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

Shadow Detective Supernatural Dark Urban Fantasy Series: Books 1-3 by William Massa

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Shadow Detective is a 3-book set starring Mike Raven, an occult expert who fights supernatural monsters.  This has become a popular sub genre in the last few years with books ranging from highly successful Dresden series to an assortment of schlock.  I’d put Shadow Detective slightly above the middle.

I read these books on vacation about a month ago and had to re-open to recall what they were about, not the mark of a compelling series.  The novels are reasonably well-written, with decent dialogue that advances the characters and the action, and the plots move fast.

Unfortunately the plot of the first novel in the set, Cursed City, is weak and ridiculous.  Celeste claims to be the victim of her father’s lust for power, that he bargained her soul to the devil when she was a baby.  In reality she is working with her father.  I have never understood how anyone, once they know beyond a shadow of doubt that hell exists, could possibly want anything to do with demons.

The second and third books are better, where Mike Raven fights a vampire who has gained demonic powers.

Author Massa does some modest character development on the three main heroes, Mike, his mentor Skulick and Jane Archer whom Mike loves.

Overall this is a readable series if you enjoy this type of monster/demon/vampire/magic conflict.  Personally I find the novels where the conflict is between us humans and supernatural monsters are less enjoyable and have weaker characters than those where the primary conflict is between people, with a few supernaturals thrown in.  It’s just harder to make the villains anything but blackest evil when they are demons and the most believable stories allow villains to have some redeeming qualities.

3 Stars

 

 

 

 

 

Bright Ruin by Vic James – Harrowing Finale to Dark Gifts Trilogy

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Bright Ruin picks up immediately after Tarnished City (which follows right after Gilded Cage, the first book in the Dark Gifts trilogy by Vic James); be sure to read the books together so you don’t lose track of the characters and setting.  Bright Ruin is the climax and offers an ending that is meant to offer a path forward to an England that appears to have no future beyond more oppression and cruelty.

The Skilled Jardine family, including daughter-in-law Bouda, have immense talents that they use to achieve and hold power.  Bouda is the only one who genuinely cares about the country – and she believes the Skilled are better and should rule and that Slave Days are the obvious and natural outcome.

Their counterpoint family is the Hadleys, mostly oldest Abi and goodhearted Luke.  Vic James develops the characters to some extent but what we see in Gilded Cage we see in Bright Ruin, except that Gavar finds a conscience and Abi determination.  Bright Ruin includes all the people from prior books, telling the story through Abi, Luke, Gavar, Bouda and Silyen.

 

** SPOILER ALERT**

England faces the basic problem of “what next”?  Do the Equals continue enslaving common people?  Do they lighten up a bit and make the slavery less cruel?  Do they abolish slavery?  The economy and social structure are built around 10 years of slavery for all commoners.  You cannot simply end that without some plans for the future.  Bouda carries much of the story line, where she continues to insist that Equals should rule and commoners slave, all while she wonders whether that is completely true.  Gavar makes his choice because he loves his daughter.  Silyen doesn’t really care; he doesn’t like slavery and cruelty but he’s not going to fight to eliminate it.

James had a challenge to wrap this up.  She brings in new magic and a mythical figure and an enormous sacrifice from Silyen, whom we would never expect to sacrifice anything (or perhaps he takes this action to follow the wonder king).  The result is not completely believable nor completely satisfying.

Overall I didn’t care for Bright Ruin as much as the first novel; I dislike series where the author writes themselves into a corner and then must have a miracle occur to conclude and that is what Bright Ruin feels like.

3 Stars

I received a free copy from the publisher via NetGalley in expectation of a review.

Tarnished City by Vic James, Sequel to The Gilded Cage – Dystopian Magic in England

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Vic James’ taunt fantasy thriller, The Gilded Cage, introduced us to a horrifying alternate England, one where magic-wielding Skilled Equals tyrannize everyone else, even requiring all commoners to serve 10 years of Slave Days.  The slavery conditions vary, from miserable to deadly, and Equals have little or no consequences for injuring their slaves.  Once a commoner serves their 10 years as a slave they are more-or-less free, with however, no political power.  (Gilded Cage review is here.)

Tarnished City picks up immediately after The Gilded Cage.  Luke is Condemned, in the hands of Crovan, a psychopath Equal, highly skilled at inflicting torture via the mind.  Luke’s sister Abigail has escaped from the car that is bringing her and her parents to the slave town, and now makes her way to an Equal family she believes can help her prove Luke’s innocence and set him free.

Neither sibling realizes exactly how naive they are.  Only a few Equals care about commoners or are willing to take action even knowing someone is innocent of a crime.  As power-hungry Whittam Jardine says, “Stupid girl.  Truth isn’t what happened, it’s what people will believe happened.”

Tarnished City‘s plot is escapes, followed by searches for family, followed by desperate quests for fairness and justice, with a good-size helping of violence.  The story combines Luke and Abigail coming of age, realizing exactly what their country is and what they can – and cannot – do to save it.  Their counterpoint is the Jardine sons.  One grows into betrayal, one into on-again/off-again decency, and one is a sociopath, caring almost nothing about anything beyond his Skill.  One family is Slave and the other Equal and they are bound together.

Characters have a range of emotions and motives although a few of them remain opaque.  The villains are notably sketchy (after all, what author wants to delve into the mind of a psychopath like Crovan?)  Even Abi and Luke feel more like people in a book rather than real people.  Despite the somewhat-limited character building we can empathize enough to realize the incredible danger and no-win situations for the individuals and the overall country.

Overall Tarnished City is well-done.  It is difficult to read in large doses given the truly terrible and horrifying events and situations that Vic James develops.  On the downside there are a lot of characters and some are in-and-out, no one you have to remember.  The author tries to help us keep the point of view narrator clear by noting the person in the chapter titles, but it is still a little hard to recall a minor character from the first novel.

I just received an advance copy of the final novel, Bright Ruin, and am curious how James will end this.  There is no happy ending that I can see.

Please note that this series is marked YA because the protagonists are older teens but I certainly would not recommend this to anyone very young.  The concepts are blatantly moralistic and political, and while we hear the villains tell us why they think they are right, they don’t make a lot of sense.  Don’t give this to a young person who can’t distinguish motive from means from ends.

4 Stars

Homecoming: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel by Orlando Sanchez

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I liked Homecoming, just as I’ve liked almost all the Montague and Strong series, but it wasn’t quite up to the standards author Orlando Sanchez set with his first four novels in the series.

On the plus side we have the usual badness from Monty and Simon, we have Uncle Dex, we have Peaches, we have a super villain Oliver who wants to take over the mages first, then the world, we have Professor Ziller, he whom everyone refers to when they discuss the most  esoteric (and scary) magic and we have non-stop action.

So what’s wrong?  First, people just die for what seems like little reason, sacrificing themselves for little gain.  The bodies pile up, which is not uncommon in a M&S book, but usually it’s clear why they are dying.  In Homecoming why do the villainous side-kicks throw their lives away?  Their goal is for Oliver to rule; it is hard to see how that motivates minions and henchmen to throw themselves on Monty’s magic swords.  (I’m having a hard time imagining Oliver’s motivation speech.)

Second, I cannot abide new characters LD and TK Tush.  Who wants people who care only about how scary and how much magical power they have?

Third, the byplay between Simon and Monty is the centerpiece of the M&S novels, it is the reason the stories work.  Homecoming has the interaction but it doesn’t feel as immediate as other novels.  Simon seems to play catch up much of the novel.

Author Sanchez says he is letting us further into the M&S world with each novel, letting us peek behind the scenes and learn more about each character.  He gave us quite a bit on Monty in Homecoming and its predecessor Silver Clouds, Dirty Sky.  I enjoy getting to know the characters and the feeling we truly are getting acquainted.

I couldn’t put Homecoming down, just as with the prior novels in the series.  The super-fast pace has a downside, though, in that a couple of months after reading it I didn’t recall the events very well.  I had to go back and check a couple things when the sequel, Dragons and Demigods, came out (which of course I immediately purchased and read.)  Much as I enjoy speed-of-light plots, it might be wise to linger a bit over some of the Simon/Monty or Peaches scenes and let us readers savor the pleasure.

4 Stars

Dragons and Demigods – Montague and Strong Detective Agency by Orlando Sanchez

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I love the Simon Strong and Tristan Montague books; in fact, I immediately re-purchased those I lost when I sold my business.  (You can read about that here.)  Possibly that’s why I was disappointed in Book 6, Dragons and Demigods.

The interaction between Simon and Monty is the heart of the story and the source of the series’ charm; the first several books and some of the short stories show this interaction – their trust, liking, appreciation, complementary styles and strengths – growing over time as they deepen their friendship.  Yet here, in this novel, and to some extent in the book just prior, Homecoming, Simon acts more like a tag-along than an equal.

Monty needs to face TK Tush in magical combat, as payback for his temerity in anchoring a magical bridge to her in a life and death situation.  Of course Simon goes with Monty, yet he shows almost no curiosity before the fight, how it will work, what his role is as Monty’s second, whether Monty even expects to survive.  Remember, Monty is Simon’s best friend and business partner; would you not have a zillion questions beforehand in a similar situation?  Instead Simon trails along, does what he’s told.

The other problem with this book is the secondary helping characters are weak.  In prior novels we had fantastic side kicks, but Dragons and Demigods once more drags in TK and LD Tush.  TK is so full of herself, so convinced that everyone should fall down in awestruck wonder at her awesome powers, that she cannot accept Monty “using” her.  How dare he!  Thus we wasted the first half in a duel.

Overall the plot is decent, fast moving and has some of the same fun quirkiness as the rest of the series.  Castor and Pollux making their first appearance since The Warden, and they are seriously bad news.  I look forward to seeing more of them as they play both helper and opponent roles.

Reading Dragons and Demigods left a bad taste; I felt like author Sanchez zigged left, taking Simon down a dozen notches, when I wanted him to zag right, leaving Simon as Monty’s equal and formidable and growing.  I purchased this from Kindle and think I’ll use the Kindle Unlimited borrowing for the next ones.

3+ Stars

 

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Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper – Unsatisfying Fantasy Humor

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Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper is meant to be funny, and it starts out well.  The Grim Reaper is Death himself, cape, cowl and scythe; Kingston Raine is the fictional hero of the newly not-supposed-to-be-dead author Don Keaton.  Don writes enormously popular novels featuring the intrepid Kingston Raine but is stuck half way through book number 7.

The book gets complicated.  Death is the CEO of Death, Inc., and under threat by a hostile takeover and hostile unions.  Somehow Death turns Kingston Raine from a character in a story to a person who is now hiding in Limbo.  It gets more and more complicated, and less and less intelligible and less and less interesting as we go.

Death was the best character here and I skimmed most of the book looking for his scenes, which became less enjoyable as the book progressed.  Kingston Raine is a jerk, annoying and I skipped his parts.

The premise, with Death as a company set up to process souls in Limbo before sending on to their final destination, is intriguing and could make a likable story.  Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper, sadly, is not that likable.

1-2 Stars

Mini Reviews – Fantasy Books from So-So to Really Bad

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Scattered Seasons (The Season Avatars Book 2) by Sandra Ulbrich Almazan

Author Almazan tries to combine Regency-style romance with fantasy in Scattered Seasons, similar to Patricia Wrede in her Mairelon the Magician but doesn’t quite work.  Gwen is a noblewoman, betrothed to neighbor William (whose mother fits all the mother-in-law stereotypes) and also the Avatar of Spring in waiting.  She is infected by a cursed pottery shard that renders her unable to remember how to use her healing magic.

The characters are not too bad but the plot is far thinner than it needs to be.  Their ancient enemy is attacking the four season avatars in hopes of disabling their sponsoring “gods”.  In the bulk of the novel Gwen chases from one end of the country to the other to find her other three co-avatars in waiting, all while dodging her disapproving fiance and family; the actual action is at the end.

I ended up skimming the book, curious whether anyone was ever going to do something or we were just running around.  (I have had quite enough novels that waste hundreds of pages tromping from place to place.)  Also there was no map and the book had only hints of the enmity and world building.

The Afterword mentioned that book 1 in the series used the same characters as young people.

2-3 Stars

Death by Advertising by J. R. Kruz, Interesting Short Story that Just…Ends

Death by Advertising could have been, should have been good.  Tess’s longtime friend and business partner Judy is supposedly dead.  She announced it with a beautiful ad for the funeral home, an ad that had the funeral attendees sign up for their final packages in droves.  Judy was a marketing genius who worked with artificial intelligence to design unbelievably effective ads – as witness her funeral home copy.

Supposedly Judy has been cremated and her ashes scattered, but the doctor who signed the death certificate died the year before and the whole thing makes no sense.  Unless, of course, Judy is alive.  Or the AI cooked the whole thing up.

I was drawn in and curious what was going on.  Instead of getting more information, author J. R. Kruz simply ends the book.  Instead of an interesting novella we have a truncated short story that left me feeling gypped.

2 Stars because it has so much promise, 1 Star for the ending.

One Way Ticket by Alia Hess, Freebie Novella for the Travelers Series

One Way Ticket isn’t bad but it isn’t very good.  Protagonist Sasha is a ne’er-do-well who just lost the grandmother that he loved and who kept him more or less straightened out.  Sasha finds an website that claims to be able offer a semi-effective vaccine against North American Hemorrhagic Fever, the disease that killed 99% of the people in North America and is still deadly years later.

Sasha decides to go, even though he must leave the cat he loves, everything and everyone he knows, and despite knowing the vaccine has some unpredictable bad side effects or partial effectiveness.  It was interesting to watch a young man decide to take a huge leap into the unknown, away from the heavy government surveillance, drinking, scummy friends.

I might try reading one of the longer books in the Traveler Series as One Way Ticket has promise.  Author Alia Hess gives this away to entice readers to her longer novels and mentions the second book, Chromeheart, reintroduces Sasha.

3 Stars

Showdown (Wyrd West Chronicles Book 1) by Diane Morrison, “Weird West” Fantasy/Western/Cattlepunk Novelette

The author tries something new, combining post apocalyptic story with westerns with fantasy, and it’s interesting enough to read but not enough that I want to read any more.

Kudos to the author for making her setting feel real, a cross between the OK Corral and hell spawn attacks in a barren, dry Canada sometime after a Cataclysm destroyed our civilization and unleashed magic and evil galore.  She embeds her otherwise stock characters (think Luke Skywalker as the sherrif out to stop the evil gunman) with some feeling, making them a notch above cardboard.

I just don’t like the story or premise or characters and won’t read any more in what is now a series of six novellas.  Writing is decent,using flashbacks to show us the young boy and setting.

2 Stars

Spinning Time Preview by D. F. Jones  Teenagers, Lust, Jealousy, Didn’t Get to the Time Travel Part

I received a preview of Spinning Time via Instafreebies and won’t be buying the full novel.  It is billed as time travel but the preview showed a bunch of teenagers drinking and partying.  Rich Julia decides to date the local weirdo Phillip and her former boyfriend decides he is jealous and picks a fight.

The Amazon blurb for the full novel mentions Julia gets tossed 70 years into the future and must find a way back to Phillip.  Sorry, no.

1 Star

Winter Wren by Miranda Honfleur, Blade and Rose Short Story

Winter Wren is a short story designed to introduce us to Miranda Honfleur’s Blade and Rose series.  The story was pretty good although the ending and some of the character interactions were unappetizing.  I may buy the full novel, Blade and Rose, although it sounds a little melodramatic in the Amazon blurb:  “A kingdom in turmoil or the love of her life. Which one will she save?”

Edgehill (The Kingdom of Shadows Book 1) by Thomas Rouxville.

The cover on Edgehill is great.  The novel is really, really bad.  Our heroine Athena learns she is a Guardian of the Kingdom.  The kingdom is threatened by shadow that its king has invited in and all the men are called to the army.

Sadly, we never learn what a Guardian is.  Is Athena supposed to have magic?  Wisdom and diplomacy beyond her years?  What does a Guardian do?  74 Pages and we never ever get to this rather crucial point.

Of course the ladies left in town have no idea whatsoever how to act with their husbands gone; they are unable to run a farm or a mill or bakery or shop.  Not to worry, Athena will show them!  Not at all clear how ladies who stood beside their husbands for years would not have learned pretty much everything the man did, nor how an 18 year old girl will be able to teach anything.

I finished this only because I was sure we’d finally learn just what is going on with the Guardian business, but nope, no answers here.  Luckily it was a freebie.

1 Star

An Altercation on Rykkamon and Misguided Knight of the Onyx Order (Ancient Realms, #1) A.J. Flowers, Two Disappointing Novellas

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Independent authors give away short stories, as teasers to intrigue readers, provide an enticing story that makes one want more.  An Altercation on Rykkamon and Misguided Knight of the Onyx Order are both parts of larger series.  The authors must give us something to hook us in:  interesting and vivid characters or a blindingly fast and fun plot or a compelling back story or possibly a unique setting, as otherwise we readers yawn and move on, never purchasing another.

An Altercation on Rykkamon by Robert Scanlon is science fiction, featuring a brother sister duo who are on the fringe, possibly smugglers, who fight off a rival/enemy.  This trope – a fringe/smuggler/PI/small trader operating in space – may be easy to sketch out but it must be very difficult to pull off as a solid story.  I’ve read very few stories in this motif that are any good and it must be especially hard to do in a short story where the authors have little time to develop a back story or characters.

An Altercation on Rykkamon has a strong female lead that feels flat.  The back story, why the duo is hunting clues to their father’s death, why and how they ended up with his weapon, isn’t compelling, and to top it off, we have too many cutesy words like commPanel and laserSword.  Overall the story is just OK.

Misguided Knight of the Onyx Order by A. J. Flowers s fantasy with an unexplained world where the kings and queens apparently have magic and fight continually.  The plot and characters are wooden and left me feeling disinclined to look into the back story.

2 Stars Misguided Knight of the Onyx Order

2-3 Stars for An Altercation on Rykkamon

 

Shi: A Dark Adventure into Living Forever (Immortality Interrupted Book 1) C. F. Villon

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Shi: A Dark Adventure into Living Forever (Immortality Interrupted Book 1) has its good points and its bad.  On the good side the story moves along and kept my attention as I wondered what Eliza would do, the group she served, and how she would extricate herself.  On the bad side the story is ridiculous and the character left me cold.

Eliza made a very bad bargain 80 years ago.  On the one hand she escapes murder charges and now gets to live “forever”.  On the other hand her “forever” is contingent upon her always doing what her unknown bosses tell her to do, enforced by a drug, Shi, that confers youth and life, if she gets a dose every day.  Dose Denial is a death sentence because this drug withdrawal is a killer.

Characters

Author Villon presents Eliza to us as a normal soccer mom, aside from her assassin skills, secret hideout and drug problem of course.  Consistent with her “normal mom” persona, Eliza feels emotionally invested with her ex husband’s grandchildren, even though she knows none of them and detested her ex for dumping her.

Eliza is a murderer, a true villain, yet we somehow see her as likable and root for her to find a way to ditch the organization.  She shows her selfish side when she idly makes a crack to her drug administrator about him skimming – despite knowing that such actions will cause the organization to kill him.  She also will not give up the imitation immortality, and it appears she wouldn’t give up the Shi even if she could do so safely without dying 24 hours later.

Her character is inconsistent.  Eliza has no reason to trust anyone associated with the organization but follows Asher.

Overall

I didn’t like the premise or the characters but must admit I finished Shi and enjoyed parts of it.  I don’t intend to read the sequels.  I’m curious how it ends but do not care what happens to the characters.

3 Stars

 

Don’t Look at the Cover! Piercing the Veil: A Supernatural Occult Thriller by Guy Riessen

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Ignore the cover.  Please.  This book is pretty good, enjoyable with plenty of nutty characters, a wild plot and enough background to make it all work.  Just get by the cover, open it up and enjoy.

Guy Riessen creates a world where all the Lovecraft horrors are real, where the veil between our world and Evil is slim and frayed.  And researchers/monster-busters Derrick and Howard, with their team members Mary and Sara, are professors at Miskatonic U in the day and creepazoid slayers at night.  Derrick teaches astrophysics and is an electronics whiz with eidetic memory.  Howard, former military and NAS, is a peerless sharpshooter, teaches history and is a linguist.  Mary is a medical doctor and scientist.  Sara leads the team.

The chemistry among the team members is real and believable and makes the book.  We open with Derrick and Howard investigating a poltergeist report in national forest somewhere remote in California.  They enter a deserted house, find the meth operators cut up in the basement and barely manage to escape a giant bone monster.  In fact Derrick breaks his leg and the necromancer behind the trouble captures Derrick to learn as much as he can about security around artifacts that Miskatonic holds.

This small part and a few others were a bit confusing.  Howard gets away but Derrick doesn’t, yet Howard leaves and we don’t even see where the necromancer had been hiding.  With books like Piercing the Veil you usually find a few implausible leaps of plot, and if the author is good you don’t stop reading, you shrug and go on.  That’s what I did.

I’ve been reading several books in Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter series and found Piercing the Veil a notch above for readability and enjoyment.  (Correia spends way too much time describing his guns.)  It reminds me of Charles Stross’ Laundry series more than anything else, but with less moral ambiguity, less bureaucracy, and more interesting people and more fun.

Characters

Piercing the Veil  spends many pages showing the interplay between Howard and Derrick.  Both are – or can be – completely serious, adult, dedicated.  In the meantime they play games like Dungeons and Dragons, drink beer and watch bad movies.  They are friends.  Derrick is the prototypical clueless nerd, desperate to go past “colleagues and friends” into romance land with Sara, but he’s afraid and keeps waiting for the perfect moment.  Howard urges him to man up, stop waiting and take a chance but it doesn’t happen here.

Riessen describes Mary as the stereotype girl scientist, right down to glasses, lab coat and pocket protector, but it’s obvious that Mary is far more.  She and Sara risk their lives working with Howard and Derrick to stop the Shadow Men, then the necromancer.  All four have unique gifts and one of Mary’s is the ability to see real vs. fake artifacts, to see through magical deceptions.  The book ends with her discovering that the recovered artifacts are mostly fake…leading of course to a sequel!

We don’t get a good idea of the villainous necromancer.  He’s obviously short on ethics, but we don’t know much about his motivation.  You have to be pretty motivated to kill a bunch of people, suck an entire town into worshiping the elder pseudo-gods, kill even more people, sacrifice more people, and send Shadows against the Miskatonic team.  We know his wife and son were killed in a brutal attack, but not who killed them, why or how that connects to his nastiness now.  That’s probably in the sequel too.

Overall

Piercing the Veil is not great literature.  it is entertainment.  It’s reasonably well-written, with a fast plot that’s fun to read, with characters that I liked, with a villain that is not so villainous as to be unbelievable.  I will certainly look for the sequel.

I tend to rate books at face value; so a book that aims to entertain and does so, that only minor eye-rolling moments, that keeps my interest, that I look forward to reading, that I stayed up to finish, I rate based on the entertainment value, not for its literary quality.

4 Stars (entertainment)