don't make sense, mostly because we lack too much crucial information. At other times back story gets infodumped. I may need to see my doctor for a case of whiplash.

Not only do we not get a lot of information about the characters and the plot, but the setting is shallow, as well. Remember the little boy Dramash, the one who's central to the plot? Well, he has magic powers. We aren't sure what they are, he kinda just makes stuff happen. Are there limits to his powers? Where did they come from? Why does he have them? Why don't others have them when a generation ago more than one person did? The magic is important to the climax of the book and yet we don't understand it. Sorry, that doesn't fly here at EBR.

Manieri had an idea, one that might have been really cool. Alas, she couldn't do what the story needed to flesh it out and really make it the epic fantasy she wants it to be.

Recommended age: 14+
Language: None that I remember, maybe a couple
Violence: Yes, a fair amount, but not particularly graphic
Sex: A vaguely detailed scene

Willing to try out a new epic fantasy author? Check it out here:

BLOOD'S PRIDE

In THE FALLING MACHINE (EBR review) we were introduced to Sarah Stanton and her father's team of heroes called the Paragons. In the sequel HEARTS OF SMOKE AND STEAM (EBR review) Sarah's life changes as she learns the difficult truth of what it really means to become a Hero. In Andrew P. Mayer's exciting conclusion, POWER UNDER PRESSURE, Sarah must become the hero, or else watch the people and the city she loves fall to the machinations of the villainous Lord Eschaton.

Lord Eschaton's plans are coming to fruition. He wants to see the human race realize its glorious potential using his fortified smoke, even if it means making martyrs of New Yorkers in the process. His first experiment is Nathaniel, Sarah's step-brother, captured in the battle for the Hall of Paragons. Meanwhile Sarah and Emilio are trying to rebuild Tom the automaton, because they won't survive Lord Eschaton's plans without him. Unfortunately, Tom is not the same machine he was in FALLING, even making the loyal Sarah question his stability.

Mayer's development of the technology shines in POWER. Lord Eschaton and Emilio's experiments are really what drive the story, and it's interesting to watch the technology develop and evolve. One wouldn't think that a machine could change much over a series, but despite not seeing much of him in book two, Tom's transformation in book three is clever and explores fascinating ideas and possibilities.

If you haven't read the first two books, POWER won't have much appeal--there's too much back story and character development in order for it to make sense. FALLING and HEARTS are both satisfying reads, with an interesting cast of characters, and a well-drawn setting. Sure, as a first-time author, Mayer's books aren't without their flaws, but on the whole the series has been enjoyable. And by book three, Mayer's storytelling should be improving, right?

As a reviewer I try to give new authors leeway as they progress in their writing, because even though they're published, writers are still honing their craft. I remember Brent Weeks' first series, Night Angel, was fun and enthusiastic, but had serious new writer issues. He's since improved considerably. While Mayer has great ideas and fun characters, I didn't see any improvement with POWER; in fact, all the problems from the first two books only got worse in book three. POWER felt like Mayer pounded out everything he had as fast as he could and didn't bother to go back and revise it for plot/consistency/characterization.

To prevent repeating too many of my complaints about books one and two, I will provide for you a Reader's Digest version of all the books' issues: painfully slow plot buildup, PoV changes in action sequences that overlap chronologically and thereby slow down important events, predictable fights, repetitive and sometimes confusing characterization, clunky prose and trite dialogue.

I got through the first quarter of the book and began to wonder if book three was the end of the series as planned. I got halfway through and began to despair that it wasn't. Where was this plot headed? I couldn't tell. All the new PoVs indicated to me that Mayer was expanding the story, making it head into many other potential directions. Sure the secondary characters are interesting and I like what he did with them (there are too many to explore here in detail in order to explain), but the extra PoVs made the book lose its focus. By the end I'd lost my interest in the main characters, the climax (while exciting) was on the whole unimaginative and predictable, and the resolution left enough loose ends to hint at possible sequels. Not really the best way to wrap up a series.

Despite all the extra information about the cast of characters, we get the opposite problem with the city since the story is limited to a few locales, which is unfortunate. We get a taste of the era, but by this point the setting feels more like repetitive gripes about society's attitude toward women and minorities, and less about what it was like to live in 1880s New York City.

I wanted to like POWER, I really did. Mayer has created an interesting world by exploring  how a new era of heroes rises from adversity and how personal ability and technology makes that happen--all while doing it in a fresh setting. Ultimately, though, Mayer didn't spend the time refining POWER UNDER PRESSURE to give the conclusion the series deserved.

Recommended Age: 16+ (more for the sexual references than for the violence)
Language: Not really any
Violence: Fighting, deaths, and torture, but not particularly graphic
Sex: Referenced

You can check out this series here:

1. THE FALLING MACHINE

2. HEARTS OF SMOKE AND STEAM

3. POWER UNDER PRESSURE