More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Fires of Oblivion (Survival Wars Book 4) by Anthony James

by Leave a Comment

When we last saw our heroes, Captain John Duggan and his crew were in prison on the Ghast’s planet, awaiting execution for spying. Luckily for them the Confederacy has a super secret super spy ship with a super secret cloaking device. The new ship’s captain is able to rescue Duggan and company.

Now, as with most science fiction, you don’t want to look too closely at this. How did the spy ship captain know when and where the Ghast would take Duggan and company? How did they hang around a very tightly defended world for hours? days? waiting for the Ghast to move the humans out of their confinement? Just ignore the problems implicit here and go along with the story.

Duggan is assigned once more to a risky, death-defying mission, this time to bring peace back to humans and Ghast, prevent the Ghast from destroying a human planet, while finding out as much as possible about the Dreamers. Once more the bean counting Military Asset Management is there, making trouble.

Fires of Oblivion is a novel you must simply read without asking too many questions or looking too deeply into plausibility. Just enjoy. The plot is grand and filled with action, making all the books in this series very fast reads.

There is slightly more character development in this installment but the overall story is still Duggan and crew vs. the Ghast, human politics and Dreamers.

4 Stars

All Amazon links are paid ads.

Chains of Duty (Survival Wars Book 3) by Anthony James

by Leave a Comment

The problem with reading 7 books in 5 days is it gets hard to remember which things happened in which book. Chains of Duty is the third book in Anthony James’ military science fiction series that moves at the speed of light.

Captain James Duggan is still with his favorite 4-person crew, now augmented with a most unwelcome member, Lieutenant Nichols from Military Asset Management. Yes, that’s right. The Confederacy is just maybe, possibly able to make peace with their enemy after 30 years of war. And now is the perfect time to come count beans. Of course John Duggan is not the sort of guy to waste time worrying about nickels and dimes when an even dangerous alien threat is looming over humans and Ghast alike, which doesn’t endear him to the dollar-watchers. We will see more of Military Asset Management in later books.

Chains of Duty is good, very fast reading, with an intricate plot. Author James has left behind some of the character development that made the first story, Crimson Tempest, such a pleasant surprise. James also spends a little more time explaining all the war materiel in this novel than he did in the first two.

The novels are almost too fast reading. Chains of Duty was about a 2 1/2 hour read, about what we’d expect from a basic paperback. The series would have been stronger had James combined the 7 novels into 4 or even 5. We’d have had a little more bang for our reading time and James could have put more people interactions into his books. Or he could have added some side stories or sub plots.

Anyway, despite the fact Chains of Duty is too darn short, it is still good.

4 Stars

All Amazon links are paid ads.

Bane of Worlds (Survival Wars Book 2) by Anthony James

by Leave a Comment

Captain John Duggan and his crew McGlashan, Breeze and Chainers are back, this time with a vanilla, boring mission to escort a heavy lifter to retrieve valuable material from a mining planet. Unfortunately the Ghast reached the planet before Duggan and have dug in. The Ghast shoot down Duggan’s ship, leaving the human crew marooned on an unlivable planet with hostile aliens between them and home.

The plot is fast! Duggan must take over the Ghast installation, redirect the weapon to remove the Ghast ship, then get home. Of course he succeeds! The second half the crew goes back on the Crimson, with ever-higher stakes when they discover a second opponent who is even more powerful and murderous. The ending is great.

Once again author James uses the war as a backdrop for his story about people. Bane of Worlds has more plot and less character development than first novel, Crimson Tempest. It is still good, an entertaining, absorbing story.

Bane of Worlds is a segue from the first story – humans vs. Ghast – to a complicated three-way conflict that the rest of the series will explore. It is enjoyable, a fast read that propels one on to the rest of the series.

4 Stars

Crimson Tempest (Survival Wars Book 1) by Anthony James

by Leave a Comment

Crimson Tempest is the first novel in the Survival Wars series by Anthony James, and good news, you can read and enjoy this as a stand-alone novel or continue on to the six books that follow. Crimson Tempest is worthy military science fiction with developed characters and backstory.

I’m always leery of books billed as military science fiction. Many are so very bad, filled with pages describing esoteric weapons or space ships. Yet the good old-fashioned theme of aliens bent on destroying humanity remains a wonderful canvas to write a story, provided the story is about people, not machines or weapons. Kudos to author James for developing a real story about people using war as the backdrop to add tesnsion.

Captain James Duggan unfortunately has run afoul of the ranking fleet admiral and is shunted off to lead small, almost expendable ships. He is ordered to take his crew, which includes a small infantry force, to retrieve a forgotten 50-year old experimental spacecraft, the Crimson. Naturally he wonders why the Space Corps is so desperate to get back an old ship while fighting the fast-advancing Ghasts, enemy aliens who have destroyed entire human planets.

The book moves very fast. Duggan and his crew fight their way to the Crimson then outwit the attacking Ghasts to get the ship back to bare working order and escape the planet where it has been hiding for 50 years. The basic plot is easy enough to follow, and James does not clutter the book with boring passages explaining his fictional weapons or ships. He does a very good job sliding in enough background that we know the ships can travel faster than light, can somehow protect people inside from inertia changes (referred to as life support, a wise description!), depend on extremely thick, dense metal hulls, and do not have any sort of shield. Thankfully he doesn’t explain how any of this works, simply presents it in passing and goes on with the story.

One aspect of the ships is very important. They use sophisticated AI computers, referred to as “cores” to run everything. The faster and more powerful the core, the better, faster and meaner the ship can perform. Duggan quickly finds out why Space Corps wants the Crimson back: It has a unique, very powerful core.

The genius of Crimson Tempest is that James tells a story about the people. We get to know John Duggan and his crew, McGlashan, Breeze and Chains, and infantry leader Ortiz. We can see that Duggan is extremely competent, driven, cares about his people, cares about the human Confederation he has sworn to serve.

James uses the ships and an inhospitable planet for the setting. He makes the planet’s icy caves feel real and we can almost see ourselves hiking up boulders heaped between the Crimson and the exit. I’ve often thought that the better science fiction writers use the space and alien aspects as settings; this is especially true with war/invasion themes. When the war or space are the setting we can focus on the people and the author can tell us about them and not bore us by imagining that impersonal machines are the story.

I enjoyed Crimson Tempest very much. My one complaint is that the books in the series are rather short. I read Crimson Tempest on Sunday and finished book 7 Thursday, only about 22 hours reading total; I purchased each one in turn as soon as I finished the one before. The whole series was good albeit a couple of them were heavy on plot and a bit light on character development. This first novel, Crimson Tempest, is highly readable and I recommend it. You can enjoy it by itself, or do as I did and read each of the remaining series.

5 Stars

All links are paid ads.

Marked, Alex Verus #9, London Urban Fantasy

by Leave a Comment

Our friend Mage Alex Verus certainly has grown in stature since the first novel, Fated. Initially Alex was a bit naive, wanting only to have a peaceful, private life, running his magic store and providing a bit of support to Adepts like Luna. It is this commitment to his friends and his abilities as a top diviner mage that inevitably draw him deeper into the Light Council politics and mark him as an opponent for several of the senior leadership.

Marked is book number 9 and Alex has been busy. In prior novels the Light Council sucked him into operations that went bad and made him a top target for several Light council members. In order to protect his friends and save his life Alex agreed to be Dark mage Morden’s aide when Morden accepts a seat on the Light Council. Alex has tried to distance himself from the dark mages for years and didn’t want anything to do with Morden or other dark mages, but has thrown himself into his new responsibilities. Now, Marked opens with Morden imprisoned, Alex as his aide has Morden’s seat on the Junior Council.

Alex is decisive and skilled. The first scenes in Marked show him leading a team of Light mages and security forces to reclaim a nasty artifact and put the fear of defeat into one of his many enemies’ minions. Later the Light Council call upon Alex to work with Morden to entrap Richard Drakh. Alex realizes it’s a very bad idea but also that he is curious (an often fatal flaw for diviners) and eager to stay abreast of the situation.

Alex, his friends Luna, Variam and Anne want the Adepts, less skilled than mages and whom the Light Council refuses to protect, to have a voice and to be protected. When the plan to trap Richard goes horribly awry it traps a few hundred Adepts in between the fighting. Alex steps forward to lead the Light forces and give the Adepts a way out of the building. Later of course the council blames him for the fiasco and pushes him into further action that leads to Morden getting free, and of course, setting us up for a book 11.

One of the best things about Benedict Jacka’s Alex Verus series is how Alex grows and matures in his magic and leadership. He really would rather lay low and stay out of the power games between Light and Dark but he gets involved to protect Adepts and his friends. He particularly worries about Anne, life mage with tremendous power, whom several Dark mages would like to recruit.

Marked has several subplots. We’ve met Arachne, a giant spider, possibly THE Arachne of legend, before and she is Alex’s oldest friend. Arachne several cryptic things that sound as if she may be either killed or fading away. Alex hears this when he’s not able to follow up, leaving the possible situation to future novels.

Jacka creates realistic characters, one of the better people-builders in the fantasy genre. His characters, especially Alex, grow, mature, change, display foibles and flaws just like ordinary people. Some of the minor characters from prior novels have smaller roles in Marked, as the action and emotion center on Alex and Anne.

One point that puzzles me with the Verus series is the economics. We see the Light Council is rich as are most of the Light Mages. Yet what do these folks do for money? Most are not employed in the regular sense, nor own businesses, and the Light rules restrict using magic to compel people to give you money. Alex implies that the Council taxes mages to support itself, which means there is a lot of money sloshing around with no obvious source.

Overall Benedict Jacka continues to write excellent fantasy in an urban, modern setting. I enjoyed Marked and plan to read the 10th book Fallen.

The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins Dove Pond North Carolina

by Leave a Comment

After binge reading Betty Neels’ sweet and simple English romances, I was glad to get into The Book Charmer by Karen Hawkins. Yes, there is a hint of romance, but the love is for family, for place, for friends.

Dove Pond, a small town in North Carolina, is home to the Dove family, the Phelps family, the Parker family. We begin when Grace moves to Dove Pond with her foster mom, Mama G, and her orphaned niece Daisy. Grace has out-worked everyone to reach financial security in Charlotte, and comes home to take care of her mom and niece when she realizes Mama G has dementia and Daisy’s mom dies of an overdose.

Grace always does her duty and does it very, very well, lets nothing or anyone stop her from reaching the aim she has set for herself. Sadly, there is no happy ending possible for Mama G. Grace grieves for her mom.

Sarah Dove loves her town and knows it is dying as businesses and families move out, tax base shrinks and people become apathetic and fatalistic. Books talk to Sarah and an old journal written by her ancestor over 200 years earlier warns Sarah the town will die unless she or someone with her saves it. Sarah sees cats’ behavior and flowers changing color as predicting that Grace is in fact to be the town savior.

Grace wants nothing to do with Sarah at first; Grace is the new town clerk and wants to do her work, do it well for a year, then go back to Charlotte. Presumably Mama G will be better or dead by then.

The Book Charmer is the story of friendship. How will Sarah convince Grace to help? How will Grace shrug off her wariness and remove the barriers she constructed to avoid friends and close relationships? How will Grace work with the myriad other Dove Pond characters to save the town?

Karen Hawkins charms us with the lively characters. Aside from Sarah and Grace, Mama G, Daisey, the cat Killer/Theo and hot neighbor Trav, Karen Hawkins introduces caregiver Linda, banker Zoe, realtor Kat, tea-maker Ava, pet store owner Ed, the other members of Dove Pond Social Club who turn the town’s Apple Festival into a giant success, a business outreach/family fun time/recruitment drive.

I enjoyed The Book Charmer and its cast of people with their quirks and problems and will look for other novels set in Dove Pond. Please note this novel is unlike many of Karen Hawkins romances and has no explicit sex.

4 Stars

All Amazon links are ads that pay commission.

Never Say Goodbye – Betty Neels English Romance, with Poland and Stockholm Too

by Leave a Comment

Betty Neels sent her heroines and their RDD/RBD (rich Dutch or British doctors) all over Europe; to the Netherlands, naturally, Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Norway, passing through France, Bosnia, Scotland, Austria, Switzerland. Of course the RDD/RBD also go to Belgium and even America, but without their sweeties. Never Say Goodbye is the only one with a trip to Poland via Stockholm. It is set in 1983 when Poland was pushing for independence from the USSR, the year Lech Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize, so it has a bit more tension and risk than most Betty trips.

Dr. Thomas Winter has finally secured permission to bring his old nanny, a dissident’s widow, back to England. He needs a nurse – now – to come along because Nanny is nearly crippled with arthritis. In walks Isobel Barrington, private nurse. Thomas doesn’t think Isobel is suitable but she’s the only one available so he makes do.

Things are tense in Poland and Thomas distracts Nanny and Isobel with an organ concert and last sightseeing. Everyone breathes easier once on the boat headed back to Stockholm. Isobel stays with Nanny for a week or so, then heads off to new private clients. Thomas rounds her back to nurse Nanny after pneumonia, even taking them (and Isobel’s family) to his seaside cottage.

This is a Betty Neels book meaning it we don’t get a lot of insight into the RBD. Thomas clearly likes Isobel by the time they return to Stockholm, but it’s not clear when he falls in love with her. Isobel is the primary character and we see her feelings for Thomas and her distress and fear when her mom has a stroke. The family is just barely making it with her generous private pay; if she cannot work they will have serious problems. Thomas insists on bringing her mother to his private rehab place, and further insists on taking Isobel’s cat and dog to his home.

Ella Stokes, an expensive blonde vision whom Thomas only slightly likes, is the other woman. Ella spikes her own guns by following Dr. Winter on holiday and “clinging like a limpet”. I think having Ella around helped Thomas find emotional clarity and realize he loves Isobel.

Never Say Goodbye is one of Betty Neels’ most enjoyable books; I think the Polish situation adds piquancy and the love affair is low key, builds slowly and feels real. Some of Neels’ RDD/RBBs are over-the-top but Dr. Thomas Winter is definitely rich yet all too human. He’s lonely without realizing how lonely he is and he wants, he wants, but he isn’t sure what he wants. Eventually he realizes it is Isobel, a family and love. Proposal and kisses ensue.

Year’s Happy Ending – Betty Neels English Romance

by Leave a Comment

What do you get when you combine an economist, a lonely girl, a nanny and plenty of money? A marriage of convenience, Betty Neels’ Year’s Happy Ending. Our economist is widower Professor Gideon Beaufort, the lonely girl is his daughter Eleanor and the nanny is Deborah. Eleanor needs a mother and the only way that can happen is if Gideon takes a wife. Eleanor likes Deborah, so Gideon decides Deborah will do just fine.

Gideon comes to his sister’s home, where Deborah is nanny-ing, meets her, insults her and annoys her. Later he and his sister’s family all go to the Algarve, taking Deborah along for nanny duties. This is the plot device to bring Deborah and Eleanor, then Deborah and Gideon, together.

Gideon is blunt. He doesn’t love Deborah and doesn’t think he may ever fall in love. Deborah however decides Gideon is the cat’s meow and agrees to marry him. This is more than half way through the book.

Betty doesn’t show much romance between Gideon and Deborah. She is miserable when he is cold or aloof, and he doesn’t seem to do anything to foster attachment. The most emotional moment is when Gideon decides he must leave work unexpectedly and come home, just because he wants to talk to Deborah. This is lucky for Deborah because she is stuck in a ravine in an ice storm with a wet dog. Gideon rescues her, but of course he’s rather nasty about it.

Year’s Happy Ending is an easy, gentle read, and I liked Deborah, but the book isn’t as satisfying as some of Betty’s. It’s almost as if Betty changed her mind half way through about what book she was writing. The first half shows Deborah doing nanny work – over and over and over. It’s a little boring to read about,not to mention doing it 24×7 with scarcely a moment without kids or kids’ laundry. Gideon isn’t there most of the novel and when he is all he does is make snide comments.

It’s as though Betty wants us to see that Deborah needs to be rescued, but Deborah doesn’t seem to want a rescue. She doesn’t particularly want to be a nanny forever but she’s not flirtatious and doesn’t know many men so she’s not expecting to get married. The Algarve scenes were nice but the whole first half could have been summarized into 20-30 pages of Deborah-the-nanny, then Betty could have developed the romance and shown us more about Gideon.

I own the book and it’s good enough to reread, just not one of Betty Neels’ best.

Pineapple Girl – Betty Neels English Romance

by Leave a Comment

Pineapple Girl is a Type 2 Betty Neels romance, a courtship/love story complicated by The Other Woman. There are some really neat moments, especially towards the end when heroine Eloise Bennett saves a young boy, but overall it is one of Betty’s less memorable novels.

Eloise’s mom’s old friend Deborah Pringle lives in (guess) Holland and is dying. She asks Eloise to come to their home to give her care and company during her final illness. Naturally Timon van Zeilst is Mevrouw Pringle’s physician and he is just as interested in Eloise as she is in him.

A patient gives nurse Eloise a pineapple, which she promptly drops on consultant Timon van Zeilst, visiting from (of course) Holland. Eloise thinks Timon looks like someone she’d like to know, but he is in Holland and she is in England, it isn’t likely so she tries to put him out of her mind.

The complication is Liske, a young, very beautiful, very expensive socialite and Timon’s girlfriend. Liske isn’t giving up Timon without a fight! She dates Timon several times while Eloise is around, she drops into Timon’s home and acts as though marriage is a foregone conclusion.

Timon is quite silly. He dates Liske long after he knows that he doesn’t want to marry her. He isn’t completely sure he wants Eloise so he dates her too, albeit usually with Mr. Pringle and other friends or family. He finally calls it quits with Liske; as near as I can tell it’s about 5 dates past the point where he should have done the just-friends/had-fun-but-not-serious routine.

Timon feels terrible when he finally dumps Liske, says he was cruel to her, so Liske runs over to his house when Eloise is there and dumps all over Eloise, maneuvering to make it look like Eloise was extraordinarily nasty. Timon, being a RDD and thus not tuned into how low a girl like Liske would go to ensnare his plump pocket, rips into Eloise for being cruel. Eloise runs into the driving rainstorm where Timon finds her, again berates her for being mean, then she packs up and leaves for England as soon as possible.

Eventually Timon rescues Eloise when she is busy rescuing a small boy and takes her off to be married in the church down the street. This is the part that lost me. Last we saw Timon he was beating up himself and Eloise for “being cruel to poor Liske”, and next time we see him he’s got a special license and a date with the parson and a room at the closest inn.

I understand he wants to marry Eloise and she wants to marry him, but really, wouldn’t you expect just a bit more something between accusations of cruelty and marrying out of hand? Also, what gives with Eloise? She wants to marry Timon and it’s romantic as heck to sweep down and dash off to the nearest church, but I bet she’d later regret not having her Mom or anyone else around.

Not sure why I didn’t like Pineapple Girl more. The plot is decent, we see a bit of Holland, Eloise and Liske have pretty clothes and Timon is pretty classy. But it just doesn’t hang together. Harlequin republished Pineapple Girl in a collector’s edition with a red cover and new picture, so it’s obviously popular. I think the characters don’t seem like real people to me. Betty Neels was known for her warmth and believable characters and this book just doesn’t quite get there. It feels rushed.

3 Stars

Three for a Wedding – Betty Neels English Romance

by Leave a Comment

Betty Neels had only a few plots – the Marriage of Convenience, the Other Woman, and Normal Courtship with Complications. Three for a Wedding fits the second, a straight-forward romance complicated by a gullible heroine, clueless hero and conniving Other Woman.

Sybil Brooks persuades her older sister, Phoebe, to take her place in an exchange scheme, where Phoebe works under a Dutch doctor to learn his cystic fibrosis techniques. Sybil is obnoxious, so it’s a good thing Betty wrote her a minor part, leaving Phoebe and her RDD (rich Dutch doctor) Lucius van Someren, to star.

Maureen, the governess for Peter, Lucius’ 10-year old adopted son, is The Other Woman, determined to marry Lucius and thoroughly nasty. Phoebe is just gullible enough to believe some of Maureen’s lies and tells herself she cannot say anything to Lucius because he might love Maureen.

Most of Betty Neels’ Other Women are unpleasant, greedy and selfish, but their main fault is wanting to marry the hero for his money and social position, not for love. Maureen is something different, truly an evil person. It’s incomprehensible that Phoebe would not say anything and believe that Lucius would rather not know some about some Maureen shenanigans.

I have a very hard time believing some of what Phoebe will keep quiet about. Even if Lucius in fact did love Maureen, he ought to know that:

  • Maureen tries to beat Paul’s new puppy to death.
  • Maureen threatens Paul, holding his puppy over his head, emotionally manipulates him

Lucius is oblivious to Maureen’s mean ways and ambitions. He’s supposed to be absent-minded but he’s a bit too clueless to be real, especially since he was astute enough to immediately realize Phoebe is not Sybil.

Phoebe and Lucius are both silly, but of course, that’s necessary for our plot to advance! Putting aside Maureen’s plots and evil lies we have a straightforward courtship. Lucius takes Phoebe out several times, kisses her like he means it, shows her his home, introduces her to his adopted son and family retainers. He makes the fatal Neels-land error, though, and tells Phoebe he intends to get married, but without telling her whom he intends for a wife. (Only Betty could get away with this. I don’t know anyone quite this dumb.)

Three for a Wedding is easy to read, with a well-done evil temptress, decent support characters in Phoebe’s fellow nurse and her fiance, and some heartfelt moments with the ill children. The obtuse Lucius and Phoebe are a bit over the top but still fun to read.

4 Stars

All Amazon links are paid ads.