@MercedesLackey #Review "Reboots" by Cody Martin and Mercedes Lackey

Reboots by Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Science Fiction/fantasy cross-genre. Monsters in Space, essentially
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: fans of cross-genre stories, sci-fi, urban fantasy
Trigger Warnings: violence

My Thoughts: I ran across Mercedes Lackey signing books at Dragon Con quite by accident. What a happy accident!

This consists of two novellas. It is part of the Stellar Guild series, novellas written by a well-known author and a new author that is being mentored by him or her. The first novella (“Bad Moon Rising” by Cody Martin) is a space opera with monsters, and the second (“Bullets” by Mercedes Lackey) is more PI/noir. They are both very fun stories! I do recommend that readers pay very close attention in “Bad Moon Rising,” because every time there is a break in the text, one is being sent to a new narrator, which can be a bit confusing at first. Still, I enjoyed the stories and now I want the rest...

Series Information: The Stellar Guide series
Book 1: Reboots
Book 2: Tau Ceti
Book 3: On the Train
Book 4: When the Blue Shift Comes
Book 5: New Under the Sun
Book 6: The Aethers of Mars

Disclosure: I bought this book for myself at Dragon Con. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Space travel is tough. No air, cosmic radiation, absolute lack of other life-sustaining essentials.

What better way to deal with space travel than to man ships with creatures that regenerate or don’t need air, or are immune to various maladies?

In a future world where zombies, vampires and werewolves co-exist with ‘normal’ humans on Earth, these ships are staffed by a motley crew of various types of undead or near-dead creatures.

Of course no one really knows what happens when zombies and vampires are squeezed together in the close confines of a spaceship.

Don’t you love surprises?



View all my reviews

#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
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway for Fluctuations
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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!

Book Review: "The Heart of the Matter" Odyssey One book 2 by Evan C. Currie

The Heart of the Matter: Odyssey One review
Author: Evan Currie
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Space Opera (per publisher); Military Science Fiction (per me) Reading Level: Adult Book Available: Book will be released in paperback and ebook format on September 25, 2012.

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

Synopsis: After an epic maiden voyage that introduced Earth to a larger universe—and a cosmos full of terrifying new enemies—Captain Eric Weston and the crew of the NAC spacecraft Odyssey have spent months cooling their heels under their admiral’s watchful eye. But when Earth’s newest ally, the Priminae, strike a defense deal with the North American Confederacy, the Odyssey finally receives her orders: return to Ranquil, the Priminae’s war-ravaged homeworld, and lend badly needed support against the invading Drasin.

Weston and his crew are hungry for action, yet once back on Ranquil, they realize not all is as it seems. Yes, the Drasin are a formidable foe, but Weston suspects a powerful unseen force is waging the war that could alter forever the face of the universe. Determined to unmask the mysterious puppet masters, Weston and his motley crew defy NAC protocol and venture into deep space…where they will discover an enemy unlike any they have ever faced. The long-awaited follow-up to the spectacular Into the Black: Odyssey One combines old-school space opera with modern storytelling to create an exhilarating new sci-fi adventure.

My Thoughts: This is the second book in the Odyssey One series of space operas. I reviewed the first book in the series, Into the Black in May of this year; you can see that review by clicking on the link here (the link on the book name goes to the Amazon page to buy it).

As I theorized in my review of the first book in the series, we do indeed learn a bit more about the Drasin in this book – just enough for me, personally, to find the idea of them absolutely terrifying. We also learn more about Central, the Priminae information archive, which is in itself also rather of concern. I’m fascinated by what Currie is building here in this series. This book is again over 600 pages, but it moves fast, with lots of action and events.

Again, while the publisher is calling this space opera, I would classify it more as military science fiction, mostly based upon the amount of combat we see in this book. I can’t really comment on the hard science aspects of the book, as that’s really not my field, but it feels right and is certainly interally consistent.

This is an uncorrected proof, advanced reader’s copy, so I wouldn’t have been surprised to find some editing errors, but it appears that not even a basic spelling check was run on this thing. There is also a long section where the gender of a character changes every couple of sentences. I hope that these things will be fixed in the final copy when it is released.

This is a series I will continue to monitor. At this time I cannot find any information as to when the next book in the series is scheduled. However, if you like Currie’s style, he has a number of other books out there, including another military sci-fi series called the Hayden War cycle, so don’t despair! I am finding his style very engaging and fun, so I’ll definitely be not only watching for additional entries in the Odyssey One series, but looking at his additional books as well. I recommend that, if you also enjoy military science fiction, you take the time to check out Evan C. Currie.

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!