Category: book reviews

As I understand the definition, a character driven story by is one in which the main character’s fundamental traits create the plot. Who she is determines what she does and what happens to her. If that definition is anything close to real, then Red Darkling is as character driven as character driven gets.

The titular character is a lovable screwup. She lives from paycheck to paycheck and, as soon as she gets that paycheck, blows it on booze and cigars. Almost the entire plot consists of tight scrapes that only happened because Red did something shortsighted. Her unerring ability to make the worst possible decision keeps landing her in hotter and hotter water until she finds herself in the hottest water of all.

It’s well-written, and the author has obviously put onto the page exactly, precisely the character she intended.

It slows down in the middle, and changes pace from action to basically action free, which reduced my enjoyment a little bit.

Sex is talked about a lot but not depicted. Some gruesome violence is hinted at but not depicted.

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This book is extremely well-written, suspenseful and entertaining. I couldn’t stop turning pages. I really enjoyed the read.

It also came to the #SPSFC3 with a content warning that was basically a laundry list of the worst ills plaguing modern society. Rape, torture, sex, foul language, child endangerment — you name it, it’s in here.

This is going to be a book that I score differently for the contest than I would anywhere else. For SPSFC, I will score it high. The writing skill displayed here is very very good. Rising action, plot structure, obstacles for the MC to overcome… the author is obviously good at his craft, and I don’t think the book should suffer just because it happened to come across a squeamish judge.

That said, I wouldn’t really recommend this to my own newsletter subscribers. Generally speaking, people are repeat customers of my books precisely because they want an entertainment option where they don’t have to read explicit sex, profanity, and graphic torture scenes.

I’ll also add, this is how a political book should be done. The book has something to say about an issue in modern-day American politics, but it addresses it without sermonizing, without forcing characters to say something they wouldn’t, just to deliver the author’s favorite message. For a reader who’s not hyper-attuned to these things, it might even be possible not to be aware that there’s a value statement going on here. I’m pretty sure I disagree with the author’s politics, but it’s refreshing to see someone write about issues and values without descending into blatant speechmaking from one of his helpless character’s mouths.

If you have the stomach for a graphic serial killer/terrorist story, buy Thrill Switch here.

The first novel in Maria Perez’s space opera series really lives up to its billing as a steamy romance. Our heroine Mina is kidnapped from Earth because, unbeknownst to her, she has alien DNA that gives her telekinetic abilities. Taken to a faraway galaxy and trained against her will for war, Mina discovers that part of this alien DNA she never asked for is a powerful attraction to anyone else who has the genes. The end result is a soap opera tangle of men who cannot resist Mina’s charms, set against the backdrop of a rebellion against the evil Lostai empire.

I’m not usually a reader of the steamier end of the romance spectrum, and this got a bit wordy and slow at times. But I enjoyed the elaborate world building and the galactic war elements, and things got really suspenseful at the end. Readers of romance, especially those who like the racier side of the genre, should hurry up and get your copy of The Curse of Sotkari Ta

Red Sky at Morning is a suspenseful, fun sci-fi thriller and I recommend that you read it. Grab your copy here.

I’m volunteering as a judge in the third annual Self Published Science Fiction Competition, and I read Red Sky at Morning as part of that contest. My review here does not reflect anything other than my own opinion, and may have no relation to whether the book advances in the contest.

Red Sky at Morning is a thriller set in a future where humans have colonized Mars. It starts with a man framed for a crime he didn’t commit and a jaded detective put on the case by mysterious forces. It races through one revelation after another, some of them truly surprising. The pulse-pounding conclusion had me tearing through the last third of the book unable to put it down.

It’s not perfect. Some of the challenges before the characters fall too easily. Some of them have mysterious proficiencies that are just too convenient. Overall, though, the suspense more than makes up for the flaws and I truly enjoyed this read.

Check out Red Sky at Morning at this link.

Apocalypse Parenting is just flat out fun. You should read it. Buy your copy at this link.

I’m a judge in the 3rd annual Self Published Science Fiction Contest, part of team Tar Vol On, and each member of the team was assigned a certain number of books to read. People in SPSFC use a 10-point rating system, which I’ll use internally, but I don’t think I’ll post those scores publicly. Any internal score that I use in judging SPSFC3 will be entirely unrelated to the number of stars on Amazon, because I’m a super wimpy Amazon reviewer and I don’t post a review there unless I can, in good conscience, give it four or five stars.

Alright, Caveats aside, let’s dive in to this awesome book!

Apocalypse Parenting: Time to Play (Book 1 in a series) is from a genre called “LitRPG,” of which I had read nothing before this. Basically, in this genre, the story is told from the point of view of a character in a video game. In the case of this book, aliens turn all of human existence into a life and death video game for their amusement, and the characters must survive the introduction of monsters, gain experience, learn new powers, etc. like a game.

My first instinct was suspicion of the premise. It seemed kind of silly. But the book just plunges in without feeling any obligation to explain it, and I thought that method really succeeded in getting me to suspend disbelief. It only took a page or two before I was immersed in a world where characters had to pick starting abilities and start fighting creatures in their front yard.

The series gets its title from the fact that the main character is the mother of three. Her husband was off on a business trip when the aliens turned the earth into a video game, so we meet her trying to handle three kids alone in the middle of the apocalypse.

Her name is Meghan Moretti and she carries this entire show. She’s so authentically believable that she just instantly sells the reader all the crazy stuff that happens to her and her family.

Another element that really worked is the lighthearted element of whimsy that comes with this book. Any time you’re trying to corral three kids, chaos is going to ensue, and these kids give the new monsters hilarious names, accidentally animate their stuffed animals from not understanding abilities, and ride around in a wagon turned into a tank, which the kids want to call “Wank” but our MC insists on naming “Tagon.”

This lighthearted fun eases the threshold for willing suspension of disbelief, making it easier to accept the premise, and the harried “single” (for purposes of this story) mom MC trying to balance keeping her kids out of trouble with leveling up as a video game character simply made me smile through the whole thing.

I caught a couple (literally two) typos, and I thought the plot structure could have been better, but overall I loved this book.

A note about the cover: people in book marketing say that your cover makes a promise to your reader about what they can expect if they read it. I have never seen a more accurate promise made by a book cover. This cover IS the first 20% of this book.

I will advocate among my team for Apocalypse Parenting to advance in the contest, and I’ll probably even buy the sequel.

Check out Apocalypse Parenting today!

If you like science fiction, you can check my own Sci-Fi out at www.ExileWar.com.