Category: Review (Page 3 of 4)

Another Michael Wombat story here, and the opening of this one combines both of his greatest literary loves: really weird piratical vessels, and (made up) words that make polite company wince.

Under an impossibly azure sky, the cutter Jack’s Bitch sailed at a steady ten knots, her single mast fore-and-aft rigged, her two headsails swollen by a foehn wind, thrusting her way across the fast sand that layered the scorched desert of the Wastelands. The only sounds were the hiss-tick of the wide wheels, fitted to enable the vessel to sail oceans of sand as well as those of water, and the occasional shout from the crew.
The desert wind was hot and dry. It curled my hair beneath the sweat-stained old baseball cap that sat uncomfortably over my antlers; it tugged at the white square of cloth that covered the back of my neck; it made my nerves jump and my skin itch. Its constancy nagged like an unsatisfied lover. It could not possibly get what it wanted, this wind, but it incessantly worked at my skin, trying to make me … different; trying to erode that which makes me Ghabrie. It whistled through the rigging, modulated, singing without melody. It reminded me that no matter how many friends I might have, or how many people love me, in the end I will die alone. Some things we must do alone. Dying is one of them. The desert wind whispered that truth in my ear even as it grazed my cheek.
To starboard the beautiful Shadow Mountain shimmered into the blue, forming a barrier to more temperate country beyond. Wisps of cloud on the high ridges betrayed the strong katabatic winds that raged high above the vessel. As Jack’s Bitch drew abreast of a rocky promontory that provided refuge for a swarm of wolf spiders, the captain beside me bellowed orders. Crew scrambled to lower the sails. The cutter glided to a stop. Silence, save for the song of the wind and the creaking and ticking of the wooden hull under a burning sun. I adjusted my irises as I gazed out across the sunbright ripples of sand.
“Bloody hell, Jack,” I growled. “There’s nothing here. I swear if you’re double crossing me your entrails will soon be your extrails.” I had heard that threat once in an old movie that Alphaeus had shown us, back in the shipping yard, and had been waiting a long time for an opportunity to use it.

This is one of the very few stories to use Ghabrie as a viewpoint character, and I believe the only one at all to use first person while doing so. I have to be honest, I found that closeness a bit off-putting and would have preferred to keep a certain amount of mystery to Ghabrie’s inner voice. Everything else about this story was wonderful, mind you, so feel free to ignore my misgivings about voice choice.

Items of note in this story: Ghabrie saves some kids (Huzzah),  and we see the reappearance of the skystone from the end of my story (Aha!) that Wombat asked me to put in. Also, explosions, radioactivity, and the breaking down of doors and such with mighty kicks. This is an action-packed kind of story.

The book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback) and Amazon (kindle). All proceeds go to Water is Life, so you should buy it.  Also, it is a very good book so you should buy it.

The Summer Indie Book Awards are now finished, by the way, and we came in 2nd (WooHoo). I guess that means I still can’t refer to myself as an “Award Winning Author”, but I might start using “Award Nominated Author” and see if it catches on.

KR Smith has written what at first seems to be a classic love story. And indeed, the plot does follow the girl-meets-boy, girl-falls-for-boy, girl-loses-boy structure. Where it veers off the beaten path is in it’s inclusion of girl-avenges-boy’s-grisly-murder, and girl-becomes-a-badass plot elements.

This story starts off with Maeve, a young red-headed lady (I must have missed the story meeting where everyone decided to make all the young ladies red-heads) and her cousin Kendra, who are excited to see  a locally-famous young man sing in the town square.

“Hurry, Maeve! We don’t want to miss the show!”
“But, Kendra, I’m supposed to finish my chores and put away the clean laundry. Your mother will be furious!”
“Never mind that,” she laughed. “If we get there too late to see Aiden, I’ll never forgive you!”
“Oh, all right! I’m coming! And he’d better be as good as you say. He’s all you’ve talked about for the last week.”
“He is! You’ll see!”

Kendra took her hand, giggling as she pulled Maeve through the doorway and down the street.
A crowd had already gathered in the dusty square at the center of the village when the girls arrived. Snaking their way through the gathering, they approached an impromptu stage which was little more than empty carts tied together, with a stepladder for access. Atop them stood a single man, young and tall, his hair a tangle of brown wavy curls. He held up his hand and smiled to the crowd, and after they quieted, he began to sing.

Maeve watched his fingers move over the strings of the instrument he held, their tones soft and rhythmic, carrying the words to her ears. As she listened, her mind traveled to places she’d never been, never known, into dreams that seemed too real. It was so different from the little music she had heard before. There were no hymns of battle, no chants of warriors facing death, no drums beating out a march. Words of warm evenings, of passion and love, of romance lost to time danced through the air. He glanced over the crowd as he sang, and when he looked at Maeve he smiled, or so she thought. When he stopped the words and melodies still filled her mind

If I were to nit-pick this story a bit, I might say that the titular Aiden is a bit of a Marty Stu. He seems to have no flaws and therefore seems to be more plot element than character. If I were to nit-pick further I might mention that I only notice this because I’m prone to doing the same thing myself and it stands out to me more than it would to most. Aiden’s flawless perfection doesn’t actually bother me, though, for three reasons.

1. Maeve’s character is more than interesting enough to pull all of my attention away from Mr. Perfect,
2. He isn’t in the story for very long, and
3. He may not be a tremendously interesting character, but he’s a pretty great plot element.

I quite enjoyed this story. If I were to Hollywood summarize it I’d say it’s like a When Harry met Xena: Warrior Princess origin story with a bit of Top Gun thrown in.

If you haven’t read the book, it is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback) and Amazon (kindle). All proceeds go to Water is Life, so you should buy it.  Also, it is a very good book so you should buy it.

If you have read the book, Human 76 has been nominated for a Summer Indie Book Award in the category of Best Anthology. It’s a public voting sort of thing, so you should go to http://www.poll-maker.com/poll533527x2B2C4bFb-22 and vote for Human 76. You would be best advised to “Ctrl-F” and type ‘human’ to locate it. As of this writing, it is also listed twice for some reason, and the page allows you to vote for multiple books, so you can effectively vote for Human 76 twice. You can vote 1 time per day, so off you go.

Aaaaaaaaaand we’re back to futuristic tech and some neat toys and things. Also, genetic drift! This is awesome!

I really enjoyed this story by Denise Callaway. In it, we meet two tunnel rats named Cievette and Eisle. The tunnel rats live under cities and settlements, siphoning of electric power and supplies as needed. They are adapted to their underground life with pale skin and larger eyes. I think that’s cool, and wonder why none of the rest of us thought to include this idea (that, and the bicycles).

The tunnel rats had a knack for thievery, stealing anything from food and clothing to power. They only found independence in the deep spaces beneath cities. Over the years, they had learned to network with the rats in other cities, sharing skills, trading resources. Cievette’s skill was one of those resources, and it held her in rare regard. Her assignments were often dangerous, but fortunately having Eisle with her had gotten her out of a tight spot or two.

Taking over at the code screen, Cievette studied what Eisle had managed to unravel. “Not bad, Eisle. Keep this up and they’re going to start sending you out on your own.”

His quiet laugh rumbled as he settled in near the door. Commander Harkins had made it clear that Cievette’s safe return was to be Eisle’s only concern.

Our main characters meet Ghabrie when they are all imprisoned together by the Promethean Alliance. That’s right, Ghabrie was captured! The story isn’t really about that, though, but rather is about drawing a neat (in the sense of interesting) little picture of the tunnel rat’s world, and of the relationship between Cievette and Eisle.

I do have to say, in passing, that while I understand the hold implanted tech has on our collective psyche, given the upgrade cycle of modern technology I really can’t see implants becoming too popular. Before or after the holocaust. Wearable tech seems much more likely to me, but hey, I’m currently writing a story about an 800-year-old lady with a spaceship for a body, so obviously not even I listen to me.

If you’re looking for the book, it is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback) and Amazon (kindle). All proceeds go to Water is Life, so you should buy it.  Also, it is a very good book (so far) so you should buy it.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out that Human 76 has been nominated for a Summer Indie Book Award in the category of Best Anthology. It’s a public voting sort of thing, so you should go to http://www.poll-maker.com/poll533527x2B2C4bFb-22 and vote for Human 76. It’s hard to find things in the list, so you can “Ctrl-F” and type ‘human’ to locate it. As of this writing, it is also listed twice for some reason, and the page allows you to vote for multiple books, so you can effectively vote for Human 76 twice. You can vote 1 time per day, so off you go.

Oh, Julia Rios, where have you been all my life?

What a lovely, satisfying, and well written tale.

In this story we meet a young lady named Kayera who isn’t Ghabrie, but who is frequently suspected of being her on the slim evidence of having dark hair. People do tend to believe what they want to believe and see what they want to see, don’t they. Even fictional people.

“I’m sorry.” Kayera spoke more softly this time, as softly as she could over the roar of the grinder. She made eye contact with Eneri, willing her to know that if she could help she would. “I’m not her. I don’t have the gift. I’m just a girl who’s willing to do hard work. That’s all.”
Eneri grabbed her arm. “But surely if you try—”
“No,” Kayera said. “I have tried. I don’t have it.”
When the last of the grain spilled from the sack into the grinder’s hungry maw, Kayera took it to the pile of empties and then signalled to the foreman asking to go on a break. “Please don’t follow me,” she said to Eneri. “I need to be alone.”

At any rate, in this story we meet another faction – one that goes by the name of The Green Stripes, and that is likely a militarized version of greenpeace rather than something started by the descendants of Jack and Meg White. They value nature and so forth and, as with most groups with a similar bent, forget to include people within their concept of nature. They aren’t very nice.

The story revolves around the aforementioned Kayera, who has run away from home to avoid the Promethean Alliance, and finds out that, while they have moved on, the city is now controlled by the Green Stripes, who are unlikely to leave her aged grandmother in peace.

There’s some good suspense and decent action in this story, but above all it seems to be about hope and rebuilding and responsibility. This was one of the highlights of the book so far for me.

As usual, the book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback) and Amazon (kindle). All proceeds go to Water is Life, so you should buy it.  Also, it is a very good book (so far) so you should buy it.

Steven Paul Watson has a lovely story here. At the risk of being a bit spoiler-y, it has a happy ending. This is noteworthy in any project headed up by Mike Wombat.

In this tale, we have a man working hard against impossible odds to lure cannibalistic reaver-type folks away from his injured daughter while hoping desperately that his wife is still alive.

We also see not only Ghabrie’s bad-assery and toughness, but also the more emotional and vulnerable side. It’s good to be reminded that she is still a very young woman on a very difficult road. It’s good to be reminded of why she’s on that road. It’s good to see her as a more rounded character with depth and vulnerability.

It also, as I’ve mentioned, has a happy ending which is a great change of pace.

The book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. The e-book is no longer free, but all proceeds from either format go to Water is Life, so you should buy it. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback) and Amazon (kindle).

Human X tells the story of Ael, a mysterious man who mysteriously survives a nasty disease and is mysteriously blind (these things are all related). This is the first story to take a decidedly supernatural turn, and I like it. The horror elements are more muted than they probably would have been if this book hadn’t been specifically meant for a YA audience, but they are there and strongly enough to do their job.

Human X is also the first story in the collection told in the first person. I feel pretty ‘meh’ about first person, it’s never really been my thing, but by the end of the story I could see the reason for it. It’s still not a voice I like reading, but it was necessary to tell this particular story, and Michelle Fox does it better than most.

One thing I’m having to remind myself of over and over again while reading this book is that the stories are stand alone items. I was thinking about how the evil creatures in this story were going to fit in down the road, but they don’t need to, do they? There are enough shared elements from story to story that it’s easy to forget they actually aren’t interconnected in any meaningful way.

I think that’s pretty neat.

The book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. The e-book is no longer free, but all proceeds from either format go to Water is Life, so you should buy it. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback only, e-book coming soon).

And so we move from the warm and squishy human side of this post-apocalyptic wonderland to the hard and shiny Promethean Alliance. As you could probably tell from my story, I hate them. I hate them lots. This story brings the bad guys into much, much sharper focus, and oh boy is Ghabrie in trouble.

Speaking of trouble, I had a bit of trouble getting into this story, and for the longest time I couldn’t figure out what was bothering me. It has everything I like in a sci-fi romp; neat toys, cool science, and interesting new powers. The puns are groanable, and the protagonist is OP as fuck.

And that’s what was bugging me – that’s what I wasn’t liking. This guy is basically what the PA is trying to build – a god – and Ghabrie is going to have to figure out a way to take this dude down at some point, and I just don’t see how that’s possible.

I’ve decided, though, to have faith on my main lady and trust that she will find a way to feed the big bad augmented wolf his own eyeballs before the end of the book. Maybe the waif from my story will meet up with Ghabrie and make a milkshake of Hiero’s mind from the inside. Maybe Ghabrie will figure out how to do that on her own. Maybe his nanites will contract a virus. Maybe he’ll switch allegiance (I doubt it).

The only thing that still bugs me at this point is the idea that this guy would have full-body nano-armor and leave his nuts unprotected. Rookie move.

The book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. The e-book is no longer free, but all proceeds from either format go to Water is Life, so you should buy it. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback only, e-book coming soon). Jeff Hollars other books can be found here.

I may have mentioned before how much I love Alex Brightsmith’s writing. I have, in my possession, a short piece she wrote for an Anthology Club anthology that never made it out the door. That piece of writing still haunts my dreams. To the best of my knowledge, she’ s still not published it elsewhere, and I consider myself very lucky indeed to be among the few souls to have read it.

That other piece of writing was quite short, more sketch than full-fledged story, and yet still managed to evoke such a profound sense of melancholy and longing that it has stayed with me to this day. I thought that maybe it was the brevity of the other piece that lent it its poignancy  but here, in this longer and more fleshed out narrative, I felt the same feelings; loss, poignancy, wistful remembrance… I’m not sure exactly what to call it, but Alex is an absolute master at evoking those feelings.

It occurs to me, by the way, that I haven’t exactly been reviewing the stories in the traditional sense. I’ve not been giving much in the way of plot or character details. Partly this is because these are short stories and there are only so many details you can give before you’ve given the whole story away, and partly because I find it more interesting to talk about the feel of the story than the bones of it. But I feel like I should at least make a nod towards that sort of thing, so:

This story centers around Chrissy, an old acquaintance of Glint from the last story. The events of this story and the last happen at the same time and, in fact, the two stories share some of the same plot elements, albeit from different viewpoint characters. Chrissy is a blast survivor, and has kept herself apart from the new world as it has built itself back up. She is forced to confront the walls she’s built for herself to keep the world out (the walls in the title are metaphorical ones), and to question her wisdom in building them in the first place.

Oh, and a character dies.

The feeling I’m always left with after reading an Alex Brightsmith story is one of sadness. Pleasant sadness. Optimistic sadness. Bittersweet, contented sadness. The sadness of what might have been. She really is one of my favorite writers ever.

The book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. The e-book is no longer free, but all proceeds from either format go to Water is Life, so you should buy it. It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback only, e-book coming soon).

First, let me say that Michael Wombat has a real gift for flavor.

This story gives us our first real glimpse of what civilization looks like after the end of civilization. I’m kicking myself a little bit for not thinking to give Ghabrie a Geiger counter… or a flipping bicycle. It seems so obvious in hindsight that bicycles would be the predominant form of long-distance transportation in a post-apocalyptic world, and yet it never occurred to me to include a single one in my own story.

Glint, Lauren, and David are all great characters; well defined, distinct, and sympathetic. Without getting too spoilery, I hope to see the ones who are still alive at the end of this story again in the book. That would make me happy.

I’d write more about this story, but the next one in the book was written by Alex Brightsmith, and I love her writing more than just about anything so I’m off to read it now. Suffice it to say that Wombat has written an exciting, adventurous story with compelling characters and a satisfying, oh-my-god-damn-you-for-killing-that-character kind of ending. No seriously, Wombat. Damn you.

The book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. The e-book is no longer free, but all proceeds from either format go to Water is Life, so you should buy it.

It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback only, e-book coming soon). I really think you should go get a copy.

Ah, the plot thickens. Now we have factions pitted against each other. Nick Johns‘ story is fast paced and introduces us to a broader vision of Ghabrie’s world. I’m still not sure if Laura and Jake were human, animal, or one of each (I suspect the latter) but it seems the lines between the two groups are blurrier than they usually are. The hyper-intelligent monkey was an interesting twist, as well.

As a fellow contributor I knew the basic information we were all given about the Prometheans. I’m becoming more and more interested to see what my fellow conspirators have done with them. While reading Nick’s story I had to keep reminding myself, I suspect not for the last time, that he hadn’t read my story when he wrote his. The stories in this anthology were largely written in isolation from each other. I understand from what the other authors have said, however, that they fit together remarkably well given that fact. So far, that seems absolutely to be true.

The book is available at Lulu.com in paperback and e-book formats. The e-book is no longer free, but all proceeds from either format go to Water is Life, so you should buy it.

It is also available at Barnes and Noble as paperback and for the Nook, and at  Amazon (paperback only, e-book coming soon). I really think you should go get a copy.