ONE GREAT YEAR – Tamara Veitch and Rene DeFazio

Posted by Daniel on September 20, 2019
Posted in: OTHER, SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

This is not an easy book to read. In the descriptions of the book it is referred to as an ‘epic’ story but ‘epic’ doesn’t just mean a heroic journey, but it also means ‘long’ and that describes this very well.

Marcus has been selected to become an ‘Emissary’ and as such, he is charged with protecting the ancient secrets. He has been reincarnated so many times he has lost count. He’s not supposed to remember one lifetime to the next, but he secretly takes a serum that allows him to remember his past life.  This leads to centuries of painful memories and loneliness. But not remembering his past might mean he loses his soulmate, Theron. Memories also help him to remember his nemesis, Helghul.

The premise here is really interesting and the early portions of the book are extremely well done.  I loved the way the authors wove the history into the story.  It definitely created an air of authenticity. But the closer the story got to modern day the less interesting the story became.

While the book is epic in scope, like many epic stories it hinges on something simpler. It is a love story at its core, and I never bought in to this ‘true love’ of Marcus’. And because I didn’t believe in the love story, the rest of this became a very long-winded story without heart.

Despite the centuries that Marcus gets to (or has to) live, he doesn’t seem to grow or become changed. This grew dull to me.

There’s a lot spirituality and world-view-commentary contained within these pages, and ordinarily I’d really like that, but here it just bogged the story down.

Looking for a good book? One Great Year by Tamara Veitch and Rene DeFazio tries to be an epic fantasy that offers up some spiritual ideas that transcend a single generation, but the book gets bogged down by the writing and the romance that carries through just never catches on.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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One Great Year

authors: Tamara Veitch and Rene DeFazio

publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press 

ISBN: 1626340234

paperback, 456 pages

WILD LIVES – Lori Robinson and Janie Chodosh

Posted by Daniel on September 18, 2019
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This book is essentially a collection of mini-biographies of people actively working in wildlife conservation.

Wildlife conservation is important to me … it’s a voting point for me … and so this book really had some appeal. The subtitle, “Leading Conservationists on the Animals and Planet They Love” sounded as though I would get some really important information on the conservation efforts.

The delivery of this book, however, is less than exciting.

Each ‘chapter’ is a mini biography on a different person and each chapter reads very much the same. We get background on the individual, what it was that got them started on their career path, the dangers they face, the dangers to the animals they ‘protect’ and the challenges that they face.  Now add a few comments from the individual to make it unique, and we’re off to the next mini biography.

I don’t really mean to make light of the people who are doing really important work, but the presentation here lacks inspiration. This works best as a coffee-table gift book – something that someone can pick up, read a chapter, put down, and pick it up again a few months later to read another chapter.

All of the twenty different people profiled are doing remarkable and important work. This alone makes the book well worth reading. And each chapter also provides information to the reader on how to learn more about the individual or their work efforts.

While all the chapters here are interesting, one stood out for me. The work of Dominique Bikaba, “Gorilla Warrior,” was especially interesting and his efforts noteworthy.

It is truly amazing that there are people in the world putting their very lives on the line to protect animals and it’s great to get this opportunity to ‘meet’ some of them. I do wish the books were a bit more exciting so that it was easier to recommend.

Looking for a good book? Wild Lives, by Lori Robinson and Janie Chodosh is an interesting book about some of the people working in wildlife conservation today.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Wild Lives: Leading Conservationists on the Animals and the Planet They Love

authors: Lori Robinson and Janie Chodosh

publisher: Skyhorse

ISBN: 1510713646

hardcover, 224 pages

STAR TREK: GOLD KEY ARCHIVES VOL. 1 – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on September 16, 2019
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, GRAPHIC NOVEL, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I became a Star Trek fan in the early 1970’s (just after the regular broadcasts ended) and searched for anything Star Trek that I could get my hands on. The Gold Key Star Trek comics were one of the only ways for a teen to keep the Star Trek adventures alive back then. I’d heard that IDW Publishing was going to bundle and reprint the old comics and I really liked the idea of being able to revisit these ‘classic’ comics.

What first strikes you, especially if you are at all familiar with Star Trek (and why would you be reading this if you weren’t?) is the apparent lack of familiarity with Star Trek by the artists and the writers.  This is addressed in the introduction and it turns out that in fact the creators of the comic were not familiar with the material. They’d been provided with a few simple publicity photos and a general run-down of the crew and the show’s premise.  Given this, the work is remarkably interesting.

This first volume, reprinting the first six issues of the comic book, represents some fairly generic sci-fi ideas in a barely identifiable Star Trek universe. This is mostly interesting as Star Trek memorabilia history.

I borrowed this book through the Amazon Kindle Unlimited program.  This is one of the first comics/graphic novels I’ve done through the Kindle app (I read this using the app on my phone) and I was really impressed with the formatting.  Amazon has managed to allow a comic reader to read each panel individually – and in the case of full page or large panels, zoom in to specific areas before showing the full page – so that the reader can easily see and read the comic.  I had imagined that I would struggle to read a comic on my kindle, much less my phone, given the amount of art and dialog on a page of a comic. But this process was seamless and made for easy reading and enjoyment.  I can definitely see myself reading more comics/graphic novels using this format.

Looking for a good book? For a sense of nostalgia and a reminder of the early days of Star Trek, reading this compilation of comics, Star Trek: Gold Key Archives Vol. 1, is a great deal of fun.

I borrowed this book using the Kindle Unlimited program.

* * * * * *

Star Trek: Gold Key Archives Volume 1

authors: Arnold Drake, George Kashden

artists: Nevio Zaccara, Alberto Giolitti (Gilbert), Giovanni Ticci

publisher: IDW Publishing

ISBN: 1613779224

hardcover, 168 pages

WILDER GIRLS – Rory Power

Posted by Daniel on September 13, 2019
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

On an island in the North Atlantic sits a private girl’s school. As Rory Power’s book Wilder Girls opens, a plague has already spread across the island (and more?) and the surviving girls and instructors have found their own way to move on with their new lives. Their independence is frail, however, as they cannot go into the woods surrounding their school because the plague, referred to as ‘Tox,’ is thick, making the wilderness around their school truly wild.

Three girls, Hetty, Byatt, and Reese, have become quite close friends through the shared ordeal. One day Byatt is suddenly missing and despite a strict, warden-like adult trying to care for the girls, Hetty goes in search for her friend only to make some horrific discoveries.

The book is told through two alternating viewpoints – Hetty’s and Byatt’s. Given that there are three friends, it makes for a highly interesting writing device making Reese’s involvement more interesting.

Rory Power understands that ‘less is more’ and that often what we are not told is more interesting than what is directing in front of us. Here, sometimes, what we are not told over-powers the story. The biggest of these is the Tox itself. It’s a dystopian novel and the story is about the girls and their survival, but knowing anything about how this all came to be makes it the intriguing story that we never get.

That the Tox plays a major role in the plot, yet we know nothing about it, makes it the frustrating story we never get.

I definitely fell into the hype surrounding this book (there’s been a real marketing push for this) and I was most certainly drawn to the incredible cover, which promised a strange, dark story (which is provided).

I think that there is a strong YA readership that will devour this book.  As a YA book this follows all the plot requirements (a youth, typically a girl, on her own, not understood by the adults in her life, facing odds that are depressing) but with some twists that make it stand out among other books.  But for me, the lack of information made it more frustrating than appealing.

Looking for a good book? Wilder Girls by Rory Power is a dystopian YA book with plenty of intrigue but leaves many holes in the story.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Wilder Girls

author: Rory Power

publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 0525645586

hardcover, 368 pages

QUEEN OF THE STRUGGLE – Nik Korpon

Posted by Daniel on September 11, 2019
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

This will be a shorter-than-usual review because I really don’t have much to say about this book. Queen of the Struggle is a follow-up volume to Nik Korpon’s The Rebellion’s Last Traitor.

As I started the book I was excited and eager.  Many of the names had a very Scandinavian appearance to them and for me that’s a very positive, attention-getting device. But I was still in the first chapter when I started to get really bored and somewhere in the second chapter I realized that these characters were familiar to me and when I looked back I found that I had read and reviewed the first book … with not a particularly strong rating.

There is a lot of set up and a lot of description but not a lot of character to make me care about what is going on. Henraek is one of our main characters (Emriann is the other) and he’s just dull. Emriann, on the other hand, has the potential to raise the level of this book, but it never quite happens.

While I slogged through and read this to the end this is essentially a DNF for me because I just couldn’t get into this story despite being eager at the start.

Looking for a good book? Queen of the Struggle by Nik Korpon is not it.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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Queen of the Struggle

author: Nik Korpon

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857666592

paperback, 320 pages

SMOKE EATERS – Sean Grigsby

Posted by Daniel on September 9, 2019
Posted in: SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Sean Grigsby’s Smoke Eaters is one of those books which I began reading with no idea what I would find inside.  It came from Angry Robot publisher, so I assumed it would be science fantasy of some sort, but that’s about all I knew. Early in the opening chapter, Grigsby caught my attention with a high level of excitement and interest.

We are introduced to Cole Brannigan, a gruff and grizzled fire fighter just days away from retirement, at a house fire. But what at first appears to be an ordinary house fire turns out to be something much more insidious. The source of the fire is actually a dragon that has come up from the ground below the house. Brannigan rushes in to get his crew to safety, only to watch as one of his fire-fighters becomes dragon lunch. Even with his firefighter gone, the house is not empty. A group of children are in the house, hiding in an upstairs room.  Brannigan and a fellow fireman rush to their aid where the kids inform them that there are more dragons on the attack, which Brannigan fights off with Herculean effort. When he loses his oxygen mask he assumes he’s done for, but surprisingly finds that he’s able to tolerate the smoke-filled house.

Whoosh … in swoop two different teams claiming that the situation is now under their control.  A series of fire-fighting robots put into place by the local mayor, and ‘Smoke Eaters’ – a group who don’t fight fires, but fight dragons. It turns out that Brannigan’s ability to breathe through the smoke is the main requirement for becoming a Smoke Eater and he is enlisted, mostly by force, despite his nearness to retirement.  And so begins Brannigan’s journey into the world of dragon fighting.  But dragon’s may not be the worst thing out there.

Author Grigsby really does a great job of bringing us into the story and captures the camaraderie of the brotherhood of firefighters. The introduction of the world of dragons, and the wide variety of such dragons, is made quite real. It is helped that we the readers make the discovery just as Brannigan is learning about it.

The story moves along swiftly, jumping from frying pan to fire and back again, with plot points introduced along the way.  It’s delightful space opera – without the space (is there a comparable category for fantasy?).

But one thing holds this story back from being truly outstanding.

Misogyny.

Well … not quite misogyny. Perhaps pubescent fantasy is more like it.  Grigsby, through the narrative of Brannigan, tells us that Cole loves his wife.  But what he shows us is something quite different. And despite being an older, retirement age, man, when he’s assigned to room with the attractive younger woman, of course there’s the expectation that she will find him attractive, but he will be a true gentleman and make sure he isn’t sending the wrong signals.

Whereas the dragons seem quite real and the brotherhood of Smoke Eaters feels real and the story is exciting, Brannigan’s relationships feel forced. This feels more like male fantasy (a macho male life [is there anything more macho than fighting fires?  Yes…fighting dragons!] with a wife at home and attractive young partners during the day).

The story is exciting and well plotted enough that I look forward to the next book in the series, but I do hope that the relationships are better developed.

Looking for a good book? Smoke Eaters by Sean Grigsby is an exciting new urban fantasy with a macho protagonist and some very unusual dragons. It is worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Smoke Eaters

author: Sean Grigsby

series: Smoke Eaters #1

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857667734

paperback, 336 pages

THE PLAYER KING – Avi

Posted by Daniel on September 6, 2019
Posted in: CHILDREN'S, HISTORICAL FICTION, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

If you have spent any time at all reading or even looking for books for young readers then you’ve undoubtedly already run across the author Avi. His body of works and awards is lengthy, and deservedly so. Some of his works that I’ve enjoyed the most have been those that are more along a historical fiction line. The Player King fits right along in this category.

We are in England in the late 1400’s. King Henry VII sits on the throne while Prince Edward, who has a stronger claim to be the king, is missing. In a tavern in Oxford, a kitchen boy by the name of Lambert Simnel is approached by a friar and told that he is actually Prince Edward, the true king of England.

Lambert is not the missing prince, but the friar, Brother Simonds, is working with the Earl of Lincoln to dethrone Henry VII and they think Lambert looks enough like Edward that if they can teach him the necessary manners and make him convincing enough, they might be able to rally support and make a claim for the throne.

Ruling a country is a lot of pressure for a young teen.  Lying about being the ruler of a country is even harder and if he’s caught, it will mean his death.

This book is a very quick read with short chapters and a direct plot (no subplots). Even as quick as it is, there are moments that drag a bit and once or twice I felt that we were getting story simply to make the book a little longer rather than out of necessity for the story-telling.

The best part of the book is the Author’s Note at the end of the book in which Avi explains what is known about the characters and the time of this book, and what was made up for the story.  It might surprise you and might well make you want to read the book a second time.

Looking for a good book? Avi’s The Player King is historical fiction for the middle grader reader that should be easy to read and might fascinate many – especially the accuracy of the history.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

The Player King

author: Avi

publisher: Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books

ISBN: 1481437682

hardcover, 208 pages