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Review of The Artificer’s Knot, by Eric Lewis

Quick and Dirty

Read this if: You like gaslamp fantasy, you like re-imaginings of history, you like action and you’re patient enough to wait for it.

Don’t read this if: you can’t get through a slow opening.

Get your copy here. (All links in this review are Amazon affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you make a purchase.)

The Details

Eric Lewis writes in a fascinating universe. There are no dragons, there are no other races, and there’s no magic. But there are alchemists, and the potent substance they create known as Vril. It’s set in a time period not unlike the era of Sherlock Holmes, with steam power coming into its own, guns used far more than swords, and the mysterious vril powering the lights on the streets.

In The Artificer’s Knot, we meet Ran, a young artificer expelled from school over a trumped up charge. With no diploma, he has no way to turn his skills into a living until he encounters the gangster Gouger Nebb. From this meeting comes a tale that re-imagines the dawn of the oil age. An artificer is something like an engineer, and gangster has big plans to profit off the young student’s skills.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first. My biggest complaint with this book is that it starts slow. Although there are occasional moments of tension thrown in, Ran’s gradual ascent in Nebb’s gang isn’t action-packed. But this period of worldbuilding and character development is carried along by Eric’s good writing. The author is a skilled artisan of the English language, and fluent, fast-moving prose gets us through the slow part.

Once the bad guys destroy a big project—the big project—of Ran’s and Nebb’s, that’s when the action starts, and from there on in I was burning through pages to see how things turned out. The plot is suspenseful, the threat is meaningful, and the characters are easy to like.

The fictional universe here is almost a character in its own right. “The Cryptarchy,” kind of like the MI-5 or the FBI of this world, is a fun factor in all of Lewis’s stories, and the alchemists and the powerful, dangerous substance known as vril is too. 

Some profanity. Some fade to black love scenes (I think I might enjoy a story about live interest Filene on her own). Some violence but no more than the plot requires. Not gory.

Grab a copy of The Artificer’s Knot on Amazon.

And hey, if you like elaborate worldbuilding, check out my Exile War series. Book one, Onslaught, is free, and it introduces a world of genetically engineered telepaths, pig-human hybrids, and a war between good and evil that stretches across the stars. Check it out here.

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First look at “They Ate the Waitress?” by D.N. Schmidt

(Links to the book are Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn from qualifying purchases.)

Another long drive related to my day job gave me time to start on a new audiobook already in my library: They Ate The Waitress? by D.N. Schmidt. In a future America where absolute anarchy reigns, everything goes. Even an exclusive restaurant that caters to cannibals.

Let’s get something out of the way right away: This is gruesome and horrifying. It’s also hilarious! 

I’ve never felt so divided by a book. This is far, far outside my comfort zone as a reader, but the jokes just keep on coming and I find myself laughing every time.  It’s going to be an effort of will to finish this, because I just cringe at every description of what goes on in the restaurant. But on the other hand, it’s a joy to find a self-published writer whose “comedy” is actually funny. Plus, Montana is mentioned! Always a way to put a book into my good graces.

If you’ve got the stomach for the darkest of dark humor, you should check out They Ate the Waitress? by D.N. Schmidt.

And hey, the pig-human hybrids in my Exile War series are also cannibalistic, but I keep it mostly off-screen or fade to black. If you’re interested in military sci fi where the bad guys have this most evil of all evil traits, you can try Onslaught, the first book of the series, for free in the U.S. and 99 cents internationally.

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Review of Hostile Contact by Nick Snape

A long drive for work enabled me to finish the audiobook version of Hostile Contact by Nick Snape, Book One in his Weapons of Choice series. I said this in my last blog about this book: It’s Tom Clancy, but the bad guys are aliens instead of Russians.

That just happens to combine two of my literary favorites!

Hostile contact started a little slow, but about 15 percent of the way in Snape steps on the gas and never lets up. From then on in it’s brave military men and women fighting against overwhelming odds, risking everything in defense of their brothers and their ideals. Great stuff.

If you liked Clancy, Larry Bond, or Harold Coyle back in the day, if you like military sci fi, or if you just like nonstop action, you should check out Hostile Contact.

I listened to the Audiobook from Chirp. As of this writing, it’s still on sale there for 99 cents, so click here to get the audiobook cheap!

If you prefer the eBook version, you can get that at this link; there’s should be a link to the Audible version there too.

Like military sci fi? Check out my series, the Exile War. The first book, Onslaught, is free in the U.S. and some international retailers, or 99 cents in some other countries, depending on Amazon price matching. Check it out here!

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Artificer’s Knot + Hostile Contact

Having finished Chasing Naomi, I’ve got two projects next up in my ever-growing TBR pile. The first is The Artificer’s Knot, by Eric Lewis. It’s a gaslamp fantasy set in the world of the Heron Kings, which Lewis created in his previous novels. It’s a world without other races like dwarves or elves, and without magic, just a mysterious, explosive substance called Vril, the control of which leads to all kinds of violence and conspiracy.

The Artificer’s Knot tells the story of Ran, an “Artificer” in this world—kind of like an engineer-ish character. Kicked out of academia without his final diploma and unable to find work, the destitute Ran finds his way into the company of notorious gangster Gouger Nebb. Ran is soon assigned his first undercover work for the gang, and the tension ramps up at once.

I loved Lewis’s last book because it opened almost like a crime thriller set in modern times. The current novel uses more suspense than action to keep the pages turning, but it still works so far. After the first mission, it slows down and digs into worldbuilding a bit, which still works because the world is interesting to me. I’m about 15% in and enjoying it.

When I’m on the treadmill or driving long distances, I switch to the audio version of Hostile Contact by Nick Snape. It’s a first contact technothriller which I might describe as Tom Clancy, but the bad guys are aliens instead of Russians (It would be kind of spoilery to say more than just aliens). The main protagonist, Finn, is a soldier struggling with his own past, in the midst of a training mission when the aliens fall out of the sky and start killing.

It starts a bit slow for my taste, but before long the aliens arrive on earth and Snape stomps on the gas pedal from there. It’s been nonstop action since that first landing, and I’m having a great time. I’m about 35% of the way in.

(All links are Amazon affiliate links)

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Review of Chasing Naomi

Chasing Naomi, by Mark Bossingham, is pure, unadulterated pop culture space adventure fun. The story features Allie, a teenage girl in the sixties, who suddenly discovers a spaceship buried for thousands of years, ready to take her on an adventure. The ship turns out to be a sentient being, the only other crew is a hologram, and Allie is off to join the federation, go to the academy, and have adventures. If you’ve consumed any entertainment set in space since the 1960s, you will feel immediately at home. It borrows liberally from every fictional space universe out there to tell its own story.

Allie is a pure-hearted good guy, so is “Ship,” the intelligent spacecraft that keeps changing its name, and although they have some harder-core bad dudes (or dudettes, I should probably say, the cast is almost entirely female) with them, this is a tale of good guys doing good deeds and saving the day.

It slows down and develops structural flaws toward the end, but overall it’s just a fun, well-written romp through a universe in which you’re going to feel at home right away.

Grab your copy here! (Affiliate link)

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Review of Kenai by Dave Dobson

All of my book reviews contain Amazon affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase after clicking one of them, I may earn a small commission.

The strength of this book is in its world building. I understand from the author’s note at the end that this is not the first book written in this universe, so it doesn’t surprise me that the world feels real, lived in, and richly imagined.

The cover of Kenai. A female figure wearing a space suit holding a gun.

Pacing issues affected my overall enjoyment. The first third of the book, I was ripping through pages, enjoying this badass space marine uncovering a potent mystery that really grabbed me. After that, Kenai becomes a very different kind of book, and a much slower-moving one.

There’s a space marine thriller in here, which I thought was superlatively written. But that story goes away about a third of the way in, and is replaced with a slow-moving, intellectual first contact story. Fans of that kind of thing, though, will have to go through the space marine thriller opening to get to it.

Another strength is the narrative voice. Jess the person shines through brilliantly at all times, and I feel like I know her now. The heartwarming ending felt like something she deserved after what she’d been through.

Much of what this book is about cannot be revealed without spoiling the mystery being laid out in the first third of the book, that I’m struggling to find ways to talk about some things without depriving readers of the joy of discovery.

Suffice it to say that this book shares a mind-bending sci fi concept with a major Hollywood blockbuster of the last few years, and if you read Kenai, and you make it to the big reveal, you will instantly know which movie I’m talking about.

Grab your copy here.

Do you like science fiction and space opera? Try my Exile War series! The first book, Onslaught, is free on all U.S. retailers, and only 99 cents if there’s anywhere it isn’t free. Prefer mysteries and thrillers? Check out my Sherman Iron Mysteries. The first book, Irons in the Fire, is free on all U.S. retailers and only 99 cents where it isn’t free.

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Review of Any Minor World by Craig Schaefer

All of my book reviews contain Amazon affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase after clicking one of them, I may earn a small commission.

Any Minor World is awesome! Do you like thrills and suspense? Like action and tough guys? Like superheroes and comic books? Then you’re going to love Any Minor World. I read it as my first semifinalist read of the Self Published Science Fiction Competition, and boy am I glad I chose this first!

The plotting is excellent. Characters are given pasts to overcome, which they do at exactly the right moment. Crucial details are hinted at and set up, yet not given away. At about 75% of the way through the book, I was ready to ding the author for a big spoiler, but it turned out to be 180 degrees off of what I thought was coming. Just grade A top quality writing all the way around. I couldn’t stop turning pages.

And the names! “The Midnight Jury” is a $%#&@* phenomenal name for a Vigilante super hero. Trigger Mortis is just as good for a gun-wielding assassin. And “The Loremonger” for a villain who collects ancient mystical tomes is top notch as well.

On the other hand, Noir York doesn’t work as well. It’s too hard to pronounce correctly.

There are some content warnings. The violence gets gruesome at times, especially toward the end. Mild sexual content. And black magic. A lot of black magic.

I can foresee the possibility that there might be some controversy about this book within the contest. There’s an authentic debate to be had about whether this is science fiction. Urban fantasy? No question. Urban paranormal? Certainly. But whether that is the same thing as being science fiction is a bigger question. I reread Edpools review of it, to see his thoughts. I’m not ready to answer the question yet.

What I do have is a recommendation. Read Any Minor World. This is an extremely good book, and it has something to offer fans of multiple different genres. Click here to grab your copy on Amazon.

Do you like science fiction and space opera? Try my Exile War series! The first book, Onslaught, is free on all U.S. retailers, and only 99 cents if there’s anywhere it isn’t free. Prefer mysteries and thrillers? Check out my Sherman Iron Mysteries. The first book, Irons in the Fire, is free on all U.S. retailers and only 99 cents where it isn’t free.

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SPSFC3 Books I loved that didn’t make semis

Now that my team has announced our two semi-finalists, I want to send personal shout-outs to a few books I read as part of the judging process.

Both of the team’s semi-finalists were also my top two choices (Guess I must have good taste!) But my next up after those two was Stargun Messenger by Darby Harn. Man, this book! It was all about the author’s unique voice. It had some things that kept it out of the top two, but this was the book that most made me think, “This. Is. A. Writer!”

Likewise, The Sequence by Lucien Telford did have some reasons why it didn’t move on in the contest, but the author’s skill in talking about genetic engineering just gripped me viscerally. In my own Exile War series, the characters all kind of take the attitude of “Oh yes, the genetic engineers were very horrible, but that was all centuries ago.” In The Sequence, it’s not centuries ago. It’s right now, it’s in your face. And the horrors of what it really takes to turn the human genome into your own personal art project will blow your mind. I wish the whole world could read this book before we go too far down this path, so we could be warned of what lies hidden underneath the promises of genetic engineering.

Red Sky at Morning by J. Daniel Layfield was the most “Greenwood-esque” book I’ve read so far in the contest. I confess that this is somewhat vain praise, but I felt likeI could have written this book. It’s not like my sci fi though, it’s like my thrillers. As I was reading it, every single plot point made me nod approvingly. Layfield has a knack for thrillers.

I believe there are some takeaways for all SPSFC writers and future potential entrants. Truly, genuinely, I mean this, it’s a subjective process. Your book may not advance, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t find someone who loved it. Never walk away thinking “I didn’t make the semis, I must not be that good a writer.” Somewhere in the team that had your book, there’s probably one judge who really did enjoy it. These books didn’t get through, but I loved them.

The contest is designed so that you have to win the approval of a whole team to move on, and that’s as it should be. Most writers want to appeal to a broad audience. But everyone who’s ever drilled down deep into the Amazon subgenres knows that there’s also such a thing as a niche. I read some books that were very well attuned to my niche, and I’m grateful to the authors for entering them.

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Review of The Mimameid Solution by Katherine Kempf

All posts contain Amazon affiliate links. If you buy anything after clicking, I may earn a small commission.

This deeply dystopian post-apocalyptic story steeped in Nordic mythology centers around a conflict between the Norse and the Celts. It takes place in a future after “Ragnarok,” a cataclysm that involves a string of volcanic eruptions, islands sinking underwater, and many other seemingly climate-centered catastrophes.

Stragglers wander the frozen north scraping together leftovers from “The Time Before” to survive. The Celts hunt the terrain, treated by the POV characters as rampaging barbarians to be feared. Meanwhile those Norse who have escaped the fate of stragglers live in an underwater facility called “Mimameid.”

But Mimameid is no paradise either, and our POV characters, Lysander and Petra, soon find themselves trapped between two warring tribes.

I loved the huge twists and giant reveals in this book. They really whetted my appetite for more. Moreover, the explosive conclusion had me desperately ripping through pages to find out what happened.

On the other hand, pacing issues got in the way. The huge twists and reveals were interspersed with long portions of just “life in Mimameid” that moved slow.

That epic conclusion was robbed of some of its power because I had trouble suspending my disbelief regarding one major character’s heartbreakingly difficult choice.

There’s a love story in here, but not a genre romance. No explicit sex. Profanity is rare and mostly in Nordic or Gaelic languages, so should be a safe read for the family. (Don’t worry, the book is in English, but with the languages of the region thrown in for realism. I liked it.)

Lysander is a good, clean morally upright protagonist for whom I have no trouble rooting. I liked him, I always looked forward to his chapters.

Read this if you: Like post-apoc, like cli-fi, are interested in norse culture and mythology, or are interested in how it might be possible to build an entire society underwater.

Maybe aimed at someone other than you if: you’re an adrenaline junkie in your reading; the doses might not come fast enough for you.

Grab your copy here!

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Review of The Automaton by Ian Young

All my book reviews contain Amazon affiliate links. If you make a purchase from any of them, I may earn a small commission.

This is an elaborately imagined future history telling the tale of the decline and fall and rise and fall (and rise again?) of humanity. It starts off with a good hook and a mystery begging to be solved.

It slows down in the middle, and the majority of the book is flashbacks. That structure, in which an MC in the narrative’s “present” is reviewing records of what happened in the narrative’s “past” robs most of the flashbacks of suspense. 

The ending is heartwarming and hopeful. Grab your copy by clicking here!