Review: "Hero's End" by JC Cassels

"Hero's End" is the second book in JC Cassels' "Blackwing Chronicles."  For my review of the first book, "Sovran's Pawn", please go here. Cassels can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

Over-all rating: 4 stars

"Hero's End" is a better book, both stylistically and story-wise, than "Sovran's Pawn".  The characters are alive with rich background details. Scenery is described in dramatic fashion but not to the point that a reader becomes bored with every descriptive nuance.  The story is well paced with a good blend of action and exposition. If you love the lush settings, blood-curdling action, and cliffhangers of George RR Martin's "Game of Thrones" series, you will like this book.

Plot (no spoilers): 4stars

Blade Devon and Bo Barron are back to save the galaxy each other.  While there are certainly over-arcing political plotlines within "Hero's End", this is the story of Blade and Bo.  As the second in a series, the book does a good job of treading the fine line between re-telling the first book and plunging the reader into the action with no point of reference.  The first three chapters are a bit slower paced than the rest of the book, but still manage to draw you in.

This series of books is good, classic, space opera.  The plot is character driven and centered around the romance of the two protagonists. Don't be misled, though.  This is not a sappy romance novel set in space. Cassels has created an entire galaxy full of competing star systems, power-plays, holo-feature starlets, and mystical wisemen.

There's more mysticism in this story than in the prior book.  I always have to give myself a good mental shake when there's talk of telepathy.  Yes mind reading is all very sci-fi, but the book does take place on spaceships and alien planets.

Formatting: 3 stars

I'm still an ebook snob, so I'm not going to over-look the lack of a working Table of Contents or chapter hyperlinks.

Final thoughts:

I stayed up until 4am to finish "Hero's End". Be warned, it ends in a cliffhanger that is so wrenching as to make me curse aloud.  Fans of space opera will not want to miss this book.

Civ V: Gods and Kings Review

I'm putting on my Gamer Girl hat for the day and giving you my thoughts on Civilization V: Gods and Kings.  This expansion came out several months ago, but I was too busy to try it out (see: moving family 800+ miles to a new city, husband with a broken leg, book deadlines, etc).  My darling children gave me the expansion as Steam gift and I've been playing since Christmas Day.

Civ: V was already a great game, especially on a new, top-of-the-line, gaming system.  But, like all games and all RTS games in particular, there were annoying AI glitches and bugs.  The Gods & Kings expansion has gone a long way toward fixing these issues. Enemy civilizations will no longer ask for a declaration of friendship in one turn and denounce you the next turn. There are fewer "pointless upgrades" in both technology and city expansion.  There are more paths to victory.

The biggest improvement with this expansion, in my opinion, is the increased usefulness and variety of city states.  Prior to the Gods & Kings expansion, I would ignore cultural city states unless I was trying to a specific cultural victory achievement.  Maritime city states were merely prime targets for invasion as soon as possible.  After the expansion and the addition of mercantile and religious city state types, I've found myself actively engaged in winning over these "other" players.  City state missions have also become more worthwhile and varied, allowing players seeking scientific, cultural or diplomatic victories more routes to success.

The addition of religions and spies to the game has increased the complexity of the game, but not in such a way as to impede play.  I enjoyed trying to mold my state-sponsored religion to fit my civilizations goals. The faith based cultural benefits were useful and fun to tinker with. I absolutely adore using spies to fix elections in city states, steal technology, and capture other spies. If I could actually sabotage wonder construction or technology advancement, I'd think I'd be in RTS gamer heaven.

This is a true expansion, not downloadable fluff content.  The game has been changed in fundamental ways that invite a player to go back and play a previous civilization or map.  There are plenty of new civilizations to play, new wonders to build, and the technology tracks have been overhauled to be more comprehensive and fitting to their respective eras.

Civilization V: Gods & Kings is a comprehensive, well designed expansion to a masterpiece strategy game.  I highly recommend visiting the Steam store and downloading your copy.

KBR "Best Indie Books of 2012" Finalist

Not long after I released Dremiks, I stumbled upon The Kindle Book Review.  They had several advertising options, offered reviews of indie books, and were taking submissions for a contest.  I didn't have the money for the advertising, and didn't yet meet their requirements for review requests, but I took a chance and entered the contest.

In July, Jeff Bennington and his talented review team picked as semi-finalists 25 books from each category.  Since that day, The Kindle Book Review has been faithfully Tweeting, Facebook posting, and reviewing the books chosen to be semi-finalists.

August 2nd, my husband broke his leg in three places, playing Ultimate Frisbee, of all things. On Friday, August 31st, Paragon Studios closed it's doors, laying off the entire staff, including my husband, a talented game producer with eleven years experience in the industry.  The very next day, September 1st, I stopped to check my email before I went to run errands and got another shock:

"Dremiks", my first published novel, had made the Top 5 Finalists in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy category.

I was--AM-- blown away by this honor.  The other books in the finals are great reads by very talented authors.  I encourage you to follow the links in this post and then buy every single one of the books that made the semi-finals and finals.

For all of you who have purchased "Dremiks", recommended it to your friends, and reviewed it: Thank you.

The Dreaded 2 Star Review

Readers often comment on bulletin boards and in reviews posted on popular sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Goodreads that they disregard the glowing 5 star reviews of new authors obviously written by family and friends. I’ve read several comments where a reader states that he or she looks only at the 2 and 3 star reviews to get a true feel for the book. I’m not sure I entirely agree with this policy, but if that behavior is widespread, it should help a new author to have a few critical reviews. So, I suppose “Dremiks” has officially “arrived” because I’ve finally received a 2 star review.

The reviewer was not malicious and did not state anything that indicated that he had picked up “Dremiks” thinking it a genre different than science-fiction space-opera. In fact, he seems to have sought out the book specifically because he likes the genre. Therefore, I cannot just roll my eyes and ignore his comments. I may not agree with his analysis, but it is a fact of life that not all readers are going to like my book—or any book. There are people who adore “The Great Gatsby”. I’d rather gnaw off my own arms than read it again. This particular reader didn’t like my story development and felt the ending was rushed. That’s his opinion and he’s entitled to it. Obviously if I receive hundreds of such reviews then I have serious issues and need to reconsider my writing style. One such review will not, I hope, doom my first book to the dustbin of hideous literature.

Finally, a complete stranger bought my book, read it, and took the time to write a detailed review of why he disliked it. That’s a pretty big moment in an author’s life, even if it hurts just a bit.

Review: "The Fallen Angel"

With so many wonderful novels out there priced below $5.00 for the e-book version, I have to be very familiar with the quality of an author’s work before shelling out $12.99 (or more) for an ebook. That said, I spend more than $20 that going to see a movie with my husband, so why shouldn’t I pay $10 or so for a book? That’s fodder for another post, though.

Daniel Silva’s “The Fallen Angel” is the latest in his Gabriel Allon series. I’ve read all of his previous books and genuinely enjoyed each one. So, I was familiar with Mr. Silva’s writing style, attention to detail, and engaging characters and therefore willing to pay a bit more for an ebook. “Fallen Angel” did not disappoint.

Ebook formatting: 5 stars
The Kindle version was well formatted with navigation links, a table of contents, and appropriate paragraph spacing. You might think, “Well duh, it’s from a major publisher- of COURSE it’s done correctly”. Oh, if only that held true.

Editing: 5 stars
Professionally edited (of course) and not by someone who is just phoning it in. Of course Mr. Silva is an established, successful, author with a successful journalist for a wife, so he knows his craft and practices it with professionalism.

Plot: 4 stars
The book starts off with a murder mystery and morphs into an international crisis (of course). The murder mystery felt a bit contrived to me, but was intriguing enough to catch and hold my attention and I truly felt for the twin sister of the murdered woman. The crisis in Jerusalem was the stuff of nightmares and uncomfortably realistic. That’s Silva’s genius, though. “The Rembrandt Affair” was very prescient regarding Iranian nuclear enrichment and international efforts to sabotage that process. Since I unabashedly agree with the political views of Silva’s books, I had no trouble with the pedantic passages on Middle Eastern strife and Biblical history.

Character development: 3 stars
This area constitutes my biggest complaint with “The Fallen Angel”. Gabriel Allon’s wife, Chiara is such a flat character that I honestly wonder sometimes if she’s not just a painting Gabriel is trying to restore. We get so much insight into so many of the repeating characters in this series, including His Holiness the (fictional) Pope, Eli Lavon, and Adrian Carter, that the lack of development for Chiara is very noticeable. Mr. Silva has proven time and again that he can write female characters with amazing depth. I wish he would spend some time fleshing out the second Mrs. Allon.

Summary: 4 stars
“The Fallen Angel” delivers a fast paced spy thriller with a murder mystery as bonus content. This is a thinking man’s, or woman’s, book. If you if you like your storylines bland and non-controversial, find something else to read. You cannot read "The Fallen Angel" without worrying about the future of Israel and the escalation of global religious warfare.

Review: Prometheus

I went to see Prometheus knowing that it was Ridley Scott’s creation and had an “Alien” tie-in.  Beyond that, I’d stayed away from critical reviews and accompanying spoilers.

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.  YOU’VE BEEN WARNED.

The cinematography was fabulous.  From the opening sequence until the final, startling, minute of the movie, there was a sense of scope and majesty.  I should note that although this is a “space movie”, the setting is primarily an alien planet and the inside of a human ship.  That’s important, because this wasn’t an “alien centric” movie.

That’s right: despite the fact that the passengers of the Prometheus are on a mission to find and question an alien life form, this movie is ultimately a human drama with aliens thrown in for dramatic juxtapositions.  Prometheus is a creation myth—or all creation myths, jumbled together in Wikipedia form and thrown onto the big screen—any way you look at it.

The characterizations were a little weak—but that actually makes the movie work.  Again, this is a story about humanity’s past, present and future.  Stereotypical characters are easier for an audience to relate to.  Thoughts of “I know how she feels” and “Yeah I’ve had a witchy boss just like Vickers” draw the viewer in and make him/her emotionally invested in the storyline.

That’s not to say I didn’t have issues with several character story points.  Fifield was well played by Sean Harris, but can we have a redheaded character who isn’t bat-crap insane? Also, the writers made a point of telling us that Dr. Elisabeth Shaw was infertile, only to have her conceive almost immediately.  Granted it was no ordinary pregnancy, but come on—a scientist who says she’s infertile isn’t basing that off a hunch.  She was obviously able to ovulate, her tubes were open enough to have the egg be fertilized and then move to her uterus to implant.  Exactly which part of her reproductive system WASN’T working?

That leads me to the most gut-wrenching (pun most definitely intended) part of the movie.  In a film filled with visceral (heh) imagery, the scene of Shaw’s self-induced, barely-medicated, caesarean section made every single woman in the audience writhe in pain.  Just...damn.

I really enjoyed Prometheus.  It didn’t offer anything particularly new, (The concept that life here began out there is not exactly original.) but the action keeps the audience engaged (or writhing).  A sci-fi fan will see the ending coming, as the foreshadowing is a bit heavy handed, but the finale still comes as a kick in the head.

Game over, man, game over.

Review: Alone on the Edge

I "met" Patrick Stutzman, author of "Alone on the Edge" through my participation in Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. Patrick is a great guy and the "geek's geek".  He loves role-playing-games, sci-fi, and all things Star Wars.  When he published his first book, I was very excited to read it.

I loved the premise of this book. Mr. Stutzman does a good job of making you feel exactly how alone the heroine really feels. If you like your sci-fi on the gritty side, with a dash of smut and a storyline that hasn't been done-to-death, this is the book for you.

Format: 5 Stars
I read the Kindle version of this book. The book was well formatted with no typos (that I noticed). Since I've finished "Alone on the Edge", I've read several other e-books ( self-published and from "traditional" publishing companies).  All but one of those recent e-books lacked proper Table of Contents and chapter hyperlinks.  Patrick's book is a true gem because he took the time to format it correctly.

Premise: 5 stars 
There are hundreds of thousands of sci-fi books on the market. Most of those have a futuristic space setting. Finding a book that is set in space, in the future, and doesn't make you roll your eyes and go "Oh not THIS again" is a nice change.

Prose: 4 stars
This book is very descriptive. At times it was TOO descriptive. I wasn't expect graphic sexual language and you will find that in the first ten pages! (Note: the author has included a warning about the content on the Amazon description page.)

Plot and Execution: 3 stars
I found the middle section of this book to be very slow. I had a hard time staying engaged. I know that the author was trying to make the reader feel the depth's of Anna's despair and loneliness, but I think he went a bit overboard. Also, there were several minor plot points raised during this time that were abandoned or did not reach a satisfying conclusion. The final climax of the story required far too many mental gymnastics and ripped me right out of the story.

Final Rating: 3.5 stars
Ever since I initially published this review on Goodreads, I've felt like a horrible person.  I know how badly a 3star or lower review can hurt an author.  Also, a self-published author relies on word of mouth and reviews to promote his or her work.  On the other hand, I feel that giving a book an honest critique is the only way I can maintain my own integrity.  If I give a book 5 stars, it means I think it's the greatest book I've read in a long time.  4 stars are for books I enjoyed but weren't necessarily "great".  3 star books are good books that I've had several issues with while reading. Some of the issues might be e-book formatting or editing, or they may be content related.  This is why a longer text review is, in my opinion, more helpful to an author and a reader.  You can read for yourself why I gave a book a lower rating and decide if my opinions are bunk.  And let me be clear on that, reviews are MY OPINIONS.  What I like or dislike isn't going to be the same as what you like or dislike.  That's why books are awesome.

In conclusion, I like this author and look forward to reading more from him. While I only gave this book 3.5 stars, I still recommend it to my friends.  Patrick Stutzman is a good author who deserves recognition for his work.

Review: Sovran's Pawn

I recently had the chance to read and review this first book from J.C. Cassels. Regular readers might remember J.C. from her previous interview on this site.

Overview: J.C. Cassels delivers an enjoyable sci-fi romp. She has created a vast universe of (some-what) cooperative peoples, but avoids the common pitfall of describing every single aspect of these worlds. The reader gets enough description to feel engaged without feeling the need to skip ahead to the action.

Characters: 4 stars:
If you love your heroes in the mold of Han Solo and Malcolm Reynolds, you'll be left idolizing Blade Devon. I was not as enamored with the heroine, Bo Barron, but my feelings on her were mainly subjective. I like my heroines a little more self-assured. Bo could be a bit more assertive, but Cassels gives her room to grow in future books. None of the characters are flat and unimaginative, even the supporting cast keeps you engaged.

Plot (no spoilers): 4 stars
If I had one complaint with "Sovran's Pawn" it was that I didn't feel there was enough resolution to the storyline. I understand that J.C. intends to write more books in this series, but I would have been happier with the conclusion of at least one plot aspect. That is, however, my only complaint with the plot. The action is fast paced and does not bog down at any point. As an author, I can appreciate how hard it is to create new worlds without boring readers. As a reader, I greatly appreciated the pacing of "Sovran's Pawn".

Formatting: 3 stars
I want to qualify this by saying that:
1. I am an e-book snob. I recently wrote a scathing review of an atrociously formatted e-book by Clive Cussler.
2. I purchased an advance edition of "Sovran's Pawn", so some of the technical details I will mention could have already been corrected.
This book was missing chapter navigation hyperlinks for the Kindle. That is a relatively minor item and does not detract from the reading experience. Paragraphs and chapters were well formatted without any egregious errors. I did notice a few blank pages at the end of chapters, but, again, these did not interrupt my reading.

Summation: For under $5 you can pick-up an easy read that will make you laugh, wince, and wonder what insane situations the characters will get into on the next page. I gave this book 4 stars.

Review: Dead or Alive

This is a compilation of short stories does exactly what it was meant to-- make you want to buy every other novel featuring the hero Aston West. The Kindle edition is well formatted and edited. The character development is excellent, which is sometimes difficult in a short story anthology. Hunter does a superb job of world-building. You can feel Aston's cramped quarters, cold, empty, bed, and deep-space loneliness. You won't find in-depth hard-science explanations in this novel, nor is it a military-centric tale. You will, though, have fun reading these stories and you will most definitely want to read more from T.M. Hunter.

Premise and plot: 5 stars
Character development: 5 stars
Kindle formatting: 5 stars
Editing: 5 stars
Genre Faithfulness (world building, technology, etc): 5 stars
Total: 5 stars