ReadingBifrost

“She couldn't decide if he was a bit mad or if the world moved too slowly for him. Perhaps a little of both.”

Steampunk, time-travel, a secretary that buys newspapers and pastries for a nonexistent employer every day, and man that stumbles out of a locked room and only knows what’s written on the card in his pocket. The summery states it all: very Doctor Who-esque, crossover with Sherlock Holmes and add a steampunked Iron Man in the mix and you have Mayne’s first book of The Chronological Man.

Smith (seem familiar, Whovians?) is our Doctor’esque character, a time-traveler who seems to remember nothing and relies on a card in his pocket to give him the essentials (such as his own name!). He’s bubbly and stumbles his way through the mystery. Most of the time I had no idea what he was up to, but he’s one very entertaining character to say the least.

April Malone is our female Watson. She’s smart with a sharp wit and quick to go from secretary jobs to running through foggy streets and damp sewers to assist Smith in solving the mystery.
The action scenes in the book were really well written. The novel was simple, but engaging and left plenty of room for the characters and story to grow in the sequel. Whovian (Doctor Who fan) or not, if you’re a fan of the genre I recommend The Chronological Man for a quick, entertaining read.

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“I watched Nina slowly begin to smile again. I’ve never wanted something so much and hated myself for wanting it even more. But I wanted her to join me. I was lonely and trapped.”

Jude and Nina aren’t the perfect couple, but when they fell they fell fast and hard; until an accident cut their time together short. Now Jude can only watch Nina from a window in The Waiting Room as she lives out the rest of her life without him, and he waits for his name to be called for his second chance at life or for the day Nina joins him.

This book can be read in different ways. If you want a quasi-deep, philosophical and religious thought provoking book The Waiting Room can be what you want. On the other hand, it can also be taken as just an anthology of the lives Jude and Nina share together; a series of short romances. Even though the book is about death it doesn’t carry a deeply depressing tone, instead the characters are lighthearted about their situation though most of the book.

I wouldn’t have minded if Kaye would have prodded a little bit deeper into her idea of The Waiting Room in general instead of keeping her main focus on Nina and Jude, but overall a good little romance novel that would be great for a poolside reading.

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When the entire world falls into darkness, the US is divided into two halves: the northern half with power, America; the southern half in darkness, the Dark Zone. Star and Phoenix are DZs from the Dark Zone, taking care of their families and each other. When Star’s little brother, Wick, gets a sickness that only the heat from electricity can heal she turns to the Frontier – the divider between their worlds – to give herself up to the Easies so her family will be granted the power they need.

Phoenix has always been taught his family comes first in everything, but he can’t let Star go to America alone. He follows her beyond the Frontier into a world of bright lights, working cars, social media, and a real-deal game of the bachelor/bachelorette where DZs aren’t held accountable for how they play the game. All is fair in love and war, and this is both.

“I might have to make this girl love me. Love me. I can’t be thinking of ways to kill her.”

Henry’s Blackout is the start of differently crafted dystopian series. There’s no fully established and controlling government that needs to be overthrown, there’s no TV show centered around murdering teenagers, and both sides have advantages and disadvantages. At times it almost reminds me of The Outsiders; Socs vs. Greasers, privileged vs. underprivileged. DZs are seen as being from the wrong side of the tracks (Frontier), and Easies from the wealthy side.

Of course there are similarities with other dystopian series as well. A group called the Shadows can be compared to the Careers in The Hunger Games trilogy. And even though the game isn’t televised, the Easies follow their favorite DZ competitors through social media and magazines.

The story moves along at a continuously flowing pace giving a few short flashes into Star and Phoenix’s history together, but there’s never a point where there’s dead space clotting the story’s progression.

Phoenix’s character is in tune to his side of the Frontier when it comes to everything but Star. He’s strong, a hunter, naturally cautious, but still holds the qualities of a 16 year old boy and not a super-human survivor that’s become the predominant protagonist in dystopian novels.

Star’s character is weak, when you’re thinking physically and emotionally. But she has a strong determination that outweighs her weaknesses and balances the heroine’s flaws and attributes. She seems a little air-headed but the way Henry has her playing the game Star might not be as clueless as she seems at first. We’ll just have to wait for the next book to see how her character progresses.

Elektra is the Shadow character, trained in harsh conditions in the Dark Zone to be that super-human survivor. I have a strong feeling that her character will most likely have a good number of followers by the second book.

Overall, Henry’s Blackout is about loving and letting go; loyalty to family and learning your own way, and knowing what is worth fighting for in a world separated by light and darkness. If you like young adult dystopian novels, I recommend Blackout.

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Review:
***
The hardest thing to do when translating ballads into another language is trying to keep the rhyme and rhythm of the ballad without losing the original meanings during the translations. Ian Cumpstey’s little collective of Scandinavian ballads, Warrior Lore, mostly finds a comfortable medium between the two.

Before each ballad, Cumpstey takes time to introduce the story and the characters involved; taking time to explain the different ways the names may be spelled or pronounced. This is very helpful for anyone who just wants a quick read and doesn’t want to think through the ballad on their own, or for beginners reading ballads (or for those brain dead moments where you just plain don’t get it. Admit it, we all have those).

The ballads themselves are full of heroes, tragedy, kings, and romance (with an appearance by a cross dressing Thor). Sadly my namesake didn’t make the list, but there is a good grab bag of stories in this book to shovel through.

Overall it’s a good read for a rainy day for those who read ballads, and a good starter book for those who haven’t yet discovered them.

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Bolen is a thief going through a midlife crisis. While other thieves his age have given up the trade, he sets out to go on one of his most dangerous jobs yet; stealing from the vaults of a nobleman. But the unlucky thief finds a statue belonging to the Mad Lord of the city. The red lady statue calls to Bolen with a magical flare in its center while the Mad Lord releases his wrath on the city and other powerful beings come seeking the power of the statue.

“He would never tell Hakar, but part of why he was here was just to see if he could still pull off a job like this. He’d been a thief all his life, and the thought of being unable to do the one thing he’d always been good at was terrifying.”

Bolen is a fun character to follow. He’s not the traditional hero fantasy readers so often come to associate with the genre, and Fleisher balances his hero with other just as equally well developed antagonist and minor characters.

I would have liked to have seen more magic in everyday elements throughout the book. There’s mage orbs for lights and mentions of mages, but no more magical elements other than being part of the main storyline.

There’s no question that Fleisher’s Shadowcursed has the ability to enchant fantasy readers with its unique choice for a protagonist and quality storytelling. While it doesn’t demand your attention, it does grab the reader and keep your interest until the very end.

**
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“You’ve taken away what it means to be human. You won’t find that in computer coding.”

It was really hard to get something out of this story. There’s plenty of content, even religious/spiritual symbolisms, but it gets lost being so much stuffed into a short story. The plot and idea is intriguing, it just wasn’t carried out as well as it could have been. The major issue is the telling of the story vs. the showing of the story. There’s a lot of time taken up by character dialogue explaining situations instead of the author finding some way to show the situation without needing the explanation.

Adams really has a good story with good plot twists for a short story, but the execution needs a little work to become a really enjoyable read.

Review:
****
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Ty Patterson’s The Warrior takes the reader deep into the Congo where only ex-Special Forces operative Major Zebadiah Carter can hear the screams of women and girls being raped and tortured by ex-soldiers. Told to stand down and forget what he had seen, Zeb hunts them from the jungles of the Congo to the jungles of New York to enact his version of justice. Dirty politicians, terrorist-scared FBI agents, child laborers, and ex-soldiers fighting on both sides of a crooked line create a story of nefarious actions and human compassion.

Broker looks at Zeb, ‘How about a fancy, motivating speech?’ Zeb grunts and moves past him. ‘That’ll do,’ says Broker. ‘For a moment I thought you would bring me to tears.’

In The Warrior, Major Zebadiah Carter becomes my favorite type of protagonist; a vigilante. More than once in the book Zeb is compared to Batman, but a more appropriate comparison would be The Punisher (US military, martial arts, master with weapons). Zeb seems cold and hard, but as the story unfolds Patterson lets pieces of what the real Zeb looks like show through his hard exterior and the reader gets a very small glimpse of what he might have been if his character was less war-torn.

The supporting protagonists brought with them their own special skill sets, the main one being Broker, an information and tech specialist. Broker is the opposite of Zeb. Where Zeb keeps to himself and speaks only when he must, Broker is a magnet that attracts all attention in the room with his looks, carefree attitude, and ability to hold good conversations. He uses this to his advantage when fishing for information or playing a room. Add Zeb and Broker’s other buddies and I was constantly reminded of Henry V’s St Crispin’s Day Speech speaking of the band of brothers.

The beginning and end of the book had a steady, fast paced flow; but the middle section seemed a bit unsteady and slow at times. I also had a bit of a problem with the neatly printed paragraph backstories of each of the minor characters. It’s not a major problem, but it’s one of those situations where I’d rather be shown instead of told, especially with the lively characters Patterson developed for the book.

Mystery, suspense, crime, action, family: I think there might be a little bit of everything for everyone stuffed in the pages (e-pages?) of this book. It’s a short book that’s quick to read, but really packs a punch on several levels.

Review:
****
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The Caterpillar, a top secret Styx research space ship, has been floating in the middle of nowhere for over a year and a half with a small crew that are more or less insane. No one is supposed to know their location, but Bounty-Hunter-turned-Security-Officer Kreya picks up another ship heading straight for them. When she allows the ship to dock; mercenaries, space ghosts, evolving aliens, and insane crew members group together for a suspenseful and silly science fiction thriller.

“A guy who fears things that aren’t there and one that sees them most of the day make an unpredictable team…”

Tibensky’s debut novel Natural Elimination: The Cotesia Incident’s greatest feature is its brilliantly colorful characters. Each of the Caterpillar’s crew seems to be inflicted with a different kind of insanity. Yorn, the navigator, for example, spends his time drawing, stalking the pilot when he plays video games, and doing whatever the voices in his head (the Gribblets) demand of him. Grit, the engineer, spends his time stoned in the engine room and tries to convince everyone that the sentient power supply they deem an energy ghost is actually an angel.

Several different angles are involved to form the suspense in the story: mercenaries, monsters, and confinement. While the monsters and confinement bring most of the suspense and horror to the story, the mercenaries bring apprehension to the small crew of the Caterpillar and effectively start the spark that sets the plot in motion.

Tibensky created a universe with fiercely awesome alien creatures and brilliantly dysfunctional characters. The story left me in snickering at the outlandish dialog with a few slapped-in-the-face sobering moments to keep the tension and suspense going. Tibensky is an author to watch for more!


Where to Buy:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/roman-tibensky/natural-elimination-the-cotesia-incident/paperback/product-21586853.html

Connect to the Author:
http://dorkwithoutapen.blogspot.sk/

“He’s put out a ship-wide warrant,” Wolfe said. “They’ll come after me in less than five minutes.” His jaw tightened. “And there’s something I have to tell you before they do.”

Let’s start with my favorite parts of the book (characters!) and work from there. Jack Wolfe. Take a man born long before TVs were invented and throw him into a world of galactic space cruises. Wolfe has the whole mysterious bad guy vibe going for him in the beginning, then as he and Kestrel interact his real personality starts to shine through. It’s refreshing to have a main character that’s deeper than just fighting for a love interest or to pound on the antagonists all the way though the story.

Kestrel is a great balance between a main female heroine and a distressed female lead. Her character wasn’t completely self-efficient like many of the of the books today are trying to portray females, but she wasn’t a damsel in distress waiting for someone to save her, either. Rackham did an excellent job of balancing out the two with Kestrel. She’s smart and adaptive to situations.

Jackiv, the antagonist, wasn’t given enough confrontational time in the book for me to really start to better understand and learn about his character. I’ll have to stick with him being an ‘okay’ character with good interaction between the main characters.

The romance between Jack Wolfe and Kestrel is slow and steadily budding throughout the book, leaving the reader with that good anticipation of a relationship about to bloom between the main characters. It’s a very light and sweet romance; both characters having other things to factor through their thoughts as their relationship develops.

The biggest issue I had with this book is the pacing. The beginning and ending had a nice, steady tempo; but the middle of the book slowed down and felt really drawn out with not much happening to move the story along. That being said, it also introduces interesting side characters and futuristic technology (holographic pop-up ads! augh!).

The Paradox Initiative is entertaining and Jack Wolfe is a character that will stick with you after the story ends. Overall I’m happy to add this book to my shelves.

***
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“His crime had been death itself, and he had been sentenced with life.”

First, I have to say I love mad scientists. They go back to the dawn of science fiction and are firmly nestled in their own corner of the genre. Dr. Harlow’s character is a cross between a mad scientist and one of his own rejected experiment-turned-mental-patients. Throw in a secret lab with old medical equipment and two henchmen to do his bodysnatching and other dirty work and the villainous package is compete.

The protagonist, Mason, is the prized possession of Dr. Harlow’s experiments. He’s impulsive and more than just a bit naive, but he’s also a character that is faced with haunting questions of his own existence and a strong will to take control of the life given back to him.

Now, on to the story. The first two chapters flip-flops between multiple characters; including a random citizen (I didn’t follow why this one), Dr. Harlow’s goons, an officer attending the funeral of Warren’s wife, Warren, the funeral director... *ahem*. You get the idea. Multiple views are great but too many leave a skewed point of view. This is only in the first couple of chapters, though. The rest of the book settles on mostly Mason’s POV with just enough character flips here and there to keep it interesting.

The Purify Project. What is it? I can’t really say, and not because of spoilers. I’m really not all that sure. Intentional? Or just because Dr. Harlow is more of a nutcase than a scientist and isn’t really sure what he’s doing himself? Sometimes you can’t get away with not spilling the truth behind the big evil mastermind projects, but I think Mr. Smith got away with it here by focusing the book on Mason, who knows nothing about the project itself. So, the truth is, only Dr. Harlow knows what he was doing (maybe) so I can be content with not having the full disclosure.

In all I can tell this book is a debut, but a promising one. It leans more on the Science Fiction genre, with a twist of suspense, drama and mystery. There’s a few little plot holes, but none that will ruin the story.

It’s a good, quick read that will keep you engaged up to the very end. I look forward to reading future novels by this author.