A Stalled Ox

Rating:

About the Author:
(Taken from Amazon)

Dean Moses was born in England in February of 1991; however, he never truly felt at home, so at the age of nineteen he moved to New York City, where he hoped to fulfill two of his longtime dreams, marry the love of his life and become an author. For the past five years, he has written for newspapers, including the New York Amsterdam News and the Spring Creek Sun, as well as transcribed for the New York Times’ Lens Blog. He has also written a serial story for the website JukePop Serials. He currently resides in Queens with his wife and two cats.




Blurb:

An isolated religious cult has reportedly been consuming meat while the rest of the planet has been forced to live a life without it. Presuming this sect has resorted to cannibalism, two agents from an organization known simply as The Agency are dispatched to investigate. Will they find evidence of humans eating one another? Or is something even stranger taking place?

Review:

Something even stranger is definitely taking place.

This is a quick and short read, but it's packed full of intrigue and very messed up characters.  Although there are multiple characters taking over the POV throughout the short novel, I'd consider Howard to be the main character.  He's the only one who's followed until the end of the action. 

So, Howard is an agent who ensures dangerous people are kept in check.  He's meant to only gather information and then a group of special forces goes in to clean up... but Howard has trouble sticking to his role in the larger picture.  It's not easy for him to stand and watch people be treated poorly - he constantly has to act, and there are voices in his mind urges him to do so.  His story is meant to be tragic, but I found it hard not to cheer him on as he delved into a cult, trying to figure out exactly what the self-proclaimed god was really up to.

The other characters are just as flawed and intriguing as he is.  And all of their stories come together to show a larger picture.

If you're a fan of dark and weird, I highly recommend this story.

For more information on this novel and the author, visit Amazon.

The Descendants (Evolution of Angels Book 2)

 Rating: 

About the Author:

(Taken from Amazon)

Nathan Wall is a husband, father, author and wanna-be part-time superhero (because new legislation limits the benefits and tax deductions he can receive as a full-timer) who lives in Texas. He's been creating stories since before he can remember. He says creating stories, and not writing them, because - as a boy - he had a healthy addiction to superhero action figures, and used to stage his own homemade adventures/movies in his room. His love for story telling morphed when he entered high school, as countless spirals of paper knelt before his pen. In college, that love for story telling morphed into other media. In 2010, he was nominated for an Emmy award. Nathan is the author of "Evolution of Angels," a science-fantasy/ action thriller. The ebook version was launched in June of 2014. The subsequent installments are set to be released soon, including a shared-world novella later this year. Other writing credits to his name is the highly praised "Money Ball for Fantasy Baseball," a non-fiction strategy guide series. The 2014 edition was featured by many independent fantasy baseball sites. When he is not busy writing, Nathan can be found interacting with his numerous fans on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Blurb:  

A sect of half-breed "Descendants" with paranormal abilities looks to quell the investigations of disgraced Scotland Yard detective, Emma Brighton after she has a run-in with an Ourea: human looking creatures composed of the five elements. Known as the Elemental Knights, these beings were created by Zeus to assist in his war against Michael. Now Oreios, thought to be the last Ourea, must team up with Emma to save his creator, even if it means destroying his former allies and truly becoming the last of his kind.



Review:

Being that this is an honest review, I have to be honest and say that I had serious trouble completing this book.  It took far longer than normal, and even during the read, I had trouble keeping up with all of the characters and feeling as devoted to the storyline as I did with the first one.



With the first issue, characters came in and out of the story with very little information on who they are.  The difference with this book and the last is the lack of flashbacks.  Although I think the flashbacks were a little excessive in Book I, it at least gave us more time with the characters and allowed us to understand their individual issues and desires.



Along these same lines, there were a lot of awe-inspiring moments left out.  For instance, when Emma is first introduced to the supernatural world (in the Prologue), the audience is given a wonderful and emotional scene that allows the audience to fall into the story.  This is done wonderfully.  However, when Emma goes to a hidden club filled with supernatural creatures with her guide Harold, the audience suddenly realizes that Emma knows more than previously suspected.  The audience never gets to follow her on the journey of finding out about these creatures, and the audience missed out on scenes of awe and wonder, feeling what Emma would have felt when she first found out about all these creatures.  Due to this, a lot of scenes felt a bit disjointed because of what was left out.



And with the second issue I had, there is a bit of too much distance from the narrator and the characters.  None of the characters really stood out with personality or feelings.  It felt more like a history book than a narrative.



One exception to this is at the very end of the novel, on top of a hill, with Oreios and Emma.  The emotion and Oreios's internal thoughts about the situation made this a powerful and memorable scene.



This author has incredible ideas, and definitely has skill in writing, but there was a little too much lacking in this novel for me to really be pulled in.



If you want to find out more about this novel, check it out on Amazon.

Ariah

 Rating:  

About the Author:
(Taken from Amazon)

B R Sanders is a white, genderqueer writer who lives and works in Denver, CO, with their family and two cats. Outside of writing, B has worked as a research psychologist, a labor organizer and a K-12 public education data specialist.


Blurb:

Ariah's magical training has been interrupted. Forced to rely on a mentor, Dirva, who is not who he claims to be, and a teacher who is foreign and powerful, Ariah is drawn into a culture wholly different from the elven one that raised him. 

As his friendship with Dirva's brother blossoms into a surprising romance, and he slowly learns how to control the dangerous magic in his blood, life finally appears to be coming together for Ariah—but love and security are cut short by a tyrannical military empire bent on expanding its borders. 

War, betrayal, passion, and confusion follow Ariah as his perilous journey leads him beyond the walls of the Empire, and into unfamiliar territory within himself. Along the way, he’ll discover just how much he’s willing to give up to find his place in the world, and he’ll learn what it means to sacrifice himself for freedom—and for love. 

Review:

When I first started reading this, I thought I'd wind up giving it three stars.  There are some issues with repetition throughout the text, but for some reason it came across as more prevelant, and therefore more distracting, in the beginning of the novel.  For example, a description of characters was written like:


"They looked nothing alike.  I saw absolutely no family resemblance."



Many of the descriptions came across like this, and in the beginning, they felt unnecessary.


Also, there were descriptions that, if added, would have heightened my sense of immersion into the story.  For instance, I thought the main character was female for the first few pages.  I also had a great deal of trouble imagining the city and the train, so I went to default human buildings, which didn't seem to match the characters.

And then, as I continued reading, the rating in my mind went up one star.  Despite repetitious statements, the prose is smooth and easy to follow.  I was fully immersed at some places, and can still imagine these scenes vividly.

Along with these positives, I came across beautiful imagery and wordings, like:



"The sun sat low on the horizon, bloody and wounded."

"Black skin that drank in the light."

"The image of her profile silhouetted against the flickering orange light is burned into my mind, a fixed point in time.  It's one of those indelible memories that serves to organize a remembered life."


There is so much from this book that will stick with me.

The main focus of the story is not a villain or saving another person (the main character does get saved on many occasions, and on many more he saves others), but it's more about the character's growth.  The main character, Ariah, is prime and proper, unsure of himself, but as the book continues, he goes on many adventures and finds himself in the process.  In other words, the more Ariah experience, the more he realized what he did and did not like.

The author handles the character growth in a brilliant way.  Ariah isn't stuck in one place, learning who he is.  He travels all over the "country", lands in new settings, around different types of people, and it's these new experiences that causes him to look at the world a different way.  In many of these adventures, there is danger and that need to continue reading to find out what happens, but these things are not the focus of this novel.

In some ways, this reminded me of Ursula Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness.  There is an exploration of sexuality, and many of the characters come across as gender fluid

In the end, I wound up with a solid five stars on my mind.  I thoroughly enjoyed the journey Ariah went on, and when it was over, I felt overwhelming sadness.

Ariah's journey resonated with me on a personal level, and I loved that in the end he knew himself so well that he left comforts and took one final trip back to those he loved.


If you would like to find out more, please visit Amazon.

Among Wolves

 Rating:

About the Author:
(Taken from Amazon)

R.A. Hakok grew up in Ireland but lives in London. Viable, a medical thriller, was his first novel. It was recently followed by Among Wolves, a chilling tale about a small group of schoolchildren who find themselves living inside a mountain after the world outside ends. The second book in the Children of the Mountain series, The Devil You Know, will be available shortly. For further details please visit www.rahakok.com.

Blurb:

There's only one place left that’s safe.

It’s the last place you should be.

Gabriel remembers the Last Day. He and Mags had been on a tour of the White House with the rest of Miss Kimble’s first-graders when it happened. They fled with the President to a long-abandoned bunker, even as the first of the bombs began to fall.

Ten years have passed, and now Gabriel is almost grown. He still lives deep inside the mountain, waiting for the world to thaw. But outside the storms continue to rage, and supplies are running low. The President says it will be okay, because they are the Chosen Ones. But Gabriel isn’t so sure. Gabriel’s their scavenger, and he’s seen what it’s like out there.

Then one day Gabriel finds a bloodstained map. The blood’s not a problem, nor are the frozen remains of the person it once belonged to. Gabriel’s used to seeing dead bodies. There's far worse to be found in any Walmart or Piggly Wiggly you care to wander into.

Except this one he recognizes, and it shouldn’t be all the way out here. Now all Gabriel can think is how he's going to make it back to the bunker and let the President know what he's found.

But Gabriel's troubles are only just beginning. For things are not as they seem inside the mountain, and soon he will face a much larger problem: how to get Mags and the others out.

Review:

Very, very well-written, post-apocalyptic tale of teenagers who've grown up in a mountain since the world has been thrust into a nuclear winter.

The main character, Gabe, is one of only two people who is trusted to go out into the cold, harsh world in search of anything that the group can use.  His narrating voice is smooth and almost calming as he carries the audience through what the world is now like.

I have to admit that there were four major issues that almost brought this down one more star.

1.  I am a lover of character development and imagery, but there were pages and pages of narrative meticulously laying out what the characters are doing, but very little of it leads anywhere. 

For instance, the first day they go out, the audience can fully visualize the world and how it's changed.  The audience can see how dangerous the weather is (snow so deep they have to wear snowshoes or risk getting frost-bite, so it's more than just a little cold weather), and I loved being immersed in the world, but for the other times that they go out, the audience gets more of the same, laying out how they search houses and what they find and what Gabe stashes for other people. 

The audience doesn't have to follow to see everything they find.  This is one instance in which "show vs. tell" is overrated.  As with everything in life, there is a balance.  Show is absolutely needed in some situations, and I loved being immersed in the beginning, but summing up subsequent trips out would have kept the book from feeling too long.  Show the audience only what they need to see!


2.  It may sound petty, but I'm not a huge fan of en medias res openings.  It feels like a cheap shot to me; a quick sneak peek to grab the audiences attention before thrusting them backwards in time where they can easily figure out what will happen to lead to where the story began.  I want to be very clear; the writing in this story is so phenomenal that this type of opening is not needed.  I started reading this book and was finished in one day, the prose being so smooth.


3. Much of the dialogue was glossed over.  Having dialogue in a novel is something that helps me become that much more immersed.  I have to imagine facial expressions, infliction in voice, hands that punctuate!


4.  Too many concurrent stories being told.  There's the post-apocalyptic tale that's the main focus, and interwoven is a 3rd person narrative of what started the apocalypse, and also interwoven is the apocalyptic story of how these teens came to survive long enough to get to the mountain.  It was all interesting, and it's not lost on me that these woven tales do help the audience see how the main villain was so successful with his plan, but the pre-apocalyptic tale really doesn't matter in this novel.  We're there to watch how Gabe grows into a man and a leader, the pre-apocalyptic tale should have been a short story prequel for those who might want to read it.  Ultimately, we didn't need to know how the villain did it, just that he did.  The facts of how could have been flat-out told, or saved for a moment of clarity in a later book.


Okay, that may have come across as ranting, and I apologize if it did.  The fact of the matter is that despite these four issues (which are all subjective, anyway), I absolutely adored the experience with Gabe and Mags.  I read this book in one setting, unable to pull myself from the smooth prose and immersive detail.


And I do have a major thing I loved, too.  The author does a wonderful job with accents.  One of the characters has a very distinct accent, and the author spells it out in an easy way to begin with to give the audience an idea of how the character actually speak.  It's not over done (once in the beginning to introduce the character, and then sporadically throughout the rest of the novel, just a gentle nudge to ensure the audience remains aware of it).

The introduction of this character's speech is:

'... Them boys're just spoiling for a fight.'  Marv's from Hager, where apparently not all consonants have equal rights.  It comes out spawlin' firra faht.



The "equal rights" part led to immediate joy for me!  Wonderful work.

If you have any doubt, don't be bixicated!  Check it out on Amazon and see how smooth the prose reads.

Dreama's Destiny

 Rating: 

About the Authors:
(Taken from Amazon)

Jennifer Hines was born in Missouri, grew up in upstate New York, and currently resides in Texas. She is married and has four children, two boys, along with twin girls. She has been employed with the same company for over thirteen years, which is where she met her best friend and co-writer/editor, Mindy Bigham. She loves spending time with her family, going on road trips whenever she can, and spending every other free moment writing YA fantasy.

Mindy Bigham was born and raised in Texas. She is married and has four children, two daughters and two step-daughters. She loves spending quality time with her family, shopping, and vacationing anywhere there is a beach.

They both have a love for reading and writing fiction. It is this shared interest that made them first decide to write something they could share with the world.


Blurb:

This is the first book in the Strangers of Darkness series.

Dreama had ran from her past since she was fifteen, but it wasn't until after her twenty-third birthday she realized that her escape had been an allowed illusion. When things from her past circle around into her present she is forced with the realization that there was never anywhere she could have gone that would have kept her hidden from the man who had purchased her from her family eight years earlier.

Everyone has their calling. For Dreama it was being a Scale, a witch who kept the balance between light and dark, good and evil. So discovering that Zane, the man who had swept her off her feet after a dared kiss that lit a fire deep within her, being a vampire, was not entirely a shock to her system, but the sudden return of her ex, Jake, was.

Zane was a wealthy businessman and a vampire hybrid. He was content taking blood from unsuspecting strangers and the occasional one night stands. Until one night during a business meeting at a local club he was surprised by the lips of an enchanting woman who captivated his senses with her sweet vanilla taste. After that one kiss he knew he had to have her, to possess her.

***ADVISORY*** Dreama's Destiny (Strangers of Darkness ~ Book One) is a paranormal romance novel with explicit sexual content and adult language.

18+ Recommended.

Review:

Whew!!!  This was one hot and steamy read!  This is more an erotic fantasy with supernatural beings (vampire and witch for this book) than a fantasy book with sexual scenes.  Even still, the world-building kept me interested, and the smooth and easy writing style allowed me to fall into the narrative.

As always, with an honest review, there are some negatives I feel obligated to outline.

The biggest issue for me were the overabundance of grammatical errors.  Yes, the writing style was easy, meaning the rhythm of the sentences they created really allowed for a fairly easy read, but missing commas and homophones throughout pulled me from the narrative from time to time.

Another issue was the alternating POVs (Point of Views).  The story alternated between Dreama and Zane, and there were spaces signaling with the narration switched from one POV to the other, but the formatting of the ebook left some of those spaces unnoticeable, which translated into apparent sudden POV switches, which sometimes pulled me from the story.

Lastly, I had a bit of an issue with the crafting of the characters.  For the most part, I could handle the fact that the main characters felt one-dimensional.  Dreama and Zane are madly in love with one another, and that's pretty much all the audience hears about.  Zane owns his own business, and Dreama is a painter, but aside from the initial introduction to the characters (the first couple of chapters), they are not shown doing anything other than each other (for some strange reason, I was okay with this).

Along those same lines, in the beginning of the novel, it felt like the narrator was painting Dreama as a shy, passive person, but all of Dreama's actions in the book only showed a self-sure, aggressive woman.  Many of these scenes began with a sentence or two speaking about how Dreama was usually passive, but at this moment she was too tired/pissed off/worn out/etc., and so she acted in a more aggressive manner.  Don't get me wrong, I like aggressive Dreama and her character is interesting in some respects, but either she should be shown to be passive in the beginning and then allow the audience to see how/why she started being a bit more aggressive, or she should stay as she is and the narrator shouldn't try so hard to convince the audience that Dreama is passive when never once is she shown to actually be that way.

Even with the negatives, I still had to give this four stars.  After all, I finished it in one read, and never once could I pull myself from the story.

If you'd like to find out more, please visit Amazon.

Ooga Booga



Rating:

About the Author:

(Taken from Amazon)

Gerry Walker is a writer living in Harlem. His debut novel, Pretty People Are Highly Flammable, was called “Fantastically twisted, deliciously get down dirty, gritty and real… seductively addictive and simply amazing,” by USA Today Bestselling Fiction Author Delilah Marvelle.

 

Blurb:

 

OOGA BOOGA by Gerry Walker is one of the first fictional renderings of the #BlackLivesMatter movement told via a speculative, futuristic lens: It has been a few years since the deaths of Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tanisha Anderson, Freddie Gray and Sandra Bland. A mysterious condition invades the U.S., erasing the Black individual’s ability to speak any known languages. A bizarre new dialect has surfaced instead. Unable to comprehend their surroundings, they take to the streets and do what they can to survive. This sparks nationwide panic, triggering a government mandate to capture Black people and transport them to isolation camps. Marketing executive Vanessa Landing risks everything to fight for their freedom, not realizing the web of deception awaiting her, nor the liberating love that will transform her from an insecure corporate pawn into the fierce warrior she was meant to be.

 

 

 

 

Review:

 

Ooga Booga is a fascinating speculative fiction, exploring what might happen if African-Americans suddenly developed a change in the way they think and speak.  The author does a wonderful job of examining how American society would react and how it would affect individuals on a personal level.

Along with the fascinating concept, I also really enjoyed the writing style.  It was smooth and incredibly gorgeous at certain moments.  I had no issue reading this novel in a single setting and finishing it in one day.

Some of my favorite lines:

Anti-rhythmic and multi-tones, it was what a modem might sound like if it sang to you.  Like programmer code being performed live beneath your skin.


Without warning, a loud, brilliant sensation of freedom exploded through her cerebral cortex, forcing her fear to compete for space.


She craved more and wanted to open herself up and pour him in like medicine.






While the story is being advertised as a novel illustrating the #BlackLivesMatter movement, I have trouble describing it as that, myself.  For me, it's about a person's struggle to regain control of her life and herself.  The main character, Nessa, has changed her life significantly and moved away from her family, pretending to be something she is not merely because her love ones insisted it was the best thing for her.  She falls into the lie and continues to act and behave certain ways just to gain the approval of those around her she admire.  Once the novel really picks up, Nessa finds her façade stripped away, and she has to finally come to terms with who she truly is.  But, is she now in control of her life, or has she fallen into her old ways, allowing other people to dictate who she should be and how she should behave?  I think at it's heart, this is a story that could speak to so many people on a deep, individual level.



I'm sure the main question is why four stars when I loved this so much!  There were a few aspects that took a star off for me.  The biggest for me is that there were so many scenes skipped and glossed over, and the lack of those scenes affected how much the story resonated with me.

For instance, the main plot of the story is that African-Americans were treated poorly by being locked up in camps.  While on the surface that sounds horrific, I couldn't ignore the fact that the change in how people thought and spoke also came hand in hand with confused cognitive abilities.  Being unable to think clearly or understand what something means can be dangerous not only for the affected individual, but also for passersby.  In otherwords, one wouldn't claim that a person suffering from Alzheimer's is being mistreated simply because they're not allowed to walk around in public alone... and there were thousands of African-Americans suffering from this ailment in the end.

I read through a majority of the books wondering what the big deal was, and what the main character had in mind to keep both the affected individuals and the general public safe once the camps closed.  Throughout the book, characters would state very plainly that the camps were horrible, but the audience is never shown that.

After the main character is released from the camps (and the audience is shown her in a confused mind frame with workers in the camp tending to her), the main character gives a speech about the camps, stating:  "I've personally heard the heartbreaking stories of hundreds of hardworking individuals who've lost their jobs... Stories of people like you who were chained up and banished to live in cold, dim, dirty camps miles away from your home."

While the audience is shown the main character losing her job (and I could get behind and cheer their attempts to create laws and prevent this from happening), I couldn't cheer for their abolishment of the camps because I wasn't shown the heartbreaking stories.  At some points, I wished the author had gone in scene for some of the information provided to the audience.  I wanted to, at the very least, hear the heartbreaking stories and the horrific things some people had to endure in the camps.



All in all, while a very good read, the story could have been twice as long and much more engaging.

And, although I had one major issue with one aspect of the story, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and being taken through all the twists and turns of the main character's journey.  This is a novel for my must-read list.


If this sounds like an interesting story to you, please purchase your copy at Amazon.

Evolution of Angels

 Rating:

About the Author:

(Taken from Amazon)

Nathan Wall is a husband, father, author and wanna-be part-time superhero (because new legislation limits the benefits and tax deductions he can receive as a full-timer) who lives in Texas. He's been creating stories since before he can remember. He says creating stories, and not writing them, because - as a boy - he had a healthy addiction to superhero action figures, and used to stage his own homemade adventures/movies in his room. His love for story telling morphed when he entered high school, as countless spirals of paper knelt before his pen. In college, that love for story telling morphed into other media. In 2010, he was nominated for an Emmy award. Nathan is the author of "Evolution of Angels," a science-fantasy/ action thriller. The ebook version was launched in June of 2014. The subsequent installments are set to be released soon, including a shared-world novella later this year. Other writing credits to his name is the highly praised "Money Ball for Fantasy Baseball," a non-fiction strategy guide series. The 2014 edition was featured by many independent fantasy baseball sites. When he is not busy writing, Nathan can be found interacting with his numerous fans on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads.

Blurb:  

After finding angelic DNA characteristics hidden throughout the population, a secret agency decides to recreate angels of their own. The agency's "Double-Helix project" manipulates the DNA of certain humans, creating soldiers who can wield the armor and weapons of Angels, the Aurascales: a sentient armor that forms a symbiotic relationship with its host. In the pursuit of perfection, and the hopes of helping his wife conceive a child, William Sanderson clones an Angel, making a warrior far superior to anything they've seen before. The only problem is the clone's powers can't be controlled, so his memory is erased and a mental wall is erected to keep what lingers inside from breaking out. One day, to battle a force the likes which have never been encountered, this clone is recruited by the agency and his mental wall is broken.

Review:

Fascinating concepts reside in Evolution of Angels.  Nathan Walls blends mythology together to create an interesting story about a man being recruited to save the world from deadly threats.

The characters are interesting, although they all speak in similar manners.  At times, I found it difficult to keep up with who was talking and at what point.  That being said, I really enjoyed getting to know and following Jarrod!  His sense of humor and personality stuck to me.  I also found it interesting how he first came across like the fun loving side-kick, but by the end he is shown to be the hero.

My other favorite character is Oreios!  He's demented in a pretty fun way.

 

The writing is... efficient.  It wasn't bad and I could imagine the scenes fairly easily, but there was something missing.  This is definitely personal aesthetics, since I tend to enjoy more poetic writing.  A few moments, the type of descriptive writing I enjoy did pop up.

For examples:

"Saliva in his mouth strung together from tooth to tooth like spider webs."

Disgusting, but also vivid.

"... launched him thirty yards, causing him to skip across the ground like a smooth stone on a calm lake."

And my personal favorite:

"Jarrod jumped onto the railing, overlooking the bottom floor like a terrifying gargoyle."

 

There was one other issue that I had with the story, and that was the excessive use of backstory.  Most of it could have been discovered through narration and dialogue, but the reader is taken back to months and years in the past to relive certain moments.  The most frustrating part was with Episode 4.  Right after an amazing battle, an entire section (set up like a chapter, but a little longer) was dedicated to back story, and most of the information would have been perfectly acceptable if a character had sat down and explained one or two points to another character.  It wasn't hard to keep up with the time jumps, they just seemed to come at a time where I wanted resolution on something specific.  Essentially, they delayed satisfaction, which at moments can be very frustrating.

 

So, the reason for three stars is a combination of characters not being distinct enough, prose lacking a bit more flare, and backstory interrupting the much more interesting current story.

Other than those three things, however, I still have to recommend this book.  If you enjoy action-packed novels which explore fascinating ideas, you should enjoy this!

 

Also, extra kudos for this line and knowing the difference between the man and the monster!

 

"I feel like Frankenstein's monster," he joked...

If this title interests you, please check this novel out on Amazon.