Okay, don’t be fooled by the title; this is true Science Fiction. Don’t think, “Miss Congeniality.” Think “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy,” filled with thousands of alien races and myriads of inconceivable scientific and technical wonders. But, rich in technological and social setting though the story may be, it is the characters that drive the […]
“Dark Treats” by Ray Gregory
This book of short stories is a dive into the twisted depths of the disturbed human psyche. Each tale peels back the layers of the mind of one individual who is twisted further, either by self, circumstances or the manipulation of other warped characters, towards an act that would be considered insane except that we […]
“Billy 9F” by David Finley
Children’s Action Comedy is a difficult genre to work with, because of the varied interests and reading vocabularies of the target audience and the objectives of the adults that make the purchases. The novel makes a good stab at it, involving a great deal of creativity to attract the young adults and a tried-and-true political […]
“Wind in Trees” by Arthur M. Doweyko
This is Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi, but the tale starts further than usual down the road to the post-humanity era of self-awareness. It deals with the problem we have trying to predict this progress. There’s no point in present-day humans worrying too much about it, because by the time AI starts taking over, the people of that […]
“The Gilgamesh Path” by Michael Drakich
This novel should have been a fun, action-filled Space Opera. It has all the elements and is well written. However, instead it also tries to be Epic Science Fiction, where it is less successful. The unfortunate element of a story where diplomacy is the main conflict is the complexity of the situation, which requires constant […]
“Missing on Orbital 4” by Cory Wilcox
This book has all the requisite elements of both a Noir Detective Novel and a Space Opera. We have a former cop turned private investigator, trying to make a living with his wits. Because of the nature of the game, he plays both sides, having friends in the police and administration as well as contacts […]
We All Have Our Demons” by Gerrard Tyson
“Demons” is a novella of about a hundred pages, Paranormal Fantasy with a touch of humour. It involves two separate settings: a college campus in the real world, and hell. The main strength of this book is the balance of the writing. We get just enough description to orient us and pull us in, but […]
“Note to Boy” by Sue Clark
The best book I’ve reviewed in several years. Once I’ve said that, what more can I add? This has got to be the wackiest plotline going, a complete inside-out-and-backwards on Pygmalion and My Fair Lady. It features two of the most unlikely characters that were ever jammed together in a book: a rough-and-tumble street urchin […]
“Edge of Death” by Joni Parker
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 […]
“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 […]