Poetry as therapy is a common genre. Those in mourning who wish to take control of their loss often do so by talking about it or writing it down. This seems to be a therapeutic way of dealing with guilt and sorrow, and if it works for them, it is not for us to judge. […]
“Navigators of Draconis” by Jake Ashwell
This is a freewheeling, action-packed Space Opera, full of spaceships and technology set against a background of interstellar politics. The characters are the usual mixture of races and rogues, well portrayed and sympathetic. There seems to be a disconnect at the beginning, as if the author started the book, forgot what he wrote, then picked […]
“Kelvoo’s Testimonial” by Phil Bailey
This is the weirdest review I’m ever going to write, because the author himself has made a comment in the story, inadvertently summing up the problem with his own writing. Let me explain… This is a Science Fiction novel in the format of a report on a First Encounter with an alien species, written by […]
“Havoc: Engine’s Game Part 2” by Paityn E. Parque
This second instalment of the franchise has moved even further out of the realm of video games and into the more usual Fantasy realm of magic. As the story progresses it moves more into horror. We are no longer worried about the specific details of the powers of individual players. Now we have a few […]
“Broken World Stories” by Lance Manion
This is a book of short pieces, mostly humorous. I won’t call them stories, although many of them are. What the others are is more difficult to pin down, so I’ll let you figure them out yourself. The work stands out because of its creativity. Examples: An ethnically sourced method of saying good-bye to the […]
“The Hills Be Shaken” by Michael Stewart
This book has an interesting slant on the usual detective procedural/action novel. This one is an engineer’s procedural. Trust an engineer to know all sorts of ways for people to get killed. Especially all sorts of dangerous things you really didn’t want to know that happen inside the generating pod of a wind turbine, 100 […]
“What We Do with Our Hands” by Cynthia Good
Poetry as Therapy There is a place in poetry for working through personal trauma. Some of the best poets are those who have gone into those dark places we all want to avoid. It is the job of the artist to be unafraid to talk about the unspeakable. This often leads to powerful poetry, but […]
“Uncle Jed’s Secret” by Chris von Halle
Here’s a fact of childhood that we should think about. Children aren’t threatened by the monster under the bed. Their worst problem is people in authority over them who set out to manipulate them with evil intent. This story builds suspense from the start, helped by a truly eerie situation. I like plot lines that […]
“The Assumption of Death” by Anthony Vernon
Think about it; if the presumption of death is only a presumption, and therefore not necessarily true, then a piece of literature with such a gloomy name might have a certain air of lightness to it. This is a good thing, because it influences us to ignore the academic presentation of the material, which would […]
“Avatar of Death” by S. F. Claymore
This book’s greatest strength is also its worst weakness. The author has spent an incredible amount of time and creativity in fabricating an epic fantasy world, rich in placenames, history, politics and above all multiple types of magic, magicians, and magical beings. The pages teem with them, new types in every chapter, with loving descriptions […]