Review: Elodia's Knife: Book One of the Visigoth Saga

Elodia's Knife: Book One of the Visigoth Saga by Robert S. Phillips
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Book: *
Performance: ***

There Is So Much Wrong Here

To start … it is poorly written in passive voice with way too much descriptive text making it nearly impossible to actually put yourself into the story. Instead, the reader remains on the outside looking in, reading/listening to the third person narrative describing what happened, broken up by extremely awkward/unnatural dialog.
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There are zero sympathetic characters in this story. I uniformly disliked them all, not finding any of them to be even remotely believable. I don’t think there was a single relationships that was not extremely dysfunctional

There is way too much detail that doesn’t advance the plot … probably because the plot is MIA making this something of a rape fantasy that for some reason over uses the euphemism “bumping” as if that makes it all okay. This is even more aggravating because most of the historical details are just wrong … the roman military didn’t work like that, roman river patrol boats didn’t work like that, roman weapons and armor didn’t work like that, roman disciple and law didn’t work like that, roman christianity didn’t work like that … and all of these weird anachronisms might be hidden for most readers because the overarching history (the conflict between Rome and the Goths on the Danube) is at least correct in broad strokes. I found the poor research so ubiquitous that it was hard to ignore and I almost DNF.

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: Relics of Tomorrow

Relics of Tomorrow by Brandon Cleland
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: **

A Very Simple Trope filled Dystopian Story

It is a basic coming of age story in a dystopian world that is divided into levels according to net worth. A young, orphaned thief, dreams of making it to a level above the smog where he can ditch the O2 mask and see the sun. Of course … there is something special about the young hooligan … who eventually teams up it a shape changing alien who becomes something of a mentor for the “big league” of possession liberation. There is a little force humor between the pair as they have encounter a few mishaps in each caper/heist, but nothing too unbelievable (and or unexpected). The story does come across as something of a “paint-by-the-numbers” piece all the way to the end (which was a tad on the rabbit/hat or comic book style). Overall it was entertaining, but fairly forgettable.

The Narration was pretty basic. The reader struggled to differentiate character voices, especially for women, and there was something off that made the delivery feel awkward and unnatural to me. It was not so bad that I couldn’t tolerate it, but it did highlight the rather formulaic nature of the story to the point of amusement.

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: Classroom Management for Effective Teachers: How new teachers learn to stop reacting and start delivering smarter lesson plans that captivate and inspire.

Classroom Management for Effective Teachers: How new teachers learn to stop reacting and start delivering smarter lesson plans that captivate and inspire. by Catherine L Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ***

A Solid Reference, but more for younger students

It is actually a fairly basic reference that most teachers are probably already aware of; although perhaps a bit of review and reinforcements might help here. In addition, the focus is really on the younger side of the targeted students, with very little that I could see that would provide “effective” for middle school students. The narration was also pretty solid enough for a reference book, so that wasn’t much depth needed in the performance other than a good pace and intonation to keep your attention on the lecture. There are both about a 3.5*, so I am splitting the difference and rounding up, giving the nod to the book as it is also available in kindle unlimited.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Introduction (6:13)
Ch. 1: Utilizing active learning in your classroom (29:15)
Ch. 2: Promoting student agency (32:38)
Ch. 3: Creating a happy and productive classroom (27:41)
Ch. 4: Instilling positive disciple (22:39)
Ch. 5: How to manage a loud or disruptive classroom (16:52)
Ch. 6: Dealing with bullying and teasing (19:26)
Ch. 7: How to get the parents on your side (21:11)
Ch. 8: How can the parents facilitate their child’s education? (20:32)
Conclusion (6:53)

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 Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message

The Trojan Horse of Tithing: How Tithe Traditions Have Undermined A Pure Gospel Message by Jonathan Paul Brenneman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

Solid Foundation; Very Repetitive

This was an interesting treatment of the concept of tithing and how this idea for the foundation of doctrine within the charismatic/pentecostal wing of the Christian churches. While it appears to me that most of the scriptural interpretations are supportable, the author is mostly targeting fellow pentecostals … a community that I am not personally a part of. As such, there is a tremendous amount of virtue signaling and argumentation along with anecdotal characterization of current doctrine that didn’t really do much for me (you might say these are distracting segues or “rabbit holes’). In addition, that are several references to people/figures that are apparently well known to this community for which I have not exposure … so that does not really add much to the debate for me either. However, references to scripture always seemed appropriate for the topic and his interpretation appeared to be reasonable given what I know of the context (again … I already subscribe to spirit-led giving over tithing, so I don’t need to be convinced here). Then we get to the author’s own experiences within his community and the harm done by the teaching of a tithing doctrine and without any means to refute those specific examples was truly dismayed by them … which I think was the point … but makes the whole come across a lot more angry that I was comfortable with … which again … given the inclusion of the concept of the Trojan Horse … is probably the point … but which meant that I simply tuned out portions of the audible that seems repetitive and targeted for emotional manipulation. Over all this was an average book, but it was well researched and important enough of a topic that I am adding 1 to my overall rating.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Ch. 1: Let’s Get Ready To Take On an Intense Topic! (36:34)
Ch. 2: My Tithe Story (41:36)
Ch. 3: Who’s Teaching Salvation by Tithing? (43:59)
Ch. 4: Subtle Deception Paves the Way for Blatant Error (39:02)
Ch. 5: Is the Tithe “Law?” (16:52)
Ch. 6: Dealing with bullying and teasing (60:43)
Ch. 7: The History of Tithing (41:33)
Ch. 8: You Break God’s Commandments for the Sake of Your Tithing Tradition (45:38)
Ch. 9. “But Tithing Works!” (31:33)
Ch. 10. Tithing Undermines Spirit-Led Giving (66:31)
Ch. 11. Spirit-Led Giving (34:00)
Ch. 12. Corrupted Wisdom and Jesus’ Temptation (34:00)
Ch. 13. What About Ministerial Support? (27:20)
Ch. 14. Good News for the Poor (22:52)
Ch. 15. When Not To Accept an Offering (17:54)
Ch. 16. Mothers Are Pleading for Someone To Tell Their Children the Truth (15:38)

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: Boneyard Dog Omnibus

Boneyard Dog Omnibus by Andrew Beery
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book: ****
Performance: ****

A Fun Space Opera

This is a basic space opera in the same vein as what you might expect from Star Trek … in fact the debt owed here is visible from the frequent references to ST lore (and other 20th century anachronisms design to support the author’s sardonic sense of humor). Over all, you get a fair amount of the typical sci-fi tropes and campy style to be entertaining without going too far. In fact, there are clear cut good guys and bad guys, so character development is pretty shallow, so if you don’t like the humor, this book is not for you. They world building is also not very extensive; however, the science is done well enough that the various detailed info dumps that regularly apparent are actually interesting as speculative fiction (author has done his homework here) and the military structure and interactions is “close enough” not to be totally irritating.

The primary character (Ryker … perhaps another nod to TNG) is an officer of an earth space force that is recruited to head up a battle between heretofore unknown alien races (and various AIs) after a battle crippled ship limps into the Sol system. There are several stereo typical supporting characters, including one Mr Murphy who seems to have a knack for showing up when over our team starts winning; however, the also provides an opportunity for the MC to spout various snarky witticisms and creativity as he works through each setback … in fact, that is really the major part of the fun in this story. There is a bit of a Christian flare to some of the MC interactions and internal monologging, bit it has a light enough touch that it should be fine … although if you are within that tradition, there are element of the story that you might pick up on that others will miss (such as what appears to be a celestial or heavenly civil war between two “ancestor races” (maybe angels) with the bad guys being known as the defilers … doesn’t really impact the story … but is fun to think about.

Book 1: War Dog (5:25)
Book 2: Mad Dog (5:30)
Book 3: Hunting Dog (5:21)

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: Forsaken Commander

Forsaken Commander by G.J. Ogden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: **
Performance: ***

The [Force of] Non-belief is Strong In This One

It’s a Space Opera … so a certain level of silliness is expected … however, there is a point of diminishing returns and that point is in the rear view for this story. The classic elements (tropes) of a good story are there but are so mechanically stitched together that it never really takes on a life of its own. So we get a human stellar union (republic) that comes under threat from mysterious (Aternien) super-humans, aka post-humans (Sith anybody?). Their only hope is a couple of augmented humans (Jedi) wielding plasma swords (light sabers), their AI gopher bots (droids) and their former weapons platform (aka long sword spaceship) that was scuttled and abandoned (but apparently just needs a few patches and an OS to be good to go) after the previous war ended in an armistice (that being the perfect time to forget how to actually fight a stellar war). The one (damsel) human intelligence officer on the team is apparently there to serve as a foil to show just how much the augmented humans are over the top “Mary Sue(s)” … a fact that the reader is constantly reminded of ad nauseam … oh and the obvious shipping potential. So we have a team of three (3) good guys vs a handful of Uber bad guys in which was intended to be an Epic story, but there is not a single minion or supporting character in sight … and that is as good as it gets.

The character voices are pretty good and captured the witty banter well; however, the (overly dramatic) narrative text between that didn’t work for me. Still … it was good enough to improve my enjoyment of the story (at least a little) and enabled me to ignore some of the over explanation of the obvious as well as basic errors that would otherwise make no sense … such as a statement that ballistic rounds were unable to penetrate skin that was as solid as lead (which actually can be cut with a butter knife) … of shattered glass from a space shuttle cockpit … directing a massive warship (that maneuvers like a craft with a fraction of its mass) in a space battle with just three people … a rank of Major in a space Admiralty … nanites are basically magic plot armor … et al.

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: Day After Infinity

Day After Infinity by J.F. Lawrence
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ****

Welcome to the Ryanverse

By the author’s own admission, this story was inspired by Taylor’s Bobiverse series … in fact, it was perhaps too derivative to stand on its own merits. Instead of a human consciousness downloaded into a virtual environment … the author keeps the meat sack and adds a rather irritating AI whose sarcastic humor was generally hit or miss for me. Add in a few nanites and the ability to clone so that you can ignore the inherent human frailties and you are ready to pilot your very own von Neumann probe that gives us our very own Theseus Boat debate … which seems silly when you consider how often cells replicate and die within the human body.

Regardless, the story opens in a quasi-dystopian future after an apocalyptic AI war where the MC (Ryan) basically sells himself to one of three (3) interstellar colony projects headed to Tau Ceti. Apparently, as a result of his previous stint as a medical experimental subject perfecting the cryofreeze tech, his nanites (controlled by his secondhand AI riding shotgun in his head) are super effective in regenerating damaged tissue (aka regeneration factor), making him a near perfect candidate to be a “failsafe” or backup crew member, despite his lowly status, young age and humble beginnings (because picking on the underdog is a tried and true method of building an empathic connection to the MC). What follows is a virtual torture fantasy i(aka training simulations) that is primary designed to show how tough Ryan is (and slowly “upgrade” his human parts until he becomes the Borg and foreshadow his future) making the first half a very slow start.

We come back to the Bobiverse plot in the second half and Murphy makes sure Ryan must pick up his role as a failsafe … and some of the science inconsistencies become more obvious … but as the action ramps if it is also easier to ignore them. This is also where we reintroduce the bad guy … a rogue/insane AI (come on … you had to see this coming right? ref the Ai war and the Bobiverse? There are a few interesting twists as the story follows what by now should be a fairly predictable plot so it was the narration that actually kept it entertaining (and where the frat boy AI … called AL … calmed down enough to be less aggravating). Of course … the emotional drama ramps up as well in order to make the finale pull on heartstrings … and hide the plot holes that would otherwise had be large enough to drive a truck through. For those who miss the Bobiverse, this is a fun diversion.

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: Emotional Mastery: A Complete Guide to Emotional Abuse, Trauma Recovery, Shadow Work, Self-Esteem, Dark Psychology & Gaslighting: 3 books

Emotional Mastery: A Complete Guide to Emotional Abuse, Trauma Recovery, Shadow Work, Self-Esteem, Dark Psychology & Gaslighting: 3 books by Relove Psychology
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: *

This book is available for kindle unlimited and audible; I did both with Alexa reading the ebook for me. The audible version had several production issues (such as repeated phases, long gaps, background noises and struggling enunciation) that made the Alexa option more appealing; it seemed to get much worse toward the end of each book. The first two (2) books really covered the same ground with respect to emotional abuse and trauma where the first having much more light weight/hippie feel to it where the second seemed more clinical and worth the effort. The third book takes on Jungian psychology with a New Age slant. For folks the buy into repressed personality traits and the like, this would be an interesting topic; although the whole shadow trope for all of this feels a bit weird to me. Most of this probably should be done with a licensed therapist though. Over all the second book is worth a read, but the audible is a pass until the production issues are fixed.

Dark Psychology & GasLighting **
Introduction (7 min)
Chapter 1 - Protecting Yourself (24 min)
Chapter 2 - Breaking Free From Manipulation (17 min)
Chapter 3 - Rebuilding Confidence & Self-Trust (19 min)
Chapter 4 - Manipulative Techniques (23 min)
Chapter 5 - Gaslighting & Emotional Blackmail (16 min)
Chapter 6 - Hypnotism (17 min)
Chapter 7 - Relationships (25 min)
Chapter 8 - Self-Esteem (22 min)
Chapter 9 - Studies About Dark Psychology (20 min)
Chapter 10 - Grand Scale Manipulation (16 min)
Conclusion (7 min)

Emotional Abuse & Trauma Recovery ***
Introduction (9 min)
Chapter 1 - Emotional Abuse (26 min)
Chapter 2 - Narcissistic Abuse Recover (23 min)
Chapter 3 - Gaslighting (18 min)
Chapter 4 - Codependency (16 min)
Chapter 5 - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (15 min)
Chapter 6 - Breaking Free From Unhealthy Patters (17 min)
Chapter 7 - Prioritized Yourself and Set Boundaries (25 min)
Chapter 8 - Obsessive Thinking and CD (16 min)
Chapter 9 - Abandonment Fears (17 min)
Chapter 10 - Building Healthier Relationships (16 min)
Chapter 11 - Healing in Practice (22 min)
Chapter 12 - Hypnotism (11 min)
Conclusion (8 min)

Shadow Work for Beginners **
Introduction (10 min)
Chapter 1 - Your Shadow (10 min)
Chapter 2 - Shadow Work (18 min)
Chapter 3 - Self-Discovery (21 min)
Chapter 4 - Self-Acceptance (15 min)
Chapter 5 - Self-Esteem (23 min)
Chapter 6 - Your Unconscious Self (17 min)
Chapter 7 - Your Inner Child (11 min)
Chapter 8 - Healing Your Inner Child (19 min)
Chapter 9 - Exercise (48 min)
Chapter 10 - Master Your Emotions (15 min)
Conclusion (12 min)

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: Above Dark Waters

Above Dark Waters by Eric Kay
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I would put this story in the cyberpunk genre; although the author actually pays a little more attention to getting the science right than most. That is not to say that he always succeeds here, but that it is close enough to allow for a certain suspension of disbelief so that I could enjoy the story … because I am a bit retentive about details sometimes and getting things way wrong just bothers me.

The world is set up where the idea that started with The Principality of Sealand, a micronation off the coast of England, was expanded on to form a “seastead” craze … with at least 2 ridiculously large seasteads in the Northern Pacific serving as the primary settings for the story. One seems a lot more corporate while the other would be right at home in the Pirate Political Party. Guess which one the hero hails from? At any rate, the primary reason for the both appears to be cyber research, specifically into wetware tech and AI, which of course requires huge Data Centers that use the cold ocean water for cooling. Of course, there is a lot of detail that is glossed over in the book that would be required to make all of this work, but the general idea is actually interesting for my inner geek freak. There are two very important concepts that are explored here … the human/tech interface that allows a user to “hack” their own brain and general purpose artificial intelligence (AGI) that becomes sentient with an agenda that just might diverge a little from how it was originally conceived (yep … we have all seen the movie folks … so you know what to expect); however, while the ideas here are not new, they are combined in such a way that it was still fun to follow along.

The characters were interesting, and there was some growth here (given that the two main characters are ex’s at the start, there is a maturation that can still happen), but not really that much. Instead of more traditional character development, the story slowly builds a background to fill in the mystery of why they didn’t work). Both are driven, so when their goals diverged, so did the partnership, which seems to have allows taken second fiddle. Of course there is the required potential for reconciliation that is at the heart of the heroes journey, so it does all work rather well. And while most of the action happens in the last part of the book, the build up is fast paced enough to keep you engaged. Over all, I found the characters to be very relatable.

I enjoyed this book a lot … even when it devolved into word salad in parts toward the end … I am not really a fan of such choppy narration to build the transcendent feeling I think the author was going for … but many folks do like it. And it explores some important concepts about technology and whether or not there are things we should not do just because we can do them … and it does this in a very entertaining way … so I would say it is worth a read unless techie stories are just not your bag.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Dragon's Thief

The Dragon's Thief by Ava Richardson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first book in a YA Shifter Fantasy that teams up a human street rat (aka thief) and a [hot] shape changing dragon with a hint of romance. The world building here is decent, with elves on top and humans on the bottom and the dragons as the conquered former lords of all the world. There is a basic mythology about how magic came into the world by way of a dead god that centers on a mountain from which the dragons get their power … so when the elves managed a sneak attack against the aggressive dragon expansion that hide the mountain from them, the dragons basically lost all magic except their ability to changed into a humanoid (a bit of a stretch, but easy to work with).

There is plenty of distain and prejudice against the short lived and fragile humans by both elves and dragons, but in an enemy of my enemy trope, we get a dream team that just might be able to upset the status quo … but that is for the series arc … here we have two parts, each and a plot conflict to resolve. The first is when the human thief’s sister is unfairly arrested and “disappeared.” Saskia needs the dragons help to rescue her and strikes a bargain that is the focus in part 2. Despite the growing, and somewhat innocent, attraction between the two conspirators, there is a good balance of tension and individuality between them that makes for an entertaining, if somewhat slow, story … picking up momentum toward the end to earn an extra star.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Eluthienn: A Tale Of The Fromryr

Eluthienn: A Tale Of The Fromryr by Sam Middleton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another Vampire story with a twist.

After a slow start to introduce the two (2) PoV, the action picks up quickly and continues almost nonstop, making this hard to put down once it ramps up. First up is Lyander, a disgraced exorcist (aka demon hunter) for the universal church of the Fromryr, an alliance of peoples (humans, dwarves, elves, gnomes, et al.) that control most of the ancient magic and technology of a long vanished, advanced civilization that carved out the extensive caverns and tunnels deep below the surface world. Demons and their ilk get their power from the Immuratic dimension while some other monsters, such as vampires, are from the Aeturnic dimension … so when Lyander comes across a corpse that could be a living myth, he teams up with a sarcastic witch hunter to get to the bottom of it all, despite apparent antagonism from church authority, as the whole world seems to come apart at the seams. Along the way, we see the second PoV following Brazier, and his surviving crew from an ice mining ship lost in the vast caverns of Formoria, converge to help build a rich and extremely interesting fantasy world.

Woven into this well executed plot, is some amazing world building on top of a dystopian fantasy trope. Through the entire story, it is clear that we only see the tip of the iceberg here with the potential for discovery adding the the intense action … and for me … it all made sense … from the magical force that comes from the gyre ice (ref ice mining) to the dysfunctional politics to the steampunk like tunnel ships … it was all well done and awesomely fun (can’t wait to return to this world).

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: A Sundered Moon

A Sundered Moon by Luís Falcão de Magalhães
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Previous Review of A Silvery Moon
Previous Review of Mask of the Eternal Moon

This is the third book of the Legends of Elessia series, with an apparent expectation of another book coming soon. Setting aside the ridiculous conclusion of the prior book, this one starts with the ascendency (or resurrection/release) of the Blood God … one of an apparent trinity of god-like vampires that ruled many eons ago. While it doesn’t really explain why, the sisters ganged up and vanquished their brother his return here … and he is pissed. As his first act, he curses Lucius, a priest for the Daughter of the Pines, linking his existence with his nemesis, the high vampire Memphala … making access to his pure moon magic impossibly painful to both (since they are essentially sharing all the other experiences). Although this was a rather ham-fisted way to connect them, it does begin something of a redemptive arc for the vampire that could have been interesting if there had not been so much prior effort to show how irritably evil she was …. and as part of that shared experience, the priest changes and is pretty much damned (so it is unclear if this really is a redemptive arc).

At any rate … the writing style is the same that is seen in the previous two books, so if you enjoyed them, this is more of the same. I still found it awkward and simple, but somewhat entertaining. For almost the entire book, we see everybody moving back and forth preparing for and evening engaging against the new big bad, aka the Blood God, who have cursed the moon red and ripe out his keep and fly it north to ultimately destroy his sister, the Daughter of Ice (and apparent patron of undead). When all is said and done, this is primarily a mechanical adventure with vampires, necromancers, dwarves and humans and a few other monsters …

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Mask of the Eternal Moon

Mask of the Eternal Moon by Luís Falcão de Magalhães
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Previous Review of A Silvery Moon

This is the second book of the Legends of Elessia series and it quick obviously an attempt to bridge the first and last of the trilogy. As such, I felt it was not a good as the either of those two. Like book one, it is fairly short and very action packed (a plus). The write style was very straight forward and simple, so it was easy to follow, but didn’t really pull me into the story much. The pacing was also too fast in many places, but this was all the same of the previous book, so that was no surprise. The PoV also expanded from two to five+ and that was a few too many, especially the inclusion of the PoV for the various antagonists … I don’t need to get into the bad guys head to know how evil they are.

The story itself has our intrepid heroes hunting the ancient (high) vampire that escaped from the last battle in the previous book, and along the way, they realize that she is hunting a mask (from the book title) that would give her god like powers. So far … so good … except despite the looming doom that such an event would entail … the good guys are perpetually giving in to the threat of give me what I want and I will kill you quickly BS. Yes ... I find that aggravating enough to subtract a star from what would have basically an okay story with fairly predictable results all the way to the end (which does has a twist that I didn’t see coming … because it makes absolutely no sense).

The world building is decent … in a D&D adventure sort of way (so I could see marking this as a LitRPG). and Undead and Vampires are still at the center … so it that is your jam … you may be able to ignore the awkward prose. In fact, it took me a bit, but with this book it is clear that the girman, or what ever race Oskar is, are pretty much the same thing as stereotypical dwarves … making any apparent innovation on the fantasy trope only a thin veneer. The only reason that I see to recommend this story is that is is a lead into the last of the trilogy.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: A Silvery Moon

A Silvery Moon by Luís Falcão de Magalhães
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A Silvery Moon is the first of a fantasy trilogy where the MCs team up against undead monsters. The world building here is interesting is somewhat generic. My only complaint here is that the made up names are awkward (and simplistic) and tend to slow down my reading speed (so called it average). The characters are interesting, with a quick plot and storyline that inhibits much in the way of character development (so this is more along the lines of a novella or even a short story style). Over all … the decent enough story to bing the entire trilogy.

The MC are a priest/undead hunter wandering to where ever the goddess needs him. He has a few miracle/magical tricks that help along the way. His sidekick is a cranky old guy with a clockworks crossbow and a heavy accent. A local huntress rounds out the party as they investigate the strange goings on at a remote village … and of course … go up against a scheming and ancient evil undead. Lots of quick moving action helps keep you in the story as to rapidly moves to its predictable ending.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Twilight Wars: Empire Falling: A Twilight Imperium Novel

Twilight Wars: Empire Falling: A Twilight Imperium Novel by Robbie MacNiven
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A galaxy spanning space opera where two civilizations, the Sol Federal (that’s us if that was not obvious) and the Letnev (a militant species that is perpetually trying to throw off the oppressive hegemony of the imperial Lazax) go head to head in a stunning invasion and blockade of a new Sol Federation colony. Out gunned and on their own, the colony leaders attempt to prevent their complete annihilation by the Letnev invaders as the slow wheels of imperial politics struggles to even take notice of the conflict between their client civilizations. So after an exciting start, the story settles into back room deals, betrayal and political intrigue until everything inevitably explodes two thirds in … with the final Part III picking up after nearly a century of conflict.

Unfortunately there is a second story imbedded within the main arc that didn’t really contribute much to the main plot (outside of a secondary conflict between Arr and Tol … and a second interspecies war). While this part was still interesting, switching back and forth made the whole feel choppy and easy to put down. And while Part III brings the stories together, it also gives us an entirely different conflict resolution than what was introduced in the beginning. Ultimately this would have been three (stories), but there is simply not enough there to make three novels. Ultimately this gives us an decent story, but not interesting enough to make any sequels a must read. In other words … it was fun, but forgettable.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: The Soul of Chaos

The Soul of Chaos by Gregory Wunderlin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

It was a rocky start, jumping right in with power play/conspiracy against one royal scion while switching up to her sibling just trying to survive his exile into some sort of mine. There was obviously a lot of depth to the world building; however, a lot of it remains hidden in the choppy prose and it took me way too long to catchup, so a few more details for each scenario would have been appreciated. Still, it turned into a fairly interesting adventure … with Kali soon spending most of her arc trying to avoid discover candor capture and Rurik taking his crew of “breakers” into the fray from the other side. I still don’t have a clear idea what a breaker is outside of some sort of miner teaching for magical detritus in the bones of a once great magical civilization (in that respect, it is sort of a dystopian story). I didn’t particular care for the MC introductions, but they grew on my toward the end. Each MC has something special to contribute and the slow reveal was well done and helped make the story work … especially toward the end, when it pace picks up dramatically to stick the landing.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Augmented

Augmented by MJ Douglas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an entertaining cyberpunkish dystopian story with very relatable main characters. One an aging hacker with a chip on her shoulder against the authoritarian rules of future America. Another is a quasi luddite grandmother reluctantly dragged into the world of tech. There is some timeline hopping that introduces a third character and provides for some of the plot tension and relationship drama that was actually well done (speaking as somebody that normally doesn’t like drama). 

Most of the character interaction was designed to highlight the dark corners of the world … where technology has become a means to escape the oppressive reality with virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) versions … with the focus here on augmentation (I hope that is not a surprise). The focus was what really drew me in … imagine you have a chip in your head that overlays an augmented vision that whitewashing the dilapidated and decaying infrastructure around you to make everything pretty. You could hide almost anything in such a world and it is such an addiction that even the dregs of society are willing to submit to monitoring by the authorities just so that can get free (if limited) access to that world. 

Of course, not everybody is on board … and some are working to be free (enter an extreme version of the Free State Project) that are still suffering the consequences of such rebellion. While there are a few aspects of the story that strength rational belief, the author does a great job balancing between fantasy and plausibility to prove an interesting mental exercise that pulls at my techie heart and keeps me into the story.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Rusted Synapse

Rusted Synapse by Elwood Stevens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a solid cyberpunk story starring a jaded cyborg waiting on her inevitable blue screen who is recruited by Mr Faustus (Yes, even the MC noted the significance of the name) for a daring, off book, snatch and grab.  Added to this team is another soldier/paladin on overwatch, a cartel smuggler for logistics and a tech wiz wonderkid for counter-e. The team dynamics get off to a rough start, as the cartel’s man was responsible for the MC’s original dilapidated condition (aka ripping off arms and legs before smashing the batteries). The character growth primarily comes from within the team as they learn to depend on each other when things go south … and a few poignant personal issues that point to deeper philosophical questions that make you go hmmm (or you can ignore if that is not your thing). In short … I thought ALL of the cast of characters were very well done and I connected with each in some way that made the story a lot more fun that I expected.

The world building was also top shelf … especially the tech (speaking as a professional techie). It all felt plausible and real … so much so that I found myself reading straight through to the other side of midnight (making it tough to get up for work the next day). I really enjoyed some of the concepts that were developed … such as AI vs Sentient Daemons, Full body prosthetics vs body cloning … and my personal favorite … combat synchronization! Then stir in a pandemic (a flesh rotting disease euphemistically known as “Rust”) to get the appropriate dystopian feel expected in punk and the result is simply fantastic. Just in case some of the jargon loses you, there is a glossary in the back to bring you up to speed. The story itself is pretty standard and told well, despite the expected tropes, and with a surprise ending that left me wanting more.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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Review: Deadly Refuge

Deadly Refuge by Drew Avera
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Book: ***
Performance: ***

Space Pirates … eventually

Part two (2) of the story that began with Broken Worlds where our heroes make their way to a Pirate world for badly needed repairs to their bucket of bolts, known as the Replicade. Of course there is more than meets the eye with this former military scout, and the Pirate King of Ferax (aka Crase). If you have not done book one, I highly recommend you do that first (I started this book and got lost before going back and getting the first book). I still haven’t yet figured out why Deis and Malikea basically let Brendle and Anki take over the ship … but apparently they are all still friends as they hatch a plot to survive the port call that routinely makes Greshians disappear. Once again, the pacing at the start is almost painfully slow; although it does move, accelerating nicely for the last half of the book until it comes to an eventual, and inevitable, conclusion. With that in mind, I am interesting to see if that carries forward into the next book of the series.

The narration doesn’t really improve much from the first book; however, by now I am mostly use to it so it was not too difficult to enjoy.

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

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