Review: Hayden's World: Volume 2

Hayden's World: Volume 2 by S.D. Falchetti
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Janus 2: ***
Bernard’s Promise: ****

This is the second collection of of hard science shorts in the James Hayden Universe and it looks at First Contact. Over all it was better than Vol 1 with each story having more room to develop and become interesting (both novellas were slow starting up). It is obvious that a lot of thought went into the science for these stories and for the most part the author came across as knowledgable … but that also means that some of the extensive descriptions and explanations slowed down the narrative a bit and I am sure that experts in these science and tech fields could find plenty wrong with the details, but for the casual reader it was an entertaining mind exercise that I enjoyed.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Shadowmaker

The Shadowmaker by T.J. Champitto
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A Solid Crime Adventure/Thriller Story

This is the first of a new action/ thriller series. The main character, Henry Sirola, is a master thief working for an eastern European mob organization. He and long time bestie, Darius, are recruited for the score of a lifetime, which naturally seems too good to be true. Henry’s old flame (Isabell) is also along for the ride and gives us the possibility for a little romantic reconciliation. When it all inevitably goes sideways, the team scrambles to fix everything, going up against government corruption and a Brazilian crime syndicate. Along the way, we see secrets/mystery and betrayal that keeps you guessing with a few late reveals, but nothing too surprising. Henry is a very likable, and somewhat flawed, anti-hero that is also and FBI informant (making him sort of a good guy - right?) … which to be honest, I am not clear on how that advances the plot, which for most of the story seems to be a legitimate salvage and sale … the only question is why are crime lords involved at all. At any rate, the action and pacing is good enough to easily pull your through the story without losing interest and keep it entertaining. The ending was a bit ambiguous, although for the most part satisfying.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Unseen Blade

The Unseen Blade by Ambrose Z. Adams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: **

A Derivative YA Fantasy w/ poor narration

This is a YA coming of age story complete with a school of magic and a “chosen one.” Kids are “sorted” into specialities and placed into small “combat” teams that was ridiculously like a magical fight club (and the required bully). There is a parallel story about a conflict between werewolves and vampires that was highly predictable and not very interesting … at least until it intersects with the main plot late in the last half of the book. Of course … getting there requires a few time jumps punctuated by child combat to grievous injury et al. Despite all that, there is some character development (as might be expected with the coming of age genre). Bottomline, it was not nearly as interesting as I thought it would be given the premise from the jacket blurb. This was aggravated by the poor narration performance where the performance came across extremely awkward and wooden. It might help if playback speed is bumped up.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Bleeding Stone

The Bleeding Stone by Joseph John Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

A Slow Fantasy with a Colonizer Trope

The story is told from the perspective of a native tribal culture in retreat from a more technologically advance colonizing civilizations that is an obvious nod how the European powers colonized the Americas. In this case, the “natives” are of course more attuned to nature (Sun Tribe, Wood Tribe, Stone Tribe, et al), with some minor supernatural gifts that are awarded by a special ceremony when they become adults. The invaders primarily use firearms (flintlocks) which apparently are too advance for the natives to figure out a counter So yeah … there despite the very interesting premise, there are parts of the world-building that are overly simplistic and tropey. That makes the main driving force behind the story the characters … with the the bad guy a typical arrogant fool and the FMC an emotional wreck … because she was born under the eclipse and should have been “exposed” as a cursed born child.

The bulk of the story focused on developing the extremely dysfunction relationships between the FMC and various members of her tribe (allies and enemies) while highlighting her self-destructive behavior that made her much less appealing over all. There are slowly revealed mysteries that remained largely unexplored (although there is a hint at the end that is really only there to pull you into the sequel). Still, the bones of a pretty good story are there. It loses points for the time jumping across three (3) separate timelines (not a fan) and the really slow (almost nonexistent) and the unsatisfactory (and rushed) ending. It gets credit for a solid narration though making it a decent piece of entertainment.

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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