@TaraTylerTalks and @Curiosity Quills #Review and #Book Feature "Pop Travel" by Tara Tyler

Pop Travel review (Amazon UK link here, Barnes & Noble link here, Kobo link here)
Author: Tara Tyler
4 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Science Fiction Mystery
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Star Trek buffs, people who enjoy sci-fi mystery mash-ups
Trigger Warnings: murder, conspiracy that endangers most people

My Thoughts: I do not think that my Star Trek geekdom is the only reason I see so much similarity between “popping” and “beaming”, although I suppose it is possible. Still, the whole concept is pretty cool, and wouldn't it be nifty to have your own popper and could just pop on over to anywhere immediately? I know I've been hoping for that sort of technology for decades... Well, and unfortunately, the technology is not perfect. At least not when abused! Still... convenient!

This is a enjoyable story, though it took me several days to read it because of my crazy weekend. Cooper is a great character, as are Geri and Hasan. I wish Blake had been fleshed out more; as it is he just comes across as a little crazy and more than a little sociopathic. Still, a fun little story with a great idea behind it, and something I think a lot of people will find to be highly entertaining, and a great way to while away an afternoon or two while reading. This is about the right length for reading on an airplane, or while at the beach. While there are some statements about greed and human failings, this is mostly just entertainment, so don't expect a lot of deep thinking and you'll have a great time with it.

Disclosure: I received an e-book copy of this book from Curiosity Quills in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Private Investigator J. L. Cooper always knew pop travel laser teleportation was too good to be true. Finding video of a disintegrating traveler is the stomach-turning proof.

Knowing it would be pointless to upload the video on the nosy, government-monitored Qnet, Cooper digs around, bringing the death of his client and threats to his political little brother, who is in jeopardy of turning to dust anyway for disregarding Cooper’s warnings not to pop. Cooper has to do everything himself.

If he survives his first pop, Cooper won’t let anything distract him from putting an end to Pop Travel's fatal glitch. Not the android security guards, the constant surveillance, or even Southern Comfort in a purple dress, Geri Harper. Nothing Coop can’t handle.

Tara Tyler Biography:

Tara Tyler came out of college as a math teacher to prove learning it is not so bad – anyone can do it! She went on to have a hand in everything from waitressing to rocket engineering.

Living up and down the Eastern US and traveling worldwide has given her many alternate perspectives. Now she resides in Ohio with her three active boys and Coach Husband. Atlanta is the most dear as her parents live there and that’s where she got married. So many stories to tell.


In addition to her novels, she has published short stories and poetry. Her favorite genres to read and write are Science Fiction, Fantasy, Thriller, and Humor, have to have humor! She is also working on a non-fiction book of tips for women who hate housework.

Find Tara Tyler on Facebook here.

POP TRAVEL is the way to go!
(at your own risk!)
In 2080, technology has gone too far for J. L. Cooper. He is happily hidden in his simple, secluded life as a private detective in a small town, far from any pop travel laser teleportation stations. Until he takes on a client who insists pop travel made his fiancée disappear.

When Cooper investigates, he finds evidence of pop travel’s deadly flaw, sparking a series of murders, attempts on his life, and threats to his brother. He’d like to pass off the evidence but knows he’s being watched and can’t trust anyone. And who would believe him.


The only way he can save his brother is to fool his observers while looking for a way to expose the problem. He decides to go to the source and confront the Creator of pop travel. On his way, Cooper meets Southern siren, Geri Harper (an undercover FBI agent) who tags along despite his protests. When they reach the Creator, he has plans of his own and leads them on a wild detour.

I have put all the purchase links above by the title (the link on the title itself goes to Amazon.com). Good ahead and add it to your Goodreads shelf by clicking here!

#Giveaway! Two separate #books by Nancy Griffis @NMGrif "Fluctuations" and "The Children of the Temple

So, it's a busy day on Now is Gone today!  Be sure to check out my other post, which also features a giveaway.  For this post, we're giving away two of Nancy M. Griffis's books (stalk her on Twitter at @NMGrif), both of which I edited.  We're giving away Children of the Temple, which is her historical paranormal suspense story featuring Knights Templar and demons and craziness galore, and Fluctuations, which is the first in her science-fiction/space opera series (link to my review of that one), featuring a huge space ship, an mysterious oddity in space, and craziness galore.  These are very different books, so at least one of them should appeal to each of you, and we're giving away three of each book, in the winner's choice of formats. They are both excellent books, and excellent stories, and I just know you will love them! Just to give you an idea of what each book is about, let me provide a short synopsis of each.

Synopsis, Children of the Temple :
In 1311, Laurent de Vichy burns alive in the flames of Templar persecution outside the Convent of St. Antoine, cursing God with his last words, only to be resurrected by an unknown power. Eight hundred years later, he still doesn’t know why he can’t die, but fights to protect the innocent against evil. 

Damian Costas, recovering addict and magic-wielding hacker stands firmly by Laurent’s side, even if he never really knows where they stand in their on-again, off-again relationship. 

Anna Maria Bracken lives a normal life - grad school, friends, family, and a post-college trip to ‘find herself’ - right up until her family is slaughtered, the walls of her childhood home literally painted with their blood. 

What starts out as a simple job protecting Anna Maria against a powerful demon turns into a quest for all three to stop the unleashing of something ancient and evil that the earth hasn’t seen since before the Old Testament... something that wants to unleash Hell on earth.

Synopsis, Fluctuations:
A state-of-the-art cruise ship with wealthy vacationers out for a thrill travels into The Fluctuation, a dangerous region of the galaxy where anything can happen. 

Rosaria, an heiress lacking a purpose in life; Ma’tha’skiyainashtra, a telepathic, feline alien on vacation before her diplomatic assignment to Earth; Bob, a sarcastic robot with a persecution complex; and Evan, a young stowaway genius in search of his parents. After a catastrophic event and mass evacuation, the four get left behind and trapped on the damaged ship with no lifepods.

Crisis after crisis strikes... shield failure, near-collisions, ruthless pirates, kleptomaniac aliens, sentient comets... bonding the new friends as they struggle to keep the ship running and themselves alive. When Evan reveals that he's there to find his parents who were lost thirteen years ago, they all decide to go deeper into The Fluctuation to find them. The danger increases, but so does the potential reward... reuniting a family.

So, you can sign up for one or both giveaways. This giveaway will run for a week. Good luck!

Giveaway for Children of the Temple
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Giveaway for Fluctuations
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JKS Communications presents: Guest Post from S.F. Chapman

In conjunction with the blog tour for The Ripple in Space-Time by S.F. Chapman, I have a guest post today! Thanks to JKS Communications for helping coordinate this. You can find my review of this book here, and there is also a giveaway live for a copy of this e-book, which is here.

You can contact the author or find more info about the book by following these links.
S.F. Chapman's website
@SF_Chapman on Twitter
S.F. Chapman on Facebook
S.F. Chapman on Goodreads

Continue down to read the guest post from S.F. Chapman!

The tale about the tale                         SF Chapman, February 5, 2013.

My latest science fiction novel, The Ripple in Space-Time is set in the dystopic world of 2445. Several corrupt Warlords largely control human affairs throughout the Solar System. Virtually all people endure servitude to these despots, except in Free City.

Free City is a small autonomous region in the Shannon Valley where self-determination and enlightenment prevail over the slavery and ignorance found elsewhere. It's a place that is not unlike modern day London, San Francisco or New York.

The main character in the book is Detective Ryo Trop of the Free City Inquisitor's Office, which is the Scotland Yard of the distant future. So impartial and thorough is the organization that even the Warlords call in the Inquisitor's Office to investigate sensational crimes.

The book begins with just such a crime.

An unexplained explosion has destroyed a huge research lab on the moon and hundreds have been killed. Ryo is brought in to resolve the case.

I visualized this future as an archetypically bad world with just a few good guys trying to save the day, cast in a dark and gritty Film Noir-like hue with scoundrels and skullduggery skulking around every corner.

As I put together chapter summaries for the book, I came upon some newspaper articles from the mid 1800's. They were filled with loads of colorful adverbs and adjectives describing the events of the day.

I decided to include some official “News Items” written in this heavy-handed style in The Ripple in Space-Time.

To the amusement of my editors, the “News Items” often misreport events that the reader has already discovered to be untrue.

It is a style choice that is great fun to write.

Bonus Giveaway! "The Ripple in Space-Time" by S.F. Chapman

In conjunction with the blog tour for The Ripple in Space-Time by S.F. Chapman (review here, guest post here), I am offering an e-book copy of the book, provided by JKS Communications, to one lucky winner! The giveaway will be live for one week, so just click to enter, provide your e-mail address, and maybe next week you'll be the lucky winner! Best of luck!

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Review: "The Ripple in Space-Time" by S.F. Chapman

The Ripple in Space-Time by S.F. Chapman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Book Info: Genre: Science Fiction
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of character-driven science fiction.
Trigger Warnings: Violence, piracy, (implied) drug use

Please note: This is also part of a blog tour. A guest post from the author can be seen here on the 15th. A giveaway for this book will start on the 16th and can be viewed here on or after that date. Additionally, this book will be free through a KDP promotion on Amazon from March 1-3, 2013, so if you’re interested in picking up a copy and don’t win through the giveaway, you can pick it up from Amazon then.

My Thoughts: This is set a bit over 400 years in the future on Earth, and things have become quite dismal. I was interested by the idea of the world breaking up into fiefdoms, but would have liked to have explored that a bit more, and had a better understanding of the current setup of the world. Since this is either a short novel or long novella, there probably wasn’t much room to do that, but there were a couple places where information was obviously thrown in for the reader’s information on other things (“Remind me again why you’re called CRAMP?” and “I know you are aware of this, but we are ...” and such like things), so why not a brief geography/history lesson somehow?

The editing on this is really sloppy. The punctuation is a hot mess, and there are missing words and a lot of misused words. I obviously didn’t keep track of them all, but just to give you some examples, “seating” is used for “sitting,” “in route” is used for “en route,” “and “repeal” is used for “repel.” Another instance of misusing a word came up fairly early in the book when something is described as “ubiquitous” in one paragraph and “one of a kind” in the next. Since ubiquitous means “so common it should be expected at any time,” anything that is ubiquitous cannot, by definition, be one of a kind.

For the first half of the book, I was pretty well set on a three-star rating at the most. The first half is sort of slow moving, and I never did feel particularly connected to the characters, but the second half made up for that. The pacing speeds up and I started to have a better feeling about the characters and action. I think fans of character-driven science fiction tales will enjoy this story. I will likely watch for the upcoming sequel to this, and also take a look at some of this author’s other books in the future.

Disclosure: I received a free e-book copy of this book from JKS Communications (the author’s publicists) in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Series and Author Information: This is the first book in the Free City Series. The second book, Torn from on High, has not set date for release, but is listed as “coming soon.” This author has another other book available, if you like his style, called I’m Here to Help, which is listed as literary fiction. There are a number of books scheduled for release in addition to the one already listed, so we can look forward to a lot of works from this author.

Synopsis: When the huge lunar Ultra Energy Laboratory is destroyed by a mysterious blast, Inspector Ryo Trop of the Free City Inquisitor's Office is called in to sort out who is responsible for the disaster. Early reports imply that rogue moon miners are to blame, but Ryo quickly discovers that a far more complex and sinister scheme is afoot.

With the help of a promising young Liaison Agent and a faltering Grad student, Ryo searches for clues and culprits in the corrupt and moldering feudal fiefdoms of the Warlords that dominate human affairs in 2445. Ryo’s longtime friend, Biology Professor turned spy Malcolm Evans, suggests that the wave of space piracy that has recently vexed the Solar System could be connected to the obliteration of the lunar lab.

But why would reckless and marauding space raiders have an interest in a research facility?



View all my reviews

Giveaway! Rhemalda Presents "Liberty" by Annie Laurie Cechini

Liberty by Annie Laurie Cechini is a young-adult science fiction novel that is scheduled to be released soon (e-book release is February 1, 2013).

Synopsis:

Book Description

A STOLEN VIAL 
Eternigen is the miracle drug that allows humans to travel in deep space. Seventeen-year-old space captain Tabitha “Dix” Dixon has the only vial of Eternigen in existence.

A RELENTLESS ENEMY 
Eira Ninge always gets what she wants. She wants the Eternigen, and she’ll do anything—and kill anyone—to get it.

A DEADLY CURSE 
Since Dix stole the vial, everyone she loves seems fated to die. When young resistance messenger Jordan Berrett steals her heart, she has to decide if it’s worth risking his life to let him get close. When Dix is involved, even falling in love can turn deadly.

A CHANCE FOR FREEDOM 
If Dix can get her hands on more Eternigen, she and her crew can escape the solar system, leaving her dark past behind. But getting the Eternigen won’t be easy, and the bodies keep piling up. In the end, the cost of freedom may be too high.

I had hoped to have this read and reviewed before starting the giveaway, but my schedule has prevented it. However, I have been really eager to read this, and I am sure it will be a wonderful book!

About the author:

Annie Laurie Cechini is a connoisseur of every type of geekery. She writes with a sonic screwdriver pen, owns a Tribble named Nimoy, and often threatens in all seriousness to name a child after a character from the Star Wars lexicon. Liberty is her first novel. You can learn more at her website, www.annielauriecechini.com.





Now for the giveaway!! Rhemalda Publishing will provide the e-book to the winner (just one this week guys, sorry) in the format preferred by the winner, after the e-book release (February 1, 2013). Since it is an e-book, there are no restrictions as to who may enter, unless you are prohibited for some unknown reason. Just sign up below, using the Rafflecopter entry form, and in two weeks (January 28, 2013) I'll draw a winner. Easy as that!

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Movie Reviews! "How to Train your Dragon" and "Prometheus"

Early this morning we watched a couple movies, and just to break things up a bit, I thought I'd post reviews of the movies! So, without further ado!

First we watched Prometheus, the highly anticipated prequel to the Alien franchise by Ridley Scott. Synopsis: A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.
My Thoughts: This is a fast-paced movie with some really good special effects. However, the characters, with the exception of the captain, the co-pilot and the pilot, were a bunch of idiots. They are supposed to be highly trained scientists, and they bumble around like a bunch of amateurs! "Ooh, look, a door - let's just open it and walk inside! Oozing stuff from canisters? Let's stick our finger in it and see what happens! Let's sniff this weird gelatinous stuff! Let's carry this decapitated head into the ship and experiment on it! Let's try to touch this strange, reptilian thing that is living where everything should be dead!" Oh, lordy, lordy, lordy... I wanted to smack each and every one of them repeatedly. Two puke-drenched (yes, I threw up at one point) stars

Afterward, I demanded we watch something that would not make me puke (hey, I have a thing about self-mutilation! I can take all kinds of gross stuff... unless the person is doing it to themselves. Then I become nauseous).

So, Dmitry suggested How to Train your Dragon, saying it was funny.

Synopsis: Hiccup (voice by Jay Baruchel) is a failure as a Viking: skinny, inquisitive, and inventive, he asks questions and tries out unsuccessful contraptions when he's supposed to be fighting the dragons that attack his village. His father, chief Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), has pretty much given up on his teenage son and apprenticed him to blacksmith Gobber (Craig Ferguson). Worse, Hiccup knows the village loser hasn't a chance of impressing Astrid (America Ferrera), the girl of his dreams and a formidable dragon fighter in her own right. When one of Hiccup's inventions actually works, he hasn't the heart to kill the young dragon he's brought down. He names it Toothless and befriends it, although he's been taught to fear and loathe dragons.
My Thoughts: Dmitry was right, I really loved this adorable movie. The dragons were wonderful, especially the little ones - I wanted one of my very own! Watching Hiccup grow into himself was delightful, and the other Viking kids - and adult Vikings - were a treat as well. The CGI was amazing and wonderfully detailed. I highly recommend this fun movie to anyone who hasn't already seen it. 5 dragon-sized stars!

Book Review: "Year Zero" by Rob Reid

Year Zero review
Author: Rob Reid
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Science Fiction
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of humorous stories, science fiction, people who like music.

Disclosure: I received an ARC paperback copy of this book from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Low-level entertainment lawyer Nick Carter thinks it’s a prank, not an alien encounter, when a redheaded mullah and a curvaceous nun show up at his office. But Frampton and Carly are highly advanced (if bumbling) extraterrestrials. And boy, do they have news.

The entire cosmos, they tell him, has been hopelessly hooked on humanity’s music ever since “Year Zero” (1977 to us), when American pop songs first reached alien ears. This addiction has driven a vast intergalactic society to commit the biggest copyright violation since the Big Bang. The resulting fines and penalties have bankrupted the whole universe. We humans suddenly own everything—and the aliens are not amused.

Nick Carter has just been tapped to clean up this mess before things get ugly, and he’s an unlikely galaxy-hopping hero: He’s scared of heights. He’s also about to be fired. And he happens to have the same name as a Backstreet Boy. But he does know a thing or two about copyright law. And he’s packing a couple of other pencil-pushing superpowers that could come in handy.

Soon he’s on the run from a sinister parrot and a highly combustible vacuum cleaner. With Carly and Frampton as his guides, Nick now has forty-eight hours to save humanity, while hopefully wowing the hot girl who lives down the hall from him.

My Thoughts: “An alien advance party was suddenly nosing around my planet. Worse, they were lawyering up. . . .” This book is hilarious. Seriously, if I started throwing in quotes, this review could end up going on to pages – I ended up reading huge sections of it to my husband wherever we happened to be, because it was so funny I couldn’t stand to keep it to myself and wanted to share it with whomever around me would listen. It’s amazing I didn’t end up going downtown, standing on the street, and starting a performance as I read it, truly.

A good example is a scene a bit past the halfway point in which Nick and his neighbor Manda are in a cab and are mistaken for top-secret government agents.

”America Good!” the driver said obsequiously, apparently confusing us for government operatives... As we started to roll, the driver muttered into his cellphone in a language that had a spectacular density of consonants. After listening intently for a few seconds, he turned to me. “North Vietnam?” He shook his head derisively. “Very, very bad.” He listened some more, then denounced Brezhnev. Apparently someone on the other end was now mining an old history book for statements that he could use to prove his loyalty to the secret agents in his cab. After sitting through heated condemnations of Kaiser Wilhelm, the Mexican troops at the Alamo, and King George III, I pulled up a picture of Pugwash... As I opened the taxi door, a loud, shattering sound came from the top floor... and [I] saw something large and Pugwash-shaped accelerating toward the ground... The driver was denouncing the Algonquian tribe to me (they apparently fought against us in the French and Indian War), so he was facing my way and saw everything. Already plenty rattled, that was it for him, and he took off.

You see? A single quote and it doubled the amount of rambling I had already done! Imagine that times about 100 and you’ll figure out how much of this I was tempted to quote at you. And maybe that would be a more effective review than my excessive fangirling... but I don’t want to spoil things, you know? Anyway, no one would have time to read that review, so you’ll just have to trust me – this book is absolutely filled with hilarious stuff. And it also effectively explains exactly how Windows has saved the world, which you won’t want to miss. That bit is right at the end, though, so I can’t tell you more of that. There are also individual playlists for several of the characters at the end of the book which reminded me of several songs that I want to add to my own collection.

So, highly recommended for fans of humorous books, science fiction, and music. Definitely check this book out!

Book Review: "Further: Beyond the Threshold" by Chris Roberson

Further: Beyond the Threshold review
Author: Chris Roberson
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Science Fiction/Space Opera Reading Level: Adult

Disclosure: I received a free paperback ARC/uncorrected proof in exchange for an honest review from the Amazon Vine program.

Synopsis: Captain RJ Stone just awoke from a cryogenic suspension after disappearing twelve thousand years ago on Earth's first unified interstellar space mission. He finds himself in a place known as the Human Entelechy, a myriad of worlds and habitats spread across three thousand light years that is linked by a network of wormholes with Earth at its center. Quickly caught in the middle of politics and intrigue he knows little about, Stone becomes the captain of the FTL Further, the first spacecraft to travel faster than the speed of light. The crew's first mission: investigate a distant pulsar for the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence. What they find, however, may be their undoing.

My Thoughts: From the additional information I have been able to find, this looks like it may be the beginning of a series. If so, I definitely want to keep track of it, because I got a real kick out of this book, which is fun, engaging, and exciting in equal measure – and unremittingly hilarious!

The Anachronists, especially, really amused me – I spent several minutes laughing my head off at the descriptions and actions of the first three Stone met. I wonder if modern SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) recreationists would amuse “authentic” people of the days they strive to emulate in a similar manner?  I was also very interested in the people who recreated Hindu deities and their world, Thousand-petal Lotus. The two who kept worshiping him as Sri Rama made me laugh a lot, too. I wish we had spent more time with these people, but Stone’s discomfort kept him from spending much time around them.

Admittedly this is an ARC and uncorrected proof, so hopefully the author will have noticed and fixed the many spelling and grammar errors, as well as the fact that Stone was using his ear translator with the Anachronists a day before the escort gave it to him. I had contacted the author to ask about this, but as of the posting of my review I had no response; not that I blame him, as I only contacted him a few hours ago. Again, I want to stress that I have an ARC, specifically listed as an uncorrected proof, so likely most of these issues will be cleared up in the final copy of the book.

I was really interested in Roberson’s idea for gender-neutral pronouns, developed for Xerxes: “...ey, em, eir, eirs, and eirself, rather than he, him, his, theirs, and himself.” I had previously be aware of an attempt to use “sie, hir, hirself, and sei” for “he/she, him/her, him/herself, and they”, but that apparently hasn’t taken off, since it was the 1990s when I learned them and hardly anyone I ever mention it to has heard of it. Likewise I was very interested in the attitude toward religion and belief systems that were sprinkled throughout the book. The Iron Mass was a frightening example of what religious dogmatism can turn into if allowed to spread out of control.

Science is not my background, so I can’t really comment on how realistic the scientific aspects of this book are; what I can comment on is how incredibly fun the book is. If you enjoy your science fiction with a human touch, and a lot of humor, do not miss this wonderful new book by Chris Roberson; I highly recommend it!

Cover Reveal: "Liberty" by Annie Laurie Cechini

LIBERTY is a young-adult, science-fiction novel about a young space captain, Tabitha Dixon (Dix), who loses her ship and her crew. Dix is forced to accept the help of a young shipbuilder who runs communication for the Resistance. As the pair track down the captain's missing crew, a bond begins to grow between them. However, that bond, along with everything Dix yearns for, is threatened by her belief that she's destined to kill anyone who gets close enough to touch.

Scheduled for publication by Rhemalda Publishing February 1, 2013. This is Annie Laurie Cechini's debut novel. I'll be receiving an ARC after the first of the year and shall try to get it read and reviewed prior to publication to let you all know what I think. Being a fan of sci-fi, I think I'll probably like it.

Elizabeth Lang Presents: The Empire Novels

I read Elizabeth Lang's Empire in April (review here) and really enjoyed it. She has now released the second book in the series, The Rebels, and has them both available on both Amazon and Kobo.
 Links: Empire on Amazon and Kobo
          The Rebels on Amazon and Kobo

The third book in the series, The Andromedans, is scheduled for release sometime this winter. Ms. Lang has just approached me to review the 2nd book, which I'll be getting to later this summer or in the early fall, and sent me a copy of this nifty poster, which I'm sharing with permission. Anyway, this is a fun military sci-fi/space opera series, so be sure to check it out! you can get to her page to learn more by clicking on the poster, so I've made things super easy for you, so go!

Book Review: "The Void" By Brett J. Talley

The Void review
Author: Brett J. Talley
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Dark Science Fantasy Reading Level: Adult Ebook available at Journalstone or Amazon; Paperback or Hardcover copy is available as of today, 7/13/12 on Amazon

Disclosure: I received a free eBook ARC from LibraryThing in exchange for an honest review. To make things even better, I just received a free paperback uncorrected proof from Journalstone in a promotion! This will not, of course, affect my opinion of the book, but it is awesome!

Synopsis: In the deepest reaches of space, on a ship that no longer exists, six travelers stare into the abyss . . . and the abyss stares back.

Man has finally mastered the art of space travel and in a few hours passengers can travel light years across the galaxy. But, there's a catch—the traveler must be asleep for the journey, and with sleep come the dreams. Only the sleeper can know what his dream entails, for each is tailored to his own mind, built from his fears, his secrets, his past . . . and sometimes his future.

That the dreams occasionally drive men mad is but the price of technological advance. But when a transport on a routine mission comes upon an abandoned ship, missing for more than a decade, six travelers—each with something to hide—discover that perhaps the dreams are more than just figments of their imagination. Indeed, they may be a window to a reality beyond their own where shadow has substance and the darkness is a thing unto itself, truly worthy of fear.

My Thoughts: Brett J. Talley burst onto the scene last year with his Bram Stoker finalist, Lovecraftian debut, That Which Should not Be, which I absolutely loved, and so did many others. To say I was anticipating this book would be seriously understating the excitement I’ve felt while anticipating the chance to finally read it.

One thing Talley does really well is to create that form of creeping suspense, that feeling that something …. terrible and terrifying waits just right around that corner up ahead. At first this is done subtly, with minor things happening around the characters that could just be their own paranoia, their imagination, but then it starts to ramp up and pretty soon the reader is hanging on the edge of their seat and ready to jump if there is an unexpected sound in the house.

I had initially figured this to be a form of horror/science fiction blend, but after finishing the book, I don’t think I could define it as horror, although it does have some horrific elements, and is very Lovecraftian. No, I have changed my definition to dark science-fantasy, and I think once you read this book you will agree this is fitting. Highly recommended for fans of Cthulhian/Lovecraftian fiction, for fans of the darker prose, for those who enjoy an element of fantasy in their science fiction. This is a really well-written book, and I think that you absolutely cannot go wrong in grabbing a copy to read.