This review is long overdue. Matt sent me Grants Pass, an awesome post-apocalyptic anthology edited by Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar (more on why it’s awesome below) this past summer. It may have even been late spring. And after reading the introductions on my computer screen (which, on initial read, made chills creep up and down my spine), the anthology languished on my computer. I could not get myself sitting down in front of the screen long enough to read the carefully crafted short stories, couldn’t explore their interconnectedness while looking at them on a monitor. I printed out the whole pdf onto paper — but the formatting was a little odd, and not only was the collection heavy, the font was so large on the print out that it actually made it difficult to read. The three ring binder I put it in traveled from room to room in my house — but it didn’t open. The book languished… until I decided to try out an e-Reader. In less than a week, I’ve accomplished what it took me months to do: finished reading the whole anthology, cover to cover (as it were).

Crosscurrent is set some 41.5 years after the events of A New Hope…and some five thousand years before that. Crosscurrent is told through a series of flashes from the past and the “present”. It’s very much about threads of fate, plots and events of the past coming to fruition in the future.

Now most of the time this way of storytelling can be jarring. I’ve put books down and left them on the shelf because of this. Usually it’s hard to keep the flow of interest going on two simultaneous stories.

The author does a masterful job in tying the two together as well as keeping both halves of the story exciting. He makes it really work. I do love being surprised!

Dark Apostle is the third in the Word Bearers series and the culmination of a massive plot. Of course when you consider that the Word Bearers and other Traitor Legions are over 10,000 years old and their schemes stretch over millennia it’s hard to grasp the scope of such a “plot”. Wheels within wheels and the Word Bearers are plotters in the extreme.

The story of Dark Apostle Marduk continues and his goal of using the ancient Necron technology to essentially propel himself higher up the food chain and bring as much chaos to the Imperium as possible is fought with peril from within and without.

It’s a familiar tale: enemy warriors fighting a desperate battle only to be snatched up and put through a grueling series of tests and implantations to become Astartes. Eventually they learn to be a team and work together (or die) as scouts, neophytes, etc. If you’ve read the Space Wolves Omnibus (specifically Space Wolf) by William King then you know the story. Honestly, if you’re a Space marine fan of any sort you likely are familiar with the story already. That’s all there is to know, right?

Wrong!

A few months back Gav wrote a post in his blog regarding cutting out “faffy” words. A lot of writers use a lot of excess language to get a point across where Gav tends to cut to the meat of the story and carves his way through the pages at a fevered clip.

The Shadow King is another great example of this. To be honest I was hesitant about whether Thorpe could pull that off. I mean…over 500 pages. That seems pretty wordy to me. So I sat down and set about consuming and digesting this thick tome (larger than anything he’s written to date I believe page-wise. Don’t quote me but I *think* that is accurate.)

As per usual Gav gets right to it. The stage is set and things start going to hell…fast. This is the second book of The Sundering, following Malekith.

In his introduction to “Michael H. Hanson’s Sha’Daa: Tales of the Apocalypse” author Mike Resnick sates that is “not quite a round-robin novel by its many authors, but is somehow more than an anthology.”

That statement is an accurate one. This book has a total of ten separate stories, and ten additional short “interludes” between each story written by Michael H. Hanson. Hanson wrote one of the ten stories, as did editor Edward McKeown. The remaining eight stories are written by eight separate authors. Each story is connected, however, by one over-arching theme and one or more re-occurring characters.

For a long time, Joe Pitt has been on the receiving end of the whip-as stick, and you might be wondering if he gets to turn it around in this, the final book of the Joe Pitt Casebooks series. I can tell you definitively and without a doubt that everyone gets what’s coming to them. And I do mean everyone.

Let’s be honest. Joe Pitt isn’t exactly what you’d call a hero; hasn’t been for the last several books. The darkness has been closing around him for a long time. The thing about darkness, though, is that it’s not always bad. Oppressors can be fled. Justice can be served.

Hey pals & gals, let me ask you something. Have you ever read a collection of short stories where the title suggests a particular genre, but it turned out to be all over the place? Have you ever picked up the same sort of book and basically misinterpreted what the title was even referring to? I ask only because if this has happened to you, you’ll find familiar territory with The Apex Book of World SF. But if you haven’t, then this collection won’t just break that particular piece of ice, it will shatter it!

When I got a reviewer copy of this book, I wasn’t entirely sure if I could give it a proper review. I’m really only a sorta-kinda-maybe Sci-Fi fan at best. I mean, I get the point of the genre and I’ve enjoyed some awesome Sci-Fi tales in my life, but my first love is Horror whom is followed by my favored mistress Dark Fantasy. But never the less, since I was entrusted to review this bad boy, I e-cracked open my shiny new e-book and read away.

No Door, No Windows by Joe Schreiber is, at its heart, a haunted house story; although it might be more accurate to say it is a haunted character story.

The novel is filled with characters who cannot escape their pasts, or their present, which means that their futures may be in jeopardy. Schreiber’s characters are haunted by guilt, regret, and emotional inertia as much as they are by supernatural forces. Schreiber wields both realistic and otherworldly horrors with deft and subtlety in this suspenseful novel. The plot is centered on Scott Mast, a professional greeting-card writer living in Seattle who is forced to return to his native small-town in New Hampshire for his father’s funeral.

DEMON INSIDE is a dark paranormal romance novel by author Stacia Kane about a character named Megan Chase who has somehow found herself in charge of a group of demons. The sequel to PERSONAL DEMONS, this particular story focuses on Megan’s struggles with her new “responsibility” and what she must do in wake of her knowledge of the dark things — namely demons — that exist in this world. Megan’s guide to this world is her sexy lover Greyson Dante, who is literally too hot to handle at times.

I feel that this particular story fits squarely in the paranormal romance genre, because there is a heavy emphasis on the sexy relationship between Megan and Greyson.

CRYSTAL RAIN is the debut novel by author Tobias S. Buckell about John deBrun, a fisherman who had lost his memories, who becomes embroiled in a conflict to save Nanaganda against the bloodthirsty Azteca.

I have to admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked this up, because the title and the cover art totally threw me. Billed as science fiction, I was surprised to see a swashbuckling guy with a hook holding a gun on an airship. Then I started reading CRYSTAL RAIN, and I was immediately hooked. In my mind, CRYSTAL RAIN accomplishes what I like the most about the science fiction genre. CRYSTAL RAIN explores the consequences of advancements in technology on both the environment and the culture, but it does it in a way that’s integrated with the story, the world and the characters.

FIRST LORD’S FURY, Book Six of the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher, is the final chapter in an epic fantasy tale about the desperate final acts of Alera against the Vord. This deadly, insect-like foe is battled by the Canim, Marat, Icemen and Alerans in order to save the continent from imminent destruction.

This particular book is very combat-intensive and is a bit more linear than other books in the series like PRINCEPS FURY or CURSOR’S FURY. Many of the subplots presented earlier in the series are not as heavily present here as they are in the other novels; subplots that are resolved come in spurts, with the exception of the deadly Lady Aquitaine who had (if you remember) been given “life” by the Vord Queen.

The other day in my email there was a new
Offering of an eBook novel for me to review.
“What’s this? A new tale of the great Robin Hood
As a zombie killer?!” Now this should be good!
Tis a different style of novel, for better or for worse
For this Canterbury tale is told entirely in verse.

I ask you to follow along with me if you would
About this unique take on Friar Tuck and Robin Hood
As they deal with a hoard of zombies and their maw’s
Their horrible stench, their appetite and also their claws.

As the final novel in the Ambergris Cycle, FINCH is the conclusion to a complex plot that takes place in a rich, detailed setting. In this novel, the “gray cap” aliens have all but taken over humanity and this is the “last chance” for the rebels to fight back. Although the rebels are lurking in the background, FINCH is primarily about John Finch’s investigation of a double murder of one gray cap and one human. The case turns into some interesting directions, which is why John often reminds us he isn’t really a detective.

First off, I would like to mention that FINCH is constructed as a stand-alone novel. As a reader, you can pick up this book and not know anything about the story before digging in. However, this is not the type of book you will read in one sitting. Every word, chapter and turn of phrase has an intelligent architecture to it that forces you to slow down and savor every concept before realizing how they fit into the rest of the story.

Halloween isn’t until tomorrow night, but Barry and his best buddy Shawn are dealing with a monster. Mitch, the school bully has had Shawn marked for sometime now, and he takes it on the chin. Barry encourages Shawn to stand up to Mitch and defend himself, but so far he’s lacked the courage. Ahh, the joys of school.

Later that day the two are looking for a book for a class, but instead they find a very different and much more intriguing book in a secret compartment. Shawn is fascinated by this seemingly “ancient spell book” and studies it throughout that night into the following morning. Shawn even takes it with him when he and Barry go a Halloween party a class mate invited them to. But Mitch is also attending the party and after a confrontation gone bad, he ruins their night and gets them kicked out.

Review by Steven Dawes

I think one of the coolest parts of writing reviews is not only getting to read a lot of material, but to really get in to the nuts and bolts of how that material is “assembled”. In this case I have been fortunate to read a LOT of Forgotten Realms novel by R.A. Salvatore as well as others such as Paul Kemp. Having read all the “Drizzt Novels” to date, I can say with certainty that the author has improved his craft greatly over the years.

R.A. Salvatore, like any writer clearly has a deep relationship with many of his characters. While some writers are able to outline and crank out material in a mechanical fashion more often then not they go through a sort of adventure of their own; discovering the world and characters as they write. It’s like a journey for the characters as well as the writer. In doing so the author learns to love and hate characters and tries to share it with us…the readers.

When I got my mitts on a copy of “The Kill Crew”, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. I’d never heard of author Joseph D’Lacey before and had no idea what to expect from him. The book itself is only a slim eighty pages and most of my experiences with novella’s of this size haven’t been exactly stellar. However, it was as good of a time as any to dig in and see what Mr. D’Lacey had to say, so I did.

At first my expectations began to dwindle in the first few chapters. The Kill Crew tells a tale about a group of survivors dealing with the aftermath of a zombie like plague. All the zombie fanatics out there will find familiar territory in these first few chapters, especially fans of the comic series The Walking Dead. The zombie’s types here are referred to as “Commuters” due to the fact that they only come out at night and because the majority of these things in life were the commuting white-collared desk jockeys and similar professionals still garbed in their professional attire.

The Pirate King is the second novel of the Transitions series by R.A. Salvatore. The hardcover edition was released in the US on July 2009.

“Captain Deudermont has sailed to the pirate city of Luskan on a mission–a mission to once and for all defeat the true power behind the corrupt city: a wicked lich and his cabal of evil wizards from the Host Tower of the Arcane. But the Host Tower has some tricks up its sleeve, as do the pirate captains who would like to see both sides fail.”

As many know, the Forgotten Realms is changing. With the advent of Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition the FR timeline is being advanced approximately 100 years. The various “Drizzt Novels” so far have been set earlier in the timeline (corresponding with 2nd Edition AD&D and D&D 3r/ 3.5 Editions). The “Transitions Series” is an attempt to reconcile the two converging timelines, bridging the gap between the setting we all know (and love) and the new setting which has MANY stark differences.

Billed as Jim Butcher-light, DEAD TO ME is an urban fantasy novel for debut author Anton Strout. In this series, the main character (named Simon Canderous) struggles with his psychometric ability while working for the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in Manhattan.

Strout introduces Simon as a conflicted character who hasn’t quite figured everything out yet. His ability allows Simon to get a psychic impression (which is portrayed as if Simon is reliving a memory) off of everything he touches — including people. Sometimes those impressions are multi-layered; sometimes they’re not. His psychometric ability has affected everything from Simon’s moral judgments to his love life and even his health; there is definitely a “cost” to Simon’s inability to control his power.

Back on August 14th, a two chapter preview of Personal Effects: Dark Art was posted here on “Da Flames” (Click here to read preview). Included in this preview were notes about this book being a “multi-media novel” or a “trans-media” thriller that makes it a unique experience. By the time I reached the end of the preview, it was an appetizer that made me want to sink my rotting teeth into the rest of the book. Actually, calling it an “experience” as opposed to simply a “book” would be a better description. What do I mean by that? Well folks, grab a fork and a knife and sample this delight with me.

To best review P.E.D.A., I’m going to split “the experience” into two halves. Starting with the book portion (which was author J.C. Hutchins contribution to the experience), our protagonist is mild-mannered art therapist Zachary Taylor.