Book review: "Adept" by Jolea M. Harrison

Adept by Jolea M. Harrison

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




Book Info: Genre: Science Fantasy
Reading Level: Older Young Adults (16+)
Recommended for: Those who enjoy darker stories
Trigger Warnings: Murder, fighting, violence

My Thoughts: Those who survived the first six books are now back on Cobalt and cleaning up the mess, as best they can.

This book just exhausted me. I swear I was screaming at it in frustration every 15 minutes or so. The bad guys just kept coming and coming, and nothing ever stopped them. It was... well, as I said, exhausting! However, it was a very engaging book. Marc and Dain, especially, grow a lot as characters in this book, and Marc really comes into his own.

I'm not really sure what to say about the book. This is a series where you have to really read the whole series in order to follow what's going on, and even then this book has a couple of really confusing sections. There is one section with Marc that I read and re-read and still had no idea what was going on. I just kept saying, “What?? What? What is going on here??” There are mentions of events from very early in the series, so some of that I'd forgotten, since it's been a year since I read the early part of the series. I really do recommend that the best way to read this series is as a whole, all together, one after another.

The final book, King, has been released early, and I'll hopefully have time to read that next, but I have to pause in my reviewing here to do another pass on an editing job. If I don't have time this week to read King, I'll make a concerted effort at the end of next week. At any rate, expect that review as soon as I'm able to provide it. Meantime, series info is below, and a giveaway is scheduled for next week.

Series Information: Adept is the 7th book in the Guardians of the Word series.
Book 1: Chosen, released in 2011, reviewed August 2011, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 2: Myth, released 2011, reviewed August 2012, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 3: Telepath, released 2012, reviewed August 2012, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 4: Legend, released 2012, reviewed August 2012, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 5: Union, released 2012, reviewed August 2012, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 6: Seer, released 2012, reviewed March 2013, review linked here where formatting allowed.
Book 8: King, released March 2013, to be reviewed
Please note: On March 18, I'll be holding a giveaway on my blog for all 8 books, plus a grand-prize winner will also receive a $25 gift certificate. So watch for that!

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

Synopsis: It isn’t so easy to kill a telepath. Or contain him. Those that must hold absolute evil shielded from the world, fight to restore tenuous balance against a force they can no longer control.

Reality mingles with chaos that beats at the confines of its prison – eager for freedom. The thin veil that separates the world of death from the world of life starts to dissolve, shearing as though in a wind that no shield can hold. Those once dead live and those living struggle to survive against the perpetual night. Souls are taken and souls returned, but can they ever be the same, coming back from the land of the damned?

A 1000 year-old ghost tires of his duties and the Gods are weakening. 

The Heir Apparent carries the weight of worlds, holding onto the only things that will get him through; faith and love.

If the demon comes, if it breaches the barrier that has kept it from the world, will love be enough? Will anything?



View all my reviews

Book Review: "The Inner City" by Karen Heuler

The Inner City review
Author: Karen Heule
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Dark fiction/short stories, anthology
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of the strange, the dark, the macabre, the beautiful

My Thoughts: Usually when I review anthologies I'll put up a list of stories in the books and try to give a bit of info about them, but this particular anthology is all by the same author, so I'll just address the writing. Which is brilliant and creepy. Each of the stories is a brilliant gem, and each has a wonderfully strange or macabre or surprising ending. For those who enjoy the strange, the dark, the weirdly beautiful, these stories are definitely for you. Check this great little anthology out right away.

For more information about this book, please follow this link to see John Scalzi's Big Idea post about this book, which is very good. To purchase the book directly from ChiZine, you can click here (where formatting allowed) or on the cover image.

Disclosure: I received an ARC from ChiZine Publications in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I also was part of the cover reveal, and that post can be seen here (linked where formatting allowed).

Synopsis: Heuler’s stories dart out at what the world is doing and centre on how the individual copes with it. Anything is possible: people breed dogs with humans to create a servant class; beneath one great city lies another city, running it surreptitiously; an employee finds that her hair has been stolen by someone intent on getting her job; strange fish fall from trees and birds talk too much; a boy tries to figure out what he can get when the Rapture leaves good stuff behind. Everything is familiar; everything is different. Behind it all, is there some strange kind of design or merely just the chance to adapt? In Heuler’ s stories, characters cope with the strange without thinking it’ s strange, sometimes invested in what’ s going on, sometimes trapped by it, but always finding their own way in.

Book Review: "No Peace for the Damned" by Megan Powell

No Peace for the Damned review
Author: Megan Powell
3 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of darker urban fantasy

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

Synopsis: Magnolia Kelch is no stranger to pain. Beautiful and powerful, she's spent her entire life at the mercy of her sadistic father and the rest of the Kelch clan, who have tortured her and tested the limits of her powers. After one particularly heinous night that leaves Magnolia nearly dead, she finally sees her chance for escape. But this first taste of freedom is short-lived when she collides with Thirteen, head of the Network – a secret organization dedicated to fighting supernatural criminals – who recruits her into the group. Even as she's coming to grips with this new life and the horrific memories that still haunt her, she's conflicted by her growing attraction to fellow team member Theo and the emergence of new, untested abilities. After months of grueling training, her loyalty to the team is tested when she learns her target is the Network's most wanted: the Kelch family. Revenge may course through her veins, but so does the blood of the Kelches. And opposing her family may cost her the thing she treasures most. After all, Magnolia is still a Kelch. And the Kelches are damned.

My Thoughts: This is a darker urban fantasy, and one that we sort of jump into the middle of the story, which makes it a bit hard to get one’s feet under oneself as the story starts rolling. However, most questions are answered by the end of the book.

My main problem with the story is this: Magnolia has been being tortured by her family all her life. She is 22 before she escapes, yet she’s completely rational and well-adjusted to modern life. How does that happen? She should be bug-house nuts, at the very least, and certainly not the least bit comfortable in the real world.

To add to that: I’ve read books where other reviewers have complained about insta-love, but in this book, there really is insta-love between Magnolia and Theo, only Magnolia has no experience with any sort of soft emotion, so she has no idea what is going on.

So, when it comes down to it, I just don’t know how to feel about this book. Don’t get me wrong – I liked it, overall, it’s just that it makes no sense to me that Magnolia is a functioning person. There’s no explanation as to how she has managed to maintain any sort of sanity, nor as to how she manages to maintain reality. We do eventually get the reason that her family has tortured her all her life, but even that isn’t until the very end of the book. It’s due to these confusions and questions that I have rated this as three stars, not due to any lack of interest in my part in the book. This is this author’s first book, and is the first book in a series. I will probably be watching for future books in the series, to see if any of these questions are answered.

If you like dark urban fantasy, and are very willing to suspend disbelief, then go ahead and check this book out.

Book Review: "The Shadow Walker" by S.L. Madden

The Shadow Walker: Book one in Unseen Things trilogy review
Author: S.L. Madden
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Paranormal Reading Level: Young Adult

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Thomas Hurd has always felt more comfortable watching people from a distance than interacting with them up close. But his tendencies to watch others reveals to him a creature he was never meant to see, and unleashes a horror onto his small town that threatens to consume the world. Contains mild language and violence.

My Thoughts: This is Book One of the Unseen Things trilogy. I originally received this over a year ago, but I should point out that I was notified by the author that a new version was posted and downloaded the most recent version just over a week ago.

Thomas Hurd is an interesting character; I suspect he is meant to be either mildly autistic or has Asperger’s, based upon his discomfort dealing with people and his inability to figure out how to talk to Madison (or when he does, he comes up with some ridiculously bad things to say, poor guy). I really like him, though, and I liked how deeply we got into his head; yet he remains an enigma. It’s fascinating.

This book is really quite dark, and it is a self-contained story, with just hints of where else Madden might take the rest of the trilogy. The editing is much better than Bravado/Dramatique, although there are still a few errors left. The story flows smoothly, and the characters are well-created and written. I really enjoyed this book and I think most fans of darker urban fantasy will as well.

The other two books in the trilogy, The Shadow Within and World of Shadows, are planned for a near simultaneous release later this year, or early in 2013. I, for one, will be anxiously waiting on them, as I can’t wait to see where things will go from here. Highly recommended.

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.