Monthly Archives: August 2023

books, Horror, Reviews, Urban fantasy

The Killing Floor Blues (Daniel Faust 5) by Craig Schaefer

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Stars: 5 out of 5.

This is the best book of the series so far, at least in my opinion!

It starts off strong with Daniel Faust waking up on a prison bus in transfer to a prison, when last time we left him at the end of book 4, he’d just been framed for a murder and arrested… Only it seems that four months have passed, he’d already been put on trial (and lost), and he is being transferred to a maximum security prison to serve a life sentence. Confused yet? Add to that the fact that Daniel doesn’t remember anything about those four months. To him, he was arrested, and next time he woke up, he was on this bus. 

I loved that the reader gets to experience that state of confusion and disbelief with the character. I even went back to the end of book 4 and re-read the ending just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. This confusion helps empathize with the character. Makes the reader root for him even more than before.

And Daniel will need all the support he can get in this book, because for once, he doesn’t have his friends and family to help him. He doesn’t even have access to his magic tricks. He is utterly alone in a hostile environment where people get shanked for just looking at the wrong person at the wrong time. Oh, and somebody really wants him dead to boot. And not only dead, but he needs to suffer horribly before he dies.

This was a very fast-paced story with constant tension, because not only is Daniel like a fish out of water here (although he does the best he can with the cards he is given), but also because so many different things are wrong with this prison. And the more wrong you discover, the more worried you become about the protagonist.

I also loved that when he finally manages to get help, the issuing fight is awesome and spectacular. And I’m not even a little bit irritated with Caitlyn in this book, which is rare. I think her almost total absence from the story is what made this book so great.

All in all, I love the direction in which this series is progressing. I want to know who the man with the Cheshire smile is and what his end game is. Something tells me Daniel and team are going to mess his plans so bad, he won’t realize what hit him. And I will be happily along for the ride.

books, Military science fiction, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Centers of Gravity (Frontlines 8) by Marco Kloos

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DNF at 45%.

I love me a good space opera from time to time. Heck, I’m both a Star Wars and a Star Trek fan. I watch and read plenty of scifi. Problem is, I want my space opera to be, if not smart, then at least entertaining, with a good story and relatable characters I want to invest my reading time into. Not the case here.

The characters here are absolutely lifeless. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they are not characters at all, but cardboard cutouts with a series of threats needed by the author to progress the story. Heck, even the protagonist is so bland that I can’t remember his name a week after I gave up on this book. We don’t know his motivations, we don’t know his needs or wants, or even his fears. Yes, we are told that he is married and misses his wife, but it’s told in such a clinical manner that there is no sentiment behind it. The side characters are even less defined.

My other problem is that there really isn’t much of a female representation in this book. And the little we have are either guys in skirts, or a guy’s wet dream. Which we often see in books written by men, unfortunately. It takes talent to create tridimensional characters, especially those of the opposite sex. And effort. In my opinion, the author simply didn’t put in the effort here. Which might be okay for some if action is all they had come for. Unfortunately, action is usually not enough for me.

Speaking of action, this book takes way to long to set up the stage for it. The first 30-40% is basically set up where nothing happens. Characters fly through space. Characters talk. Characters walk. Characters make plans. It can be made interesting if the characters were interesting which is not the case here. 

The writing is… serviceable when it comes to description and action scenes, but sucks when it comes to dialog. All characters sound the same, which, since they have no personality to speak of, is not surprising. But the dialog also doesn’t sound natural. People don’t speak like that, even in the future. This is when I’m glad that I don’t listen to audiobooks, because good luck trying to instill life into those conversations. 

In summary, this is definitely not for me. I mean, the action might be phenomenal in the second half of the book, but I didn’t care enough to stick around for it.

PS: I received an advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

books, Reviews, science fiction, Time Travel

Lost in Time by A.G. Riddle

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Stars: 1.5 out of 5.

Pfew, glad I’m finally done with this book. It’s not particularly long, but boy it dragged. 

Truth be told, I only picked it up because the blurb promised time travel and dinosaurs. Unfortunately, there is precious little of them in this story. And that timeline is completely ignored for the last 50% of the book, much to my disappointment. Also, how can you make a story of survival at the time of dinosaurs boring? I thought that was impossible.

The characters are also nothing to write home about. And what I mean by that is that they are lifeless. They are just concepts with a few distinct traits and flaws to differentiate them by, not real fleshed out characters. Adeline is the worst offender in this department. Too bad she is the one we follow the most in this book. By the time the author completely drops Sam’s story at the time of the big reptiles and focuses solely on Adeline and her valiant attempt at making her life even more boring than it was, I was sorely tempted to just DNF this book. But I had already read about 67% of the story, so I felt bad for my time investment and wanted to at least see this through and find out what this murder mystery was all about. 

Spoiler alert – it makes no sense whatsoever. Turns out the murder is not really a murder, so all the pain and suffering for Sam and Adeline was for no good reason at all. Also, that whole plot twist with Adeline’s time travel served no particular point either. 

And the ending… don’t start me on the ending. Are we really supposed to think that his little utopia island of theirs is supposed to be a paradise on earth? These people are effectively prisoners there until they die. How long before some of them decide they had enough and stage an insurrection? 

Also, what was the point of this story? The murder wasn’t really a murder, so the driving factor behind all this is moot. The end result is also deeply unsatisfying. 

The writing stile was also very dry and impersonal. That coupled with one-dimensional characters made it very hard to stay engaged in the story or to care about what was happening at all. I don’t think I will pick up another book by this author.

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Ghost Story, Reviews, Urban fantasy, YA

The Creeping Shadow (Lockwood and Co 4) by Jonathan Stroud

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Stars: 4.5 out of 5.

This series continues to deliver, and we finally get some answers (and a lot more questions).

It’s wonderful to have the team back together by the end of this book. I understand why Lucy thought she needed to leave at the end of the previous book, but I think that she also learned a couple valuable lessons. First that you need a team you can count on and companions you can trust. Second, that there are situations that you simply cannot deal with on your own. And finally, that Lockwood will always be Lockwood, and he will always play with death with abandon, like he has a death wish (pun intended).

The world in this series is getting bleaker by the book. It almost seems like the whole of the UK is permeated by some kind of despair. The Problem is getting worse. More and more Visitors are manifesting almost everywhere, people are dying, so everyone just goes about their day with a sort of resigned pessimism. 

It is also rather disheartening to see that the two agencies that are supposed to be the last defense against the Problem are, in fact, using said problem for their own gains. I mean there were already hints that things were not as they seemed in previous books, but here the message comes across as loud and clear. I even wonder if Fittes and Rotwell didn’t cause the Problem in the first place, especially considering the revelation we get at the end of the book.

So it is with a certain amount of trepidation that I look forward towards reading the next and last book in the series. The lines have been drawn, and some not so subtle threats have been voiced. Will our friends from Lockwood and Co survive the confrontation with a giant like the Fittes agency? And more importantly, will they finally uncover the cause of the Problem and save England? 

books, Dark fantasy, Fantasy, Reviews

Faded Steel Heat (Garrett Files 9) by Glen Cook

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Stars: 3 out of 5.

This is the weakest of the Garrett stories so far, and compared to the previous ones, it was  a big disappointment.

First things first, it dragged way past the time when it was a polite thing to bow out and say goodbye. I would say at least 50-60 pages past that point. This book seemed way too long in general, with a lot of filler that could have been cut out without hurting the story. 

Second issue – I get it that Garrett is a chick magnet and that his brain goes down south every time he sees a good looking enough woman, but it was a bit of an overkill in this story. It stopped being cute and became irritating at about the halfway point. 

My biggest disappointment however is the reveal about Glory Mooncalled. I think Glen Cook dropped the ball on this big time. I think I get what he was trying to go for – don’t meet your heroes and all that, but this was so anticlimactic… I mean Glory Mooncalled has been the driving force behind most of the background events in this series since book 1. By now, he acquired an almost mythical status. To end it the way the author ended it… I don’t know, I feel like it’s a huge disservice to the character and so much waisted potential.

Honestly, same could be said about Sadler and Crask. That was a bit of an underwhelming ending for those two characters that have always been larger than life.

Another complaint is that we didn’t have nearly enough Morley Dotts in this book, but what had what wonderful. I love the interaction between Garrett and him. 

I feel like it’s then end of an era in the Garrett Files series. So much was tied around Glory Mooncalled and his actions in Kantard that I honestly don’t know where the series will be going not. But even though I was not as thrilled with this book as I was with the previous ones, I am definitely looking forward to continuing the series.

books, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Reviews

The Last Storm by Tim Lebbon

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Stars: 2 out of 5.

This book tried to marry two different ideas in the same story – a climate disaster story and a story about people with a special ability that ties them to a different world/dimension. I think the author wanted to pay homage to Stephen King and his many books that did the same thing.  Lisey’s Story comes to mind. That was one creepy and fascinating book.

Unfortunately, where Stephen King managed to marry the weird and the mundane into a seamless buildup of creepiness, this author failed, in my opinion. 

I think it stems from the fact that the power the Rainmaker family has is never truly explained or explored other than as a tool to rain disaster and death on an already ravaged country. That and the fact that it is described almost like a drug, an addiction, makes it really unpredictable and unattractive. 

Also, it is never truly explained how that power is tied to the horrible draught that is killing a vast part of the States, of if there is even a connection. And if there isn’t a connection, then what’s the point of this power in the story?

My other issue with this book is that all the characters are unlikeable, especially Ash. I mean, I was pretty interested and invested in her story while she was on a quest to assemble her device and make it rain… Until at about 61% in the book where she unleashes rains of blood and horrors upon this town, kills several people… and has absolutely no remorse about it. That’s where she lost all my support, as well as my desire to continue following her story.

I also don’t understand why everyone else is making excuses for her behavior. Oh, she is so special. She can make rain out of a clear sky… Yes, she can also unleash venomous creatures that attack everything in sight along with that rain. Oh, and by the way that rain will turn into a deluge that will make matter so much worse. 

Of the other protagonists we have Ashe’s father, who is a coward who’s response to a traumatic even had been to hide his had in the sand for almost a decade. Her mother who turned her whole life into an obsession. An ex-addict turned into Ash’s insta-groupie. And a psychopatic killer. Honestly, not a single one of them is likeable or even relatable enough follow into the story. 

I think I would have enjoyed this more if Ash wasn’t such an unrepentant addict who made excuses every time she messed things up. Or if the supernatural element was better tied into the rest of the story.

PS: I recieved an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in Exchange for an honest review.

books, Reviews, science fiction, Space opera

Neptune’s Brood (Freyaverse 2) by Charles Stross

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5.

First, I need to point something out for those who just finished the first book in the series. The sequel has absolutely no ties to the first book, apart from happening in the same universe, so be warned if you expect to learn more about Freya – she isn’t even mentioned in this book. My husband launched into this book right after he finished the first one, and he didn’t enjoy it as much precisely because of this. He said the disconnect was too big at the beginning of the book – it is the same universe, but all the characters are new. 

I, however, started book 2 about a year after I read book 1, so I didn’t mind the fact that we are told a completely different story a few thousand years in the future from the events of the first book as much. Sure, I would have loved to find out more about Freya and her sibs, but I was happy enough to explore this new evolution of the world introduced in book one.

And it’s a fascinating world where humanity (at least a variant thereof) spread into the stars and created a vast society of colonies almost everywhere in the universe close to their point of origin (Earth). I found the structure of their society fascinating. When warp drive or hyperspace or faster than light travel don’t exist, interstellar travel takes dozens, sometimes hundreds of years. Even laser uploads via laser arrays, the fastest form or interstellar travel, takes dozens of years. It’s fascinating to read about a society that thinks in scopes of centuries and even millennia when founding a new colony or engaging in any type of financial transaction.

The whole financial and economical system is very interesting as well, and, as far as I remember, this is the first science fiction story in which this aspect of a society is explored in so much detail and is so integral to the story. In fact, it’s a little bit too integral to the story, and the endless explanations on how slow money works and different fraudulent manipulations thereof were a bit tedious to go through after a while.

The biggest problem of the book, at least for me, was the main protagonist, Krina. She is a very passive character that reacts more than acts on her own. For the duration of the book, she had been a victim of the circumstances, kidnapped, altered, thrown into the deep end of a water planet, etc. And when she finally gathers enough power to have her own agency… the story ends. That was very disappointing, especially when you compare Krina to Freya from the first book.

Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed this story, even if I could have used a little less exposition about the different financial instruments. This is definitely a series worth your time and effort.

books, Ghost Story, Reviews

Ask for Andrea by Noelle W Ihli

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Stars: 4 out of 5

This packs a surprising emotional punch for a ghost story and serial killer story. I hadn’t expected to get this emotionally attached to the characters, but the author did an excellent job making them unique, human, and lovable. Which makes this story even more tragic because all three main characters are ghosts haunting the man that killed them.

The first three chapters in the book describe how each of the three women was killed, and it’s visceral and horrible. I could really feel their fear and pain, and then confusion and hurt when the realization came that they were dead, but still stuck here. And it goes to showcase how different these women are because they choose to do different things when they realize that they are dead. Brecia immediately tries to follow her killer, to do something about it, to try to reach out into the world of the living and exact her revenge. Meghan is paralyzed by fear and spends months by her corpse, watching it decay and praying that she will be found. And Skye goes home and tries to let her mother know that she is still here.

And despite the fact that these three women area already dead, the tension in this book only keeps growing with each page, as they watch, helpless, as their killer prepares to kill again. I was especially heartbroken for Brecia, because she had to watch him kill Meghan, and realize that no matter what she tried to do, she couldn’t save her. She also had to live with the killer and discover that there are three more innocent lives that could be in danger – his wife and two daughters. 

In fact, the last part of the book, when the women follow them into the forest, had me at the edge of my seat and biting my nails.

This is definitely a very good book, and I recommend it.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

books, Fantasy, Reviews, Urban fantasy

Magic to the Bone (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress 7) by Annie Bellet

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Stars: 3.5 out of 5

A lot of things happen in this book despite it’s small page count. First of all, Jade finally reunites with Wolf and integrates her into her own psyche so to say. This makes their bond stronger and more seamless than before. And she gets back her magic that she almost completely burned out in the previous books by rewinding time to save her friends from Samir.

Oh, and the final confrontation with Samir that we have been building up to for six books now, finally takes place. WARNING – SPOILERS:  So ding dong, Samir is dead by the end of this book. I am not sure how I feel about that. For six books he was built up as this ultimate big bad that Jade was so afraid of, so the final battle was a little… underwhelming? Don’t get me wrong, it was still intense and the stakes were high, but not high enough in my opinion. I guess that’s the issue with creating an ultimate big bad and hinting at how badass he is for six books – the reader has very high expectations of the final confrontation.

That disappointment notwithstanding, I liked Jade’s progress in this book. She finally realized that she can’t shelter her friends from danger all the time. And by trying to do that, she paints a big target on their backs and weakens herself as well, since she has to spread her attention so much. She realized that her friends weren’t hapless either, and that the best thing she could do was trust them to do their part in the fight.

That’s a lot of growth on Jade’s part, because all her life she was on the run, trying not to get attached, trying (and failing) over and over again to protect any found family she would create. 

I also liked that her friends trusted her enough to know she didn’t just run on them, even though they had no memories of the horrors that happened before she rewound time. I love protagonists who have a strong support system and wonderful friends.

The only question is what happens now? The big bad that loomed over Jade’s life for seven books is dead (or as good as dead), and there are three more books left in the series. What can be worst than an immortal sorcerer hell-bent on harvesting your heart and destroying everyone you love in the process? I guess I will have to pick up the next book to find out.

I am also a bit sad that Harper decided to leave town for a bit, though I understand why.