All fiction reading requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief. As a genre, Fantasy requires the most, because we must believe in a whole new world, usually with magic. However, there are limits to what a given reader will accept. Fortunately for this book, Young Adult readers are pretty forgiving. Most of them […]
“Refraction” by Terry Geo
It’s difficult to give a mediocre review to what is basically a good story. But in this book there is just too much superfluous material keeping the reader from enjoying the characters and the conflict. This novel reads like the screenplay for an 8-episode Netscape series, complete with all the explanations of the scenes, telling […]
“Were We Awake: Stories” by L.M. Brown
This is a book about the beautiful, ineffable loneliness of the human inability to share emotions. These people are not the ‘larger than life’ who expose their hearts on a big screen. These are the little souls who live their isolation in every empty minute of their lives. Their failures are the lack of contact. […]
“Below the Moon” by Alexis Marie Chute
“Below the Moon” is a modern-day Young Adult Fantasy, a saga of alternate worlds and multiple races with multiple main characters and constantly shifting, incomprehensible magical powers. This is a book of uneven quality, created by a talented but inexperienced artist and writer. Thus it sometimes soars and sometimes crashes. While many readers who are […]
“Thad Saves the Galaxy” by C. T. Fleck
Okaaay, a different subgenre of comedy, I guess. The “Stoner Novel.” It is designed to appeal to people who do a lot of weed and don’t want to know and don’t care about the consequences of their actions in a meaningless world. “Stupid world. Stupid life. Another day in my boring existence.” The saving grace […]
“Cryptofauna” by Patrick Canning
Finally a novel about a video game that doesn’t read like a video game. While loosely based on a game format, this novel has a definite story arc and realistic, developing and wildly charismatic characters. It also has weirdly creative humor reminiscent of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” which results in such absurdities as traveling […]
“Calico Thunder Rides Again” by T. A. Hernandez
This kind of Fantasy ought to have its own sub-genre. Sort of “steampunk art but modern-day with fantasy creatures thrown in.” The plot of this novel involves a late 19thcentury traveling circus with dragons and griffins and twenties-era gangsters with trolls as enforcers. So much for creativity. The story is peppered with Characters with a […]
“Hamartia” by Raquel Rich
This book has a nice basic premise; in a future world of reincarnation, it seems that the universe has run out of souls because people — many people — are dying because their souls expire. Grace is offered the chance to save her dying son by traveling back in time and stealing him a soul. […]
“Dagger and Scythe” By Emilie Knight
Well, this has to be the most unlikely love story in the history of the novel. The setup of the plot is that a certain god has a way to keep his humans in line; he has a coterie of undead assassins that go around committing random atrocities, thus frightening the faithful into submission. Dagger […]
“Killer Domes and the Chosen One” by Gibbo Gibbs
An individualistic writing style is achieved through variations from the norm. In other words, it is created through the rules the writer breaks. However, if the writer breaks too many rules, the reader begins to wonder whether this is stylistic intention or a lack of writing experience. With this book, it’s hard to tell. The […]