Monday, March 18, 2024

Review: Early Adopter by Drew Harrison


 

Genre: Short Story Collection/Science Fiction

Description:

"Early Adopter is a collection of short stories from the edge of human progress. Eight stories hold dark mirrors to our own world… experience thought-provoking sci-fi, technologic tragedy, and pulse-pounding thrillers.

To Run Again: Dr. Laura Brandie is ready to change the world.

She's the lead researcher behind the KSE, a revolutionary cure for paralysis and neurodegenerative conditions. And now, by good fortune, she's found the perfect candidate for her first human trial: a man who suffers from locked-in syndrome.

Brett Harmon's paralysis is total: he can't move his arms, legs, torso, neck, or face. To the outside world, he's little more than a statue that breathes... but Dr. Brandie's KSE might be the miracle that allows Brett to run again.

Homonoia: The world faces an unprecedented alignment of catastrophes and failing systems, far too intricate and interconnected for any human to solve. Frank Burman joins with seven other volunteers for Project Homonoia--a radical, last-ditch effort to postpone the apocalypse. Separate minds link to form one multidisciplinary consciousness, the world's first human superorganism... a hive mind. But with the world's health rapidly failing, can Project Homonoia work out its kinks in time to make a difference?

Early Adopter: A loner enters into a relationship with a new type of partner: an AI agent, programmed to be the "perfect companion."

Sure, it's all self-deception and a game of pretend, as she's not actually real... but where simulated consciousness is concerned, maybe the lines between real and real enough can get blurry.

And many more!”

Author:

By day, Drew Harrison is a teacher who “writes on the side.” He had previously published two novels, one science fiction and the other a thriller.

Appraisal:

This collection has eight short stories, the three outlined in the description plus five more. As indicated, they are from “the edge of human progress.” I’ll define that as things that aren’t real today, but based on the rate of progress the last several decades and the things that are known to be possible today, all of the things explored in these stories seem like possibilities to come to fruition sometime between tomorrow and a few decades from now.

While the stories explore multiple technological advances, from the current hot topic of artificial intelligence to the creation of a virtual world to technological ideas that you’ve probably never considered (I sure hadn’t), the stories all get you thinking, which is obviously the point of these stories. It sure worked for me.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

I believe this was a pre-release advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Reprise Review: Isolation by M.P. McDonald


 

Genre: Thriller/Post-Apocalyptic

Description:

“Cole Evans thought he'd found a safe haven for his family and a growing band of survivors of the most lethal virus the world has ever known. But he finds continued survival is far from guaranteed as they battle hostile encounters with other survivors, nature, and devastating accidents. Are they prepared to survive their first brutal Wisconsin winter after the rest of the world has perished?”

Author:

“M.P. McDonald makes a living from taking your breath away... then giving it back via a tube or two. She lives in a frozen land full of ice, snow, and abominable snowmen. On the days that she's not taking her car ice-skating, she sits huddled over a chilly computer, tapping out the story of a camera that can see the future. She hopes it can see summer approaching, too.”

Appraisal:

The premise of this series is a virus that wiped out many, maybe most, of the world’s population. This band of survivors believe they’ve outlasted the virus although they still take precautions in many situations. In this second volume of the series they’ve survived the initial problems and are trying to figure out the long term.

I found the world they’re living in, the premise, and the things they have to work out an interesting mind exercise to go through with them. Of course, there is much more than planning involved as accidents happen, plus other survivors pop up from time to time and it isn’t clear who is friend and who foe. Not to mention the issues involved in a Wisconsin winter. I’m looking forward to the next in the series to see where things go from here.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

While the second book in the series, this can be read as a standalone and still understood. (I haven’t read the first in the series and it was not a problem.)

Original review published June 5, 2017

Format/Typo Issues:

The review is based on a pre-release beta copy of the book, so I can’t judge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Review: All the Rage in Texas by Russ Hall


 

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

Description:

Rage paves the roads of Texas.

Al Quinn’s quiet life as a retired sheriff’s department detective is disturbed by a case of road rage. An angry driver shoots at Al’s sister-in-law, Bonnie, and her baby. Bonnie returns fire and wounds her assailant, Ketchum, who leaves the scene. But that’s not the end of the altercation.

Ketchum gathers some friends to help him get revenge. Al and his entire family are now in the path of enraged, payback-minded armed thugs who have little to lose.

Sheriff Clayton makes matters worse by asking Bonnie and the rest of Al’s group not to kill the men so they can stand trial. Law enforcement wants to make a point about road rage. But Al would rather teach them not to mess with the ones he loves.”

Author:

“A writer of mysteries, thrillers, westerns, poetry, and nonfiction books, Russ Hall has had more than thirty-five books published. He lives and writes on the north shore of Lake Travis near Austin, Texas, where he hikes, fishes, and lives with far more books than the anti-hoarder groups would approve.”

Appraisal:

If I had to describe this story in a single word it would be intense. I’ve read and enjoyed other books featuring Al Quinn, but this jacks things up to a more intense level because Al and those most important to him are the people most likely to suffer if things go sideways. We know who the culprits are and for most of the book so do Al, his cohorts, as well as law enforcement. The problem is finding them and bringing them in before they can get their revenge on Al’s sister-in-law, Bonnie, and anyone else who upsets them along the way. It all adds up to a book that draws you in and keeps you turning the page, wondering how it is all going to work out.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reader copy and might not reflect the final product, so I can’t gauge this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Review: We All Live in a Fascist Police State Now, Thanks to This One Fucking Guy by Stephen Kozeniewski


 


Genre: Dystopian/Thriller

Description:

“It happened here. Fascism came, wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible.

Nobody much noticed.

Sure, a few traitors like to whine about their missing ‘rights,’ but it's up to the heroes of the Federal Bureau of Patriotism to silence them.

When someone starts spilling FBP secrets, Captain Leo Nergali is assigned to track him down. But wait, Leo himself *is* the mole? Record scratch!

Buy this fucking book to see how Leo censors the arts, disappears his enemies, and perhaps even finds jackbooted love.”

Author:

Stephen Kozeniewski is the author of numerous books, in multiple genres. His books have been nominated and won awards, especially in the horror genre where he even won the World Horror Grossout Contest two times. He, his girlfriend, and their two cats live in Pennsylvania.

Appraisal:

The dystopian genre takes a political direction, typically something that someone has tried recently, and imagines a long slide down that slippery slope, taking the idea to an extreme point and imagining what it might be like. Sure, the idea of the slippery slope as a sure thing is a fallacy, but one of the things that makes it a fallacy is imagining what would happen if an idea is taken too far. That’s what this story does as well.

In this story way too many things are policed way too strictly, forcing people to believe (or at least pretend to believe) things that they really don’t, having to conform to what the government leaders prefer. I found this interesting as I imagined this story world and what it would be like. How would I react? Would I conform? (If I didn’t, I’d probably be dead, so wouldn’t be around for long.) If I did conform, would it seem normal or okay? What would I do if I started having second thoughts? What are the odds of the US or some other country in the world evolving to something resembling what is depicted in this story? This book obviously got me thinking about what might happen if some changes go too far and how I and others might react. That’s the point of the genre and this story did it well.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Obviously this has some adult language. Just looking at the title should tell you that.

Format/Typo Issues:

My copy appears to be an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Friday, March 1, 2024

Review: The Other Murder by Kevin G. Chapman


 

Genre: Murder Mystery/Police Procedural

Description:

Sometimes, the most dangerous thing . . . is the truth.

For disgraced cable news producer Hannah Hawthorne, covering the shooting of a pretty NYU sophomore is a chance for redemption. When the story snowballs into a media circus, Hannah’s reporting fans the sensationalistic flames and earns her acclaim. The tragic murder, seemingly the result of random urban gun violence, prompts protests and vigils that further magnify the story.

Meanwhile, Paulo, a reporter for a small online neighborhood newspaper, is following the other murder in Washington Square Park that same night – a Hispanic teen. He discovers an unexpected connection that is political dynamite. When Hannah and Paulo team up, they uncover disturbing facts, leading them to question everything they thought they knew. Their reporting also leads them to the man who might be the killer.

When the story is ready to explode, the truth may be hotter than anyone can handle. Breaking the next scoop could ruin Paulo’s paper and wreck Hannah’s career – and it could get them both killed.

If you like David Baldacci's page-turners, Michael Connelly’s cops, and Sara Paretsky’s quirky characters, you will love The Other Murder.”

Author:

A lawyer specializing in labor and employment law by day, Kevin Chapman describes his real passions as playing tournament poker, rooting for the New York Mets, and writing fiction. For more, visit Mr Chapman’s website.

Appraisal:

For those who have read and liked Kevin G. Chapman’s Mike Stoneman Thriller series, this book is different than those, but I think you’ll still like it. Both take place in New York, and some characters you might recognize from those books pop up or get mentioned in some way including Stoneman himself, but the focus of the story is much different from what it would be in those books. Just before the start of chapter one (I guess I could call it the preface although it isn’t labeled that way) are two quotes.

“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propaganda, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“In seeking truth, you have to get both sides of a story.” – Walter Cronkite

These two quotes set up the heart of this story. There are two murders that happen in New York’s Washington Square Park the same day. The two main characters in this tale, Hannah, the producer for a cable TV news program, and Paulo, a reporter who writes for a small neighborhood newspaper, get involved, both reporting what is known, but doing what they can to dig out more details about both murders, determine if they have any relationship to each other, and then struggle with how and what to report about their findings and how to find out more.

The resulting story is one with a mystery, that as a reader kept me involved as the different pieces of the whole story came to light. But there is also a side story that sent my thoughts off on tangents, pondering the press, what we can and should expect from them, and wondering if there is a way to help better align their priorities to what would bring about the best result for everyone. I think both Gandhi and Cronkite were onto something and Chapman’s story ought to get us all thinking.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 95-90,000 words

Monday, February 26, 2024

Review: Strong at the Broken Places by Steven Newton


 

Genre: Romance/LGBTQ

Description:

“What happens when two intelligent, resilient women, both suffering the mental, emotional, and physical scars of severe abuse and living on the edge of poverty ... lose their jobs?

As each desperately struggles to recover her equilibrium, they find their lives further complicated by an experimental living situation, a precocious pre-teen daughter, a terminally ill best friend, a malevolent father, and a quirky priest with a penchant for playing matchmaker.

What do you get? Either a recipe of for disaster, or ... healing love?

Thirty-seven-year-old Sloan McKenzie has just been fired as a Catholic school administrator, and has barely enough in the bank to eat or pay next month’s rent, but not both. She accepts a part-time job teaching history at a struggling women’s college primarily because it will permit her to starve more slowly. In the closet for years, Sloan isn’t looking for love, though she could use a friend.

Leslyn Knapp became a teen mom at fifteen. Tossed into the streets, she’s fought every day to keep custody of her daughter without giving in to the internal voices that relentlessly insist that the world would be better off without her. Now twenty-seven and unexpectedly laid off, she’ll do whatever’s necessary to keep the two of them out of another shelter. "Whatever's necessary" has so far meant conning her way into a job in the dean’s office of the same small college, and signing up for a strange co-housing experiment. Leslyn needs a certain part-time professor to make the work commute possible, but she can’t afford friends.

Amanda Knapp is bright, athletic, motivated, and knows she has the best mother in the universe, all those “ghosts” that keep haunting Mom notwithstanding. But the twelve-year-old also suffers from persistent, often crippling anxiety that pulls her into dark places no matter how hard she fights. And Mom must not know; she cannot be a burden. The last thing she needs is an interloper who might threaten their exclusive, two-person team.

Sometimes, however, you don’t know what you really need until you stumble across it by accident.

This story is a love letter to all the women and daughters who find the courage to try and the resilience to persist in the hope of becoming … Strong at the Broken Places.”

Author:

A twenty-year member of the US military and then twenty seven years teaching history at Delaware State University hasn’t stopped Steven Newton from also writing lots of books, some traditionally published, others not. This is his nineteenth book.

Appraisal:

I loved this book. It would be a great story about human struggles, familial support, and teamwork, even if the main characters weren’t lesbians who were struggling with that part of their lives as well. That part just upped the tension and, for those of us who don’t fit that description, it puts us in a situation we aren’t going to experience in real life. I think imagining what others unlike us go through in difficult times is good for all concerned and one of the reasons I like books like this.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language and content. The book’s description on Amazon has a long content advisory that, if you might potentially be triggered by the depiction of a character with mental health issues, you should check out before deciding to read this book.

Format/Typo Issues:

My review is based on an ARC, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 125-130,000 words

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Reprise Review: One Sip at a Time by Keith Van Sickle


 

Genre: Travel Memoir

Description:

“Can a two-career couple really pick up stakes and move to Provence?

Keith and Val had a dream – to live in Provence, the land of brilliant sunlight, charming hilltop villages and the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean.

But there were two problems: they weren’t French speakers and they had full-time jobs. So they came up with a plan…”?

Author:

“Keith Van Sickle is a technology industry veteran and lifelong traveler who got his first taste of overseas life while studying in England during college. But it was the expat assignment to Switzerland that made him really fall in love with Europe. With his wife Val and their trusty dog, he now splits his time between Silicon Valley and Provence, delving ever deeper into what makes France so endlessly fascinating.”

Find out more about Keith on his website.

Appraisal:

At its heart One Sip at a Time is a travel memoir. And yet it is different than most travel memoirs I’ve read in ways both good and … not really bad, not really good, definitely different. I’ll try to explain.

There are two things I tend to look for and expect in a travel memoir. The two words in that phrase are a hint. For the travel part I’m hoping to get a sense of the place the person is traveling to or through. That might include something about the scenery, the culture, the people, or whatever it is that made this place special, different, or worth visiting to the author. The memoir part is the more personal. It’s what sets a travel memoir apart from a guidebook or brochure from the local tourism office. Ideally this part is not only how they react to the experience of traveling, but also how it changed them.

Typically, that last item comes from a narrative that is mostly chronological with (sometimes literally) one foot in front of the other, going from point A to point B. This book isn’t like that. Although it has two parts that are tied together chronologically, it’s more like a series of essays or true stories that related different experiences with no obvious order or transition from one to the other. What that meant was that rather than having a climax or realization of how the trip had changed the author near the end, it happened (or the reader noticed and realized it was happening) through a gradual process. If anything, that’s more realistic in how change really happens and it worked for me as a reader.

As for the travel part, I thought the author’s insights into the culture and people went much deeper than a typical travel memoir would, largely because his goal wasn’t to be a traveler, but to be an actual resident (even if short term) of the area of France he was visiting. That paid off, for him and for us.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Original review published June 23, 2017

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 20-25,000 words

Sunday, February 18, 2024

Review: The Anshar Gambit by Ian G McDowell


 

Genre: Near Future Techno-thriller

Description:

The Earth is about to be blown to bits (not really a spoiler, as this information is in the first sentence of the Prologue). There is an asteroid which has been captured by Space Corps Inc to be mined for rare minerals required for faster-than-light space flight, but is instead about to be cut into chunks for use as missiles.

Humanity is on the cusp of being able to ‘escape the surly bonds of Earth’ as the poet says. Anshar, as the asteroid has been named, was supposed to enable that but (mwah ha ha) a lunatic has taken over the project and several major cities are obliterated before anyone can do anything sensible.

The book cuts between various points of view and locations to convey to the reader how and why things have come to this pass. Also, who is trying to prevent the destruction set in motion, and how they are going about it.

The sense of panic thus induced in the reader is way past ‘page turning’. I couldn’t put this down.

Author:

McDowell is a software engineer and technologist. He has worked at top Silicon Valley tech companies and has a Masters degree in Information Management and Systems. He makes excellent use of this knowledge and skill in his fiction. He is a talented writer. As a reader one quickly acquires that confidence in the writing, essential for this kind of tale, that the whizz-bang ride he is taking one on is not going to blow a gasket mid-story.

Appraisal:

This is an excellent, fast-paced, thriller. The author is well-versed in current and near-future tech, and laces the books with oodles of drones, HUDs, brain implants, and IT things we haven’t even imagined yet. McDowell, however, has imagined them. And he knows how to deploy them on the page. Hopefully not in the real world or we’re all doomed.

The strength of the story isn’t in its plotting, to be fair. It is a standard ‘end of the world as we know it’ scenario. But the characters are drawn vividly and larger than life, and the tension is kept at ‘twang’ pitch throughout. This would make a super action movie. There is never a dull moment. And just when you think the story is coming in for a soft landing – whee! It takes off again.

The book is not only a wild ride, it has plenty to say about where we’re actually heading, environmentally and technologically. It includes IT/AI and security corporations which seem all too familiar, and which have no ESG whatsoever in their structure. Inter alia it asks that all-important question ‘just because we can, should we?’

Thoroughly recommended, if you like hard, near future, SF.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Plenty of cussing

Format/Typo Issues:

A few continuity issues. You won’t have time to worry about them.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Review: The Noise by Allison A



Genre: Horror

Description:

“Angela Blau has a degenerative bone disease, but she was never warned her mind could deteriorate as well. There’s no other explanation for the footsteps coming from the second floor—footsteps her husband, Jack, never hears. And then there’s the ghosts who attack her at night, and townspeople who dig through the dirt like rabid animals and peer through her windows.

Maybe the ghosts and the townspeople are in her head—it wouldn’t be the first time she’s let her mind wander—but the noise has to be real, and she’d go up there and prove it if the stairs weren’t so rotted that she’d fall right through, Jack says.

Things get worse when Arlo, a lonely old man who lives ‘somewhere down the street,’ reveals a violent crime that occurred on the second floor. Against Jack’s warnings, Arlo indulges Angela’s growing obsession and pushes her to discover the true source of the noise, who exactly the townspeople are, and whether a traumatic incident that occurred four months ago, an incident Angela refuses to talk about, is to blame for all of it.”

Author:

This appears to be Allison A’s first published book. Information about her is limited with only the first name and last initial as her byline, no author page on Amazon or any information about her on Amazon’s page for this book. If you read the book, when you reach the acknowledgements, you might be able to figure a few things out about her. Her maiden name, a pretty good guess at what that last initial of A stands for, and that some parts of this book (but I’m guessing far from all of them) are things she’s experienced in real life.

Appraisal:

The author describes this book as a horror novel, but also says that at its core it is a book about coping with loss. In some ways I think it could be looked at as a thriller with a bit of supernatural or at least the appearance of such since the main character is constantly seeing and hearing what could be described as ghosts. What else would you call a being that you see and sometimes even talk to, yet no one else sees them? That’s what the main character, Angela, is experiencing, and isn’t quite sure what to make of it.

Figuring out what is going on was an interesting exercise. Let’s just say that it wasn’t all in Angela’s imagination, no matter what others might have thought. But it isn’t quite what Angela thought either. I’ll bet if you figure out the big picture it won’t be until late in the book, regardless of the clues that might have led you to the proper conclusion. I guess figuring what is going on makes this a bit of a mystery too. An interesting and unique read that could easily get you thinking about the big picture of this life and even whether there is a next life and what it might look like.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

A small number of proofreading misses.

Rating: **** Four Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 85-90,000 words

Saturday, February 10, 2024

Review: Spider Woman Walk by Melissa Bowersock


Genre: Mystery/Paranormal

Description:

“Sam Firecloud is a medium and forays easily into the realm of the metaphysical, yet he still has earthly concerns and worries about the welfare of his almost 90-year-old grandfather, Ben. When he gets a phone call that Ben has had a serious accident, he and Lacey rush to Arizona and the Navajo reservation. They must figure out how to keep Ben safe while maintaining his stubborn independence, but at the same time, a recent unsolved murder of a master weaver in Tuba City has the Navajo weaving community on edge. The heavy responsibility for both problems falls to Sam, and he's not at all sure he has the ability to keep everyone safe.”

Author:

“Melissa Bowersock is an eclectic, award-winning author who writes in a variety of fiction and non-fiction genres: paranormal, biography, western, action, romance, fantasy, spiritual, and satire.”

For more visit Ms.Bowersock’s website and follow her on Facebook.

Appraisal:

This is the 41st book in this popular series and while I haven’t read even close to all of them, I’ve read several and liked every one I’ve read. They’re typically fast reads with some things you know to expect, probably a murder mystery or at least a mystery involving someone who has died, whether recently or potentially long in the past. Sam Firecloud uses his ability to communicate with the spirits of those who have died, but the spirts need his help with unfinished business before they can truly move on. Sam along with his wife Lacey helping him always makes for a fun and entertaining read that usually has a bit of the paranormal mixed in with a mystery that keeps me guessing as to where things might be going.

However, that’s typically only half the story. There is typically something else going on in Sam and Lacey’s personal life that provides another story thread and, since you can’t read these without liking Sam and Lacey, it’s always interesting to see how they turn out and, in doing so, the reader gets to know Sam and Lacey a bit better. In this book this part involves Sam’s grandfather, Ben, and how to set things up for his remaining time in a way that will work for everyone. Okay, I’m ready for the next book now.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 30-35,000 words