CHILDREN OF THE DIVIDE – Patrick S. Tomlinson

Posted by Daniel on November 5, 2018
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

This series, ‘Children of a Dead Earth,’ by Patrick S. Tomlinson, continues to surprise and impress me. Each book manages to be different, each surprises me, and together they tell a continuing story.

It is now eighteen years after humans, who have traveled in the ‘ark’ from Earth, have settled on Gaia. Humans and the indigenous life forms on the planet have come to better understand and respect one another and to live and work alongside each other. They’ve even created a pronoun for the multi-sexual indigenous life. It seems to be going well. Until… a terrorist attack on the outskirts of town rock the community. At the same time, a routine flyby of Gaia’s moon uncovers a previously hidden, underground alien building.  This building is too complex for Gaia’s population to have built and human’s are still too new in this system to have constructed something this old.  Which means…?

As for the terrorist attack, it appears that humans have brought with them the idea of a caste system.  Many Gaians are sent to live in a ghetto-like community, where natural resources such as water and the ability to grow and harvest food are in scarce supply, so that humans can live in the wealthier areas of the community. And now some of those Gaians are fighting back.

While we have these two different story-lines going on, we’re also seeing the effects of a generation gap. Many of our prime characters are young adults who’ve grown up with the Gaians as their close friends and allies and are willing to fight alongside them against their own families.

There is so much going on here, and yet Tomlinson moves the story along at a very quick pace.  We don’t really get to know any of the characters – you probably need to have read the first two books to get a feel for who these people are and why they are doing the things that they do.  But for those of us who have already been in this world, this all feels like a very natural progression.

Be warned – the ending is a cliff-hanger.  I’ve written before that I don’t care for books that don’t have an ending, but this is different.  This is a complete story that gives a huge tease to the future of the series.

As much as I’ve clearly enjoyed this book, it doesn’t quite live up to the previous two in the series. It does feel like a natural progression, and perhaps a good bridge (given what appears to be in store), but it’s not the strongest book in the series.  Read the other two and you will want to read this one, but don’t pick this one up if you are not familiar with the series.

Looking for a good book? Children of the Divide is another well-written story in the Children of a Dead Earth series by Patrick S. Tomlinson, but you’ll definitely want to be familiar with the series before going into this.

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

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Children of the Divide

author: Patrick S. Tomlinson

series: Children of a Dead Earth #3

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857666827

paperback, 400 pages

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THE CHEERLEADERS – Kara Thomas

Posted by Daniel on November 2, 2018
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

The high school in Sunnybrook does not have cheerleaders. They once did, but in a short time a number of calamities fell on the cheerleaders of Sunnybrook. First there was the car accident and two girls from the cheer squad were killed when their car hit a tree on a rainy night.  Then there was the murder and two girls were killed by a neighbor.  That man had been shot and killed by the police so a motive was never discovered.  And then there was the suicide.

All this was five years ago and now Sunnybrook High wants to remember the girls with a special ceremony.  But the emotional wounds are still a bit too fresh for some, including Monica – the sister of the suicide victim. But as memories are brought forward, new information reveals itself to Monica who now has suspicions that something else may have happened to some of those girls, particularly her sister. In her stepfather’s desk Monica finds her sister’s old cell phone and some strange letters. When Monica sends a text to the last person her sister communicated with on the phone, she gets a reply – but she doesn’t know who it is.  And that person seems a little nervous about getting messages, after five years, from someone who died.

I would have to say that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting in to when I requested this book.  Some sort of publicity page for the book made it sound appealing to me and so I put in a request for it.   What I found was an expertly written YA mystery novel.

Kara Thomas appears to be a well-known author of YA drama, though I can’t say that I’d read anything by her previously. But based on this book I’d be very interested in reading more by her.

The mystery is well put together and revealed in a very methodical, very natural-feeling manner.  I was constantly interested and never felt like I wasn’t getting enough information (or too much) as I read.

But best of all, really, were the characters.  Monica, and all the people she interacted with, actually felt like any high school students today.  They weren’t morosely full of pathos and going on and on, brooding and complaining about how no one understood them.  And they weren’t simpletons, making every possible mistake to put themselves in more and more danger.  These characters were smart (without being geniuses), motivated, cautious, curious, and they had families…parents and siblings, and they lived and schooled inside a world much like our own.

This read was very smooth and often felt like a non-fiction work because everything worked together and felt so natural.

Looking for a good book? Fans of YA fiction or mysteries will want to make sure to read The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas – a well-written, wonderful novel.

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

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The Cheerleaders

author: Kara Thomas

publisher: Delacorte Press

ISBN: 1524718327

hardcover, 384 pages

THE ZIG ZAG GIRL – Elly Griffiths

Posted by Daniel on November 1, 2018
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I remember being in my local bookstore, needing a book for a trip that I was taking, somewhat last-minute, and this book caught my eye.  A mystery…good.  Historical (World War II) references … good.  Magicians … great! And fortunately the book lived up to my expectations.

It is 1950 in Brighton and Detective Inspector Edgar Stephens is called to a murder scene.  The body of a girl is found, cut into three pieces. Stephens has reason to believe that the murder is a violent copy of a magician’s trick called The Zig Zag Girl.  The trick was created by an old friend of Stephens’, Max Mephisto. During the war, Stephens and Mephisto served together in a special operatives group known as The Magic Men. Now Max Mephisto is on tour with his magic show and doesn’t want to get involved in the investigation, but Stephens thinks Max might know the girl – it takes a special talent to perform the Zig Zag Girl and not many women could pull it off. As it turns out, the girl was Ethel, the best assistant Max ever had.  When a warning comes that there will be another murder in the style of another magician’s trick, The Wolf Trap, Detective Inspector Stephens believes one of his old war comrades is the killer.

I really enjoyed the characters of Stephens and Mephisto and the idea of the Magic Men unit.  Some of the descriptions of tricks used during the war to confuse the enemy (the purpose of the unit) didn’t strike me as terribly authentic or realistic – though I still really like the idea.

The mystery is clever, though not particularly deep. The reason to read this is the basic concept of the war buddies who worked as magicians.

This is a good start and I look forward to more in the series, though I hope they will get a little more in-depth with the mystery aspect.

Looking for a good book? The Zig Zag Girl by Elly Griffiths is the first book in a new mystery series that holds a great deal of promise.

I purchased this book at my local book chain.

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The Zig Zag Girl

author: Elly Griffiths

series: Stephens and Mephisto Mystery #1

publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

ISBN: 0544527941

hardcover, 336 pages

WALKING HOME GROUND – Robert Root

Posted by Daniel on October 30, 2018
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I was drawn to this book on a couple of different levels.  First was the three authors listed … John Muir is a name I know from my interest in our National Parks and my time spent in Muir Woods and Yosemite National Park; Aldo Leopold, whose Sand County Almanac is still an environmentalists bible; and August Derleth – an author with whom I am familiar primarily because of his work writing dark fantasy/horror stories and his friendship with noted horror author, H.P. Lovecraft, but who also wrote a great deal of historical fiction and non-fiction nature books about the region of Wisconsin in which he lived.

I was also drawn to this book because of its environmental nature and because of the region – Wisconsin – while not my home, a neighbor where I have spent a bit of time.

Robert Root is an author of several books, though I am not familiar with any of his other titles. His motivation for the book is that he had recently moved to a small town in Southeastern Wisconsin and he wanted to get to know his new home and chose to explore the areas previously walked by some famous authors before him.

I’m not quite sure what to make of the book itself.  It’s not quite a book of reflections … thoughts while spending time in the outdoors … such as we might have had with Sigurd F. Olson books. It is not quite a natural or environmental survey of specific parts of Wisconsin.  It is not quite a biography of three writers or an autobiography of one. It is not quite a prose or poetic map of geologic regions.  And it is all of these things at the same time.

I can’t say that I learned a lot here, but I enjoyed the relaxing pace that Root delivers.  He walks the home ground today and waxes about what the area looked like in the past, based on Muir’s, Leopold’s, and Derleth’s writings. It is an interesting way of reminiscing while reflecting on loss and and the environmental impact of today.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to make sure to read this book, but should you pick it up and it looks interesting to you, then definitely give it a read.

Looking for a good book? Walking Home Ground by Robert Root is a unique mix of environmental, natural, and historical reflection in the modern area. Most interesting is getting to know the ‘home grounds’ of three popular, literary individuals.

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

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Walking Home Ground: In the Footsteps of Muir, Leopold, and Derleth

author: Robert Root

publisher: Wisconsin Historical Society Press

ISBN: 0870207865

paperback, 224 pages

A STRANGE SCOTTISH SHORE – Juliana Gray

Posted by Daniel on October 29, 2018
Posted in: HISTORICAL FICTION, MYSTERY, ROMANCE, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

***WARNING – THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!***

Emmeline Truelove is a very modern woman – modern for 1906 that is.  Emmeline is a researcher and works with Maximillian Haywood, currently along the Scottish shore.  They are researching an unusual discovery made recently along the Orkney Islands…a suit of clothing, which, according to family legend, belonged to a selkie (a mythological creature that appears to be a  seal when in water and becomes human on land) who came from the sea and married the first laird of the castle.

Truelove and Haywood are joined along the way by their acquaintance/friend, the silky, smooth, Lord Silverton. Silverton shows up just in time to protect Truelove from a curious stranger who follows her aboard a train. This stranger is someone we most likely met in one of the previous books in the series as Truelove recognizes and has some fear of him.

But Silverton is possibly not all he lets on to be.  First, he seems remarkably interested in Truelove – to the point where he might be considered a ‘stalker’ today. He manages to convince her that he should stay in her room with her, in case he needs to fight off another villain.  The fact that he gets her tipsy certainly helps his case. But when Truelove wakes in the morning, Silverton and the special item she was carrying, are gone. And when Max and Emmeline discover later that Silverton has truly disappeared, Emmeline follows him, through time – a journey that may not have a return trip.

When I requested this book, I thought I was requesting a historical romance – I did not know that this was a historical romance fantasy.  I did not know that time travel would play a crucial role here, until it happened.  There were clues, looking back on it I can see that now.  And perhaps there were more clues in the earlier books – especially centering around the stranger who follows Truelove on the train.

This is the sort of surprise that is neither good nor bad. I enjoy time travel fantasy/sci-fi books just fine – I just usually know what I am getting into when I read one.  Because this took me by surprise, it took me out of the book. I had to stop and go back to re-read a few chapters to make sure I was reading everything right.  Yup.  Traveled through time. Once I accepted that and moved on, I was fine and enjoyed the book well-enough.  I just wish I’d had some sort of clue as to what sort of book I was reading.

Looking for a good book? This historical romance mystery, A Strange Scottish Shore by Juliana Gray, is actually a historical romance mystery fantasy. Be prepared. And then enjoy.

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

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A Strange Scottish Shore

author: Juliana Gray

series: Emmeline Truelove #2

publisher: Berkley Books

ISBN: 0425277089

paperback, 400 pages

ROOM FOR DOUBT – Nancy Cole Silverman

Posted by Daniel on October 26, 2018
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Room for Doubt is the fourth book in the Carol Childs Mystery series by Nancy Cole Silverman.  This is a series that started off a little rough for me but has gotten better with each book and holds true to that here with number four.

Carol Childs is a radio reporter in Los Angeles and when she’s called to a death on the Hollywood sign in the early morning hours. She thinks, at first, that it must be a movie stunt – a body hanging from the Hollywood sign seems to obvious. But she notices that the police and coroner are handing it as a body and she knows that something here is amiss. But the police rule it a suicide very quickly and something about it doesn’t sit right with Carol.  Just a quick inspection of the area around the hillside shows signs that someone recently left the area through a hole in the fence, and the strange find of a red rubber clown nose with the body doesn’t make any sense.

While on the air later, Carol receives a call from a woman identifying herself only as “Mustang Sally” who claims to have killed the man on the Hollywood sign the night before.  Thus Carol begins a journey seeking the truth, and justice for the victims, that will surprise her and have her rethinking what ‘justice’ actually means.

I really enjoyed the mystery in this book and I often enjoy stories where things aren’t black & white – where they aren’t clear-cut – and that’s definitely the case here. Everything about this story was really splendid and revealed nicely through the course of the book.  At the end of Chapter 11 I made a note in my Kindle: “Nicely written scene…so much here…great job showing, not telling.” This chapter spoke volumes.

This book is definitely worth reading!

I had two little moments that made me pause and think about what I had just read – moments that took me out of the story.  In the first, Carol consults with “Dr. Sam, the station’s resident GP who specializes in geriatrics.”  Doesn’t ‘GP’ stand for ‘general practitioner’?  And isn’t a general practitioner someone who, by their very title, does not specialize?  I looked it up to be sure, but that’s what I find.

The other instance may be more of a regional idiom but at one point a character refers to going old school and carrying a ‘beeper.’  I knew immediately what it was but I had to stop and think about the term as I was used to calling it a ‘pager’ and not a ‘beeper.’

Even so, a recommended read.

Looking for a good book? Room for Doubt by Nancy Cole Silverman is the fourth book in the Carol Childs Mystery series and it has some teeth to it – a strong story with an intense mystery.

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

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Room For Doubt

author: Nancy Cole Silverman

series: A Carol Childs Mystery #4

publisher: Henery Press

ISBN: 1635112354

paperback, 242 pages

APOCALYPTIC ORGAN GRINDER – William Todd Rose

Posted by Daniel on October 24, 2018
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Tanner Kline is a ‘Sweeper.’  It is his job to protect the uninfected from the infected.  In this post-apocalyptic setting there are really only the two factions – those infected with the Gabriel Virus, referred to as “Spewers” because of the way their sores tend to eject pus, infecting others, and there are those who have not been infected by the Spewers, the Clear-Skins.

Tanner and his kind have completely de-humanized the Spewers as nothing more than animals who are a danger to the rest of humanity and therefore must be destroyed. But Tanner is captured by a band of Spewers and taken back to their settlement. While it is clear that the Spewers fear and hate the Sweepers because of the destruction they bring, Tanner comes to a very difficult realization … the Spewers are human.  Even though the Spewers live in the woods, they still live in communities and band together the way the Clear-Skin do, and they treat one another with respect.  In fact, the Spewers may behave more humanly than do the clear-skins!

This is a short book, a novella, and author William Todd Rose keeps the action moving swiftly. The story is told from alternating viewpoints, which also moved the story along nicely.

The book does seem to lead us into a place of recognition and redemption, but given the title – which may seem a little strange until you read the book – it shouldn’t be a surprise that this story is about the worst of humanity and not the best.

I really like the idea of big publishers putting out shorter works as ebooks – as long as they are priced appropriately.  It gives the reader a chance to sample more authors without committing either money or time in long books, trilogies, or series’ now.  The ebook format is perfect for this. I do recall, during my various days working in book stores, that publishers have periodically published novellas as paperback books, but it never quite caught on.

For those who like the horror market and/or dystopian fiction with a dark nature to it, then this is a great little novella that you can sample and enjoy.

Looking for a good book? Apocalyptic Organ Grinder, by William Todd Rose, is a dark, graphic novella of how humanity has lost its compassion.

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

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Apocalyptic Organ Grinder

author: William Todd Rose

publisher: Hydra

ISBN: 0345549147

ebook, 92 pages