Friday, April 29, 2011

Extra-Planetary Intrigue

Many books have been written over the past sixty years using such themes as corporations being in charge of extra-terran colonies. Look at the movie Avatar for proof on that view. Many of them have used as a vehicle for the story the militarization of those corporations in order to place each company at the top of the list for control over said planet. Once more, Avatar comes to mind. In the indie book Vallar, by Cindy Borgne, however, this often-used vehicle is set slightly differently in that those psuedo-military forces controlling the planet, in this case Mars, are at war with one another in their attempt to either establish control over all the other companies vying for the rights to control Mars or work alongside one another peacefully. Mars Corp is one such company and it has developed the use of psychics in its struggle to learn what the competition is up to and how best to beat them.

Ian Connors is one of these psychics and at only sixteen years old has been in the "care" of Mars Corp his entire life, developing his abilities so the company that serves as his "parent" can destroy everyone else. Only problem is that eventually Ian sees what is going on - in more ways than one - and sets about using his psychic abilities toward freeing himself from his imposed slavery. Problems arise - as they usually do in such cases - and Ian falls out of favor with the commander of the Mars Corp forces who is using the youth's abilities for personal gain.

In this fast-paced novel of extra-planetary intrigue and adventure we are given a glimpse of how governments even now manipulate their citizens for their own selfish ends. But not without an interesting storyline being developed. Most likely this story will continue on with successive books to follow. I haven't looked to see if any have already been written, but I would be surprised if they weren't at least in the works of this author, Cindy Borgne, who has established herself as a competent new indie author worth reading and watching for further development.

Vallar, by Cindy Borgne, a great new novel of action, adventure, suspense and romance found at Smashwords.com.

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New eBooks You May Enjoy Reading  

Super Nova by Lee Emerick. $1.99 from Smashwords.com
Set over 100 years in the future, Commander Jack Emerick finds him self in a difficult situation. His team have been tasked with securing a disabled military facility in a far flung uninhabited area of space. However when they get there they find something far more sinister than a mutinous crew or terrorist activity that threatens the future survival of all mankind.

A Cry at Midnight by Victoria Chancellor. $3.99 from Smashwords.com
Randi Galloway is hurled from the present into the ante-bellum south. She finds herself holding a baby history says was lost in a flood, and falling for a man who regards her as completely unsuitable for the gentile life of a southern planter. Victoria Chancellor creates a moving and sensitive time travel romance.


Clinical Lycanthropy by Tim Garrity. $1.99 from Smashwords.com
A disturbed young veteran comes to believe he is the victim of an ancient curse and is implicated in a series of grisly murders.





Your Cheatin' Heart: A Paranormal Mystery Short Story by Rebecca M. Senese. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Following a cheating husband and his tarty blond, PI Tiffany Waters witnesses the explosion of the lover’s motel. The police find only one body: the husband. Now Tiffany must save her husband from a mystery man demanding her photos of the lovers’ meeting. But how can two copies of the same photo be different? How can the blond in the photo blink? “Your Cheatin’ Heart” is 7,693 words.


* * * * *

 
From Jacob M. Drake

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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Best Book This Year

I read a lot, I think everyone who reads this review blog knows that. My reading appetite means I read a lot of good books and a lot of bad books. The good ones I review on here. The bad ones I try to forget about. Sometimes I stumble across a book that is so exceptional I have to stop and think about how great it actually is. I've posted about a few of those books in this blog. Go back and read about them. You'll see which ones I'm talking about. This review is about the best book I have read all year - since January began the new year and I started writing this review blog. What book am I talking about? The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. I really wish this were a eBook published on Smashwords, so I could talk about an indie author being this good, but the trutth is Suzanne Collins is not an indie author, so those Smashwords authors I've reviewed this year and expounded their greatest of still hold the title in the indie arena. But overall, The Hunger Games is superbly awesome.

This is a story that must be considered apocalyptic, I suppose, since it deals with a society which has gone through enormous structural and societal change that only a huge upheaval could produce. Certainly we are told about some sort of inter-societal stress that resulted in thirteen districts within this new society rising up against the Capitol of the nation. Only one of those districts was completely obliterated, leaving the other twelve to fend for themselves in a re-made society that offers little other than struggle for those who lost their battle against tyranny.

The Capitol, which won the war and hence subjugates those losing districts under its control, insituted a system of "gaming" that is held on an annual basis. Only these games are to the death for all but the singular winning entry. Each district provides one boy and one girl for these games and every contestant must hunt down and kill the others in order to win. Victory means more food for that district represented by the winner, as well as great wealth for the sole victor. Everyone else gets death. And everyone in every district must watch the entirety of the games on television. Can't say as I would care to watch someone I know and perhaps love as someone else dismembers that person live.

The Hunger Games is a brutal realization that sometimes what we have isn't as good as we rthink it is. Sometimes we must fight for our existence and even more for our freedom. Perhaps this is why governments don't like this series of three books. Personally, I can't wait to read the next in this series. And the one after that.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. A MUST read for every avid reader.

* * * * *


Re-member by Leslie Claire Walker. $6.99 from Smashwords.com
The world tore itself into thousands of enclaves ruled by psychic Moms and iron-fisted Dads and surrounded by killing void. Children born into the world must choose: Obey and survive or refuse and be thrown into the black. Eighteen year-old Diandra Brown chooses the void—to search for the brother punished for her sins. To risk everything for love. To find a way to make the world whole again.


Haunted by Myla Jackson. $3.99 from Smashwords.com
An accident leaves Cecilia Lovelace’s body in a coma while her spirit is free to roam. The only person who can see and hear her is her first love. Zachary Alston can't believe that Cecilia is a ghost and that she has a message from his dead son. Together, they learn the accident was an attempt to kill Zachary. While solving the mystery, they fall victim to love.

Requiem by M J Francis. $2.99 from Smashwords.com
Mary White claims the easiest thing anyone can do is love someone. Until her daughter, Rose, is born.

* * * * *

From Jacob M. Drake

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Buy: $2.99
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Dark Angel: Fallen
by Jacob M. Drake
Buy: $3.99

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Buy: $3.99

 
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Superion (A Coming of Heroes)
  by Jacob M. Drake
Buy: $2.99


From Jackson Williams

New Life by Jackson Williams 
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Meri XXXMas Cherry by Jackson Williams 
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NecroTales by Jackson Williams 
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 * * * * *

Monday, April 25, 2011

Bloodsuckers Abound

In recent weeks I have read more than my share of vampire novels. Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with vampire novels, since I have a series of my own based on bloodsuckers. Still, some stories concerning these dwellers of the night who prey on the living can be completely awful, while others merely instill the yawning reflex or worse, the gag reflex, bordering on full-out regurgitation. Still others make us sit up straight and take notice while we avidly devour every page in order to discover what type of vampiric realm we have been joyously cast into.

Two such titles are How To Marry a Millionaire Vampire, by Kerrelyn Sparks and The Blood That Bonds, by Christopher Buecheler. Each of these is completely different from the other - in fact, they are polar opposites, yet both are fascinating and well worth the read.

In How To Marry a Millionaire Vampire, we are treated to a romance that builds when Shanna Whelan meets Roman Draganesti. She is someone currently within the Witness Protection Program after witnessing a Russian Mob hit, he is the titled millionaire vampire, who breaks off one of his fangs one night while biting the throat of a plastic doll (don't ask - just read). Needing a dentist to fix his fang back in place (After all, it would not do for someone in his position to go around in society with only one fang, right?) he locates one in the form of our heroine Shanna Whelan. One blunder after another seals the fate of these two firmly together and they are off on a rollicking adventure of fun and romance that will keep you reading until the very end - which isn't really the end, since this is the first in a series, but so much fun to read you will want to get the rest as well.

In The Blood That Bonds, we are thrust into a realm that is decidedly not of romance and frivolity as the heroine (Simply named "Two"), who is trapped in the role as a heroin-infected-prostitute and can't escape, beaten and abused by the pimp who "owns" her, meets Theroen, a vampire of no mean power, who falls in love with her and she with him. He turns her into one of the denizens of darkness, but these are vamps with a difference, due to their particular bloodline - up to a certain point in their night-existence these vamps can revert - if their sire dies - completely. But Two doesn't want Theroen dead, since she loves him and wants to live the rest of her existence with him. Unfortunately Theroen lives in a large mansion along with his own sire, Abraham, who is not nearly as nice as is Theroen (Or as sane). Problem is, Abraham is much older and therefore much stronger than Theroen and Two combined. This does not make for a happy "family" situation.

Both stories are well-written, exciting, spell-binding and enjoyable. If you love vampires these two opposites will be stories you won't want to miss out on. Neither one has a romance twist anything like what is in the "popular" fiction on the silver screen, TV or in print about bloodsuckers, but each does have a romance - of sorts - as the main thrust of their plots. Guaranteed not to make you gag from overdone sweetness.

Read both stories today and satisfy your thirst for blood. Oh, did I mention that The Blood That Bonds is currently FREE on Smashwords.com?

* * * * *


From Jacob M. Drake

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NecroTales by Jackson Williams 
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 * * * * *

Friday, April 22, 2011

Last Light

Normally I center my reviews on indie authors or at least new authors. This review post is about neither, but is centered on a book I happened to download (I must have gotten a freebie on it, cuz I sure as hell didn't pay the $9.99 for the eBook version - an outrageous price for any eBook in my humble opinion - buy the hardcover for only $1.23 at Amazon) onto my Kindle and enjoyed.

In Terry Blackstock's Last Light we get a view of an apocalyptic setting without any identifiable apocalyptic event. Yeah, I know, but that's what happens. The refreshing point about this story that kept me intrigued and reading was the fact that it wasn't a story where the main characters wear leather 100+ degree heat, are embroiled in multitudinous fight scenes to the death, carry outlandish weaponry so numerous as to pull the average Joe (or Jane) to the ground with exhaustion, or come across a legion of zombies at every turn. This offering of "what could happen if the lights went out across the globe" centers on an average family in an average town and each person within these pages has average abilities that any one of us could claim right now sitting here reading this post. Yeah, I know, but it was interesting. Seriously. And I'm someone who generally reads only sci-fi/fantasy/horror because I love the action, adventure, deceit, gruesomeness, etc., such a story delivers. Last Light delivers all that and more without being anything other than a straight drama. Really.

From the moment all machinery bites the dust in this tale of technological woe, to the last page where we find what life-lessons the main characters have learned (Yes, in every story the main characters are supposed to learn something they didn't start off the story with - sheesh), Terry Blackstock presents the lives of an ordinary nuclear family who find they have to continue on with their lives without the technological advances we have all come to take for granted for the past century-plus. As you might have guessed, this is not an easy task for any of them especially for those of the younger generation within this family. I know I would have a difficult time coping without my computer, coffee maker, TV, electric water heater (Wait - NO electric water heater? Ok, this story has gone too far), etc. Cars cease working. Planes fall from the sky. Watches cease functioning. Nothing - I repeat - absolutely nothing of technological advancement works in this setting.

The story unfolds for us a real-life encounter with an apocalypse without bombs being detonated or terrorists storming our shores. Everyone the world over is affected in the same way.

If stories of supernatural thrillers and scientific impossibilities and what you are looking for, look elsewhere. Last Light will not give you any of that. But if you want an engaging drama of life on the edge while learning how our ancestors only 150 years back or so coped with daily living, then Last Light by Terry Blackstock is just the story for you.

Sorry, no overt sex or bloodshed - but page after page of interesting storyline galore.

* * * * *

New eBooks You May Enjoy Reading  

Super Nova by Lee Emerick. $1.99 from Smashwords.com
Set over 100 years in the future, Commander Jack Emerick finds him self in a difficult situation. His team have been tasked with securing a disabled military facility in a far flung uninhabited area of space. However when they get there they find something far more sinister than a mutinous crew or terrorist activity that threatens the future survival of all mankind.

A Cry at Midnight by Victoria Chancellor. $3.99 from Smashwords.com
Randi Galloway is hurled from the present into the ante-bellum south. She finds herself holding a baby history says was lost in a flood, and falling for a man who regards her as completely unsuitable for the gentile life of a southern planter. Victoria Chancellor creates a moving and sensitive time travel romance.


Clinical Lycanthropy by Tim Garrity. $1.99 from Smashwords.com
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Your Cheatin' Heart: A Paranormal Mystery Short Story by Rebecca M. Senese. $0.99 from Smashwords.com
Following a cheating husband and his tarty blond, PI Tiffany Waters witnesses the explosion of the lover’s motel. The police find only one body: the husband. Now Tiffany must save her husband from a mystery man demanding her photos of the lovers’ meeting. But how can two copies of the same photo be different? How can the blond in the photo blink? “Your Cheatin’ Heart” is 7,693 words.



* * * * *

From Jacob M. Drake

Buy: $4.99

Buy: $3.99

Buy: $5.95  -  Two complete eBooks in one huge volume.

Buy: $2.99
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Buy: $2.99

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by Jacob M. Drake
Buy: $3.99

Buy: $4.99

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  by Jacob M. Drake
Buy: $2.99


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Buy: $5.99


Meri XXXMas Cherry by Jackson Williams 
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NecroTales by Jackson Williams 
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 * * * * *