You Know How the Story Goes by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

May 3, 2018 By Leave a Comment


You Know How the Story Goes by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (32 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It’s the same old story. Take a chance and pick up a hitchhiker. But only after midnight and only when you need some company. Of course, the hitchhiker will disappear. That’s the way the story goes, right? But this time you are the hitchhiker. And there’s a tunnel up ahead.

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The unnamed main character was such a likeable guy. The fact that he ignored the little voice in his head that warned him not to get into the car with the person who offered him a ride was understandable. It’s something a lot of people would do if they’d been waiting for a ride for as long as he had been, and I couldn’t fault him for making a mistake there. What really endeared me to him was how he reacted once he realized just how much danger he was in. His response to that situation was perfect, and it also provided a nice contrast to the more naive side of his personality that he’d shown earlier.

I would have liked to see a little more time developing the backstory of the strange woman who picked up hitchhikers. She played such an important role in the main character’s horrifying experiences. The details the author shared about who and what she really was were chilling. Had there been more of them, I would have felt comfortable giving this tale a perfect rating. Everything else about it was perfect.

My favorite kind of horror is the type that isn’t gory at all. The author did an excellent job of scaring me by slowly revealing details of everything that was wrong with the hitchhiking situation the main character found himself in. There were so many small signs that something was seriously off about this ride that discovering them was all I needed to feel deeply afraid of what might happen next.

You Know How the Story Goes was one of the creepiest things I’ve read in a long time. I’d heartily recommend it to anyone who is in the mood to be frightened.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Totem Poles by Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker

April 5, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Totem Poles by Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (25 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The saucer aliens are here. They’re healing the planet. They’ve got to be stopped.

At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Are these aliens truly friendly, or is there a darker purpose to all of the kind things they’re doing for humanity?
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Mr. Sterling and Mr. Rucker are both talented writers. They have writing styles that are simultaneously poetic and conversational. There were several times when I needed to stop, chuckle, and reread a sentence not because I didn’t understand it the first time but because I wanted the pleasure of reading it again.

I would have liked to see this story go into far more detail about why Kalinin, one of the main characters, was so certain that the aliens were cleaning up the pollution on Earth for nefarious purposes. He leapt to that conclusion without having any evidence to support it. As much as I enjoyed the rest of the plot, it didn’t make sense to me to be this paranoid about cleaning up the environment when the aliens had given the humans absolutely no reason to assume that they meant harm to anyone.

The paranormal elements of the plot weren’t something I was expecting to find at all. Ghosts and flying saucers aren’t generally included in the same storyline in this genre from what I’ve observed, but I was pleased with how the authors combined those two ideas. It ended up making perfect sense for them to coexist in this particular universe because of how much effort was put into showing all of the ways they intersected.

It was confusing to switch between the perspectives of so many different characters due to how short this story was in general. I was never able to get to know any of them well. As soon as I began to form an impression of their personalities, a different narrator would take over in the next scene and I’d have to readjust to other characters all over again.

The final scene tied up all of the loose ends of the plot nicely. While it was something I saw coming in advance, it was still interesting to see if my predictions would turn out to be correct and how the characters would react to what their futures held. I was quite satisfied with the ending when it was all said and done.

If the thought of an alien invasion fills you with a quiet sense of foreboding, Totem Poles may be right up your alley.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Where Would You Be Now? by Carrie Vaughn

March 8, 2018 By Leave a Comment


Where Would You Be Now? by Carrie Vaughn
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (35 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The world as they know it is ending, a new world is taking its place. Among the doctors and nurses of a clinic-turned-fortress, Kath is coming of age in this new world, and helping define it. But that doesn’t make letting go of the old any easier. “Where Would You Be Now?” is a prequel to the novel Bannerless, a finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award.

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Even the healthiest person can quickly run into serious trouble if they develop health problems in a place where medical professionals and proper treatments are scarce at best. Some of my favorite scenes showed what happens to characters under these circumstances. From what I understand, this book is the prequel to a series that will explore this universe in much greater depth. I was impressed by what I’ve seen so far, and I’m looking forward to digging more deeply into how this world works and why some characters worked so hard to provide medical treatment to perfect strangers despite not having enough supplies for themselves.

The world building was weak. While I wouldn’t expect a narrator to go into a lot of detail about how and why modern society has collapsed in a tale of this length, it would have been nice to at least have a brief description of what happened and why the characters no longer have any hope of getting help from the outside world. It was confusing to me to read about them running low on everything from food to medical supplies without knowing why they were in such a serious predicament or how long it had been going on.

Kath was an incredibly strong and compassionate woman. She ran towards the kinds of emergencies that most people would run away from, and she did it knowing that her safety was never guaranteed in those situations in any way. The more I got to know her, the more I liked her. While she lived in a dangerous world, she never allowed the uncertainty of her life to stop her from helping everyone she possibly could.

I’d recommend Where Would You Be Now? to anyone who loves post-apocalyptic stories.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

People of the Songtrail by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear

June 23, 2015 By 1 Comment

PEOPLE
People of the Songtrail by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Action/Adventure, Historical, Mystery/Suspense
Length: Full Length (342 pages)
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Myrtle

On the shores of the sparsely populated American wilderness, a small group of intrepid settlers have landed, seeking freedom to worship and prosper far from the religious strife and political upheaval that plague a war-ridden Europe . . .

500 years before Columbus set sail.

While it has long been known that Viking ships explored the American coast, recent archaeological evidence suggests a far more vast and permanent settlement. It is from this evidence that archaeologists and early American history experts Kathy and Michael Gear weave their extraordinary tale.

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Five Hundred years before Columbus, the Vikings set sail. When they landed and met Native Americans, both worlds changed forever, but none more so than young Thyra, an accomplished practitioner of Odin magic.

The year is A.D. 1002, and warfare has broken out in Europe after King Aethelred’s slaughter of the Danish part of England, the Danelaw. In the midst of the turmoil, a great Viking seeress is kidnapped and her young daughter, Thyra, enslaved.

Thirteen years later, Thyra finds herself aboard a Viking ship filled with colonists headed to Vinland. Though she is a thrall to the wicked Thorlak the Lawspeaker, Thyra has been learning the skills of the Darkness-Riders, powerful practitioners of Odin magic. Her goal is to find her mother. As the mystery of who abducted her mother and what happened to her unfolds, it becomes clear Thyra is not the only person trying to find the legendary Vethild. In England, King Aethelred’s son, Edmund, is massing forces to seize his father’s throne, and the Danish king is just waiting for the clash so he can attack and take England as his own. All sides want Vethild. Some want her alive. Some want her dead.

The story includes majestic descriptions of crossing the ocean during the Medieval Warm Period, a dramatic period of global warming, and murderous confrontations between North America’s native peoples and Vikings. The violence is softened by touches of mysticism and magic that enhance the plot.

The thread that binds the story together is the growing romance between the young Anchorite slave, Kiran, and Thyra. But two of the most complex and interesting characters are the rough-hewn former criminal, Godi Gunnar, and a tenderhearted Native American shaman, old Asson. Asson’s people, the People of the Songtrail, know they must defeat the Viking invaders or they will never be safe.

This marvelous story also features a Glossary of Terms, which is helpful with the Norse terminology used throughout the book.

If you enjoy historical fiction featuring ancient cultures in the American wilderness or sailing the sea with Norsemen, then this story of first contact between Native Americans and Vikings is an absolute must-read!

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Kitty’s Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn

January 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Kitty’s Greatest Hits by Carrie Vaughn
Publisher: Doherty, Tom Associates, LLC / Tor
Genre: Contemporary, Historical, Paranormal, holiday
Length: Full Length (258 pgs)
Heat Level hot
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Xeranthemum

Kitty Norville, star of a New York Times bestselling series, is everybody’s favorite werewolf DJ and out-of-the-closet supernatural creature. Over the course of eight books she’s fought evil vampires, were-creatures, and some serious black magic. She’s done it all with a sharp wit and the help of a memorable cast of werewolf hunters, psychics, and if-notgood- then-neutral vampires by her side. Kitty’s Greatest Hits not only gives readers some of Kitty’s further adventures, it offers longtime fans a window into the origins of some of their favorite characters.

In “Conquistador de la Noche,” we learn the origin story of Denver’s Master vampire, Rick; with “Wild Ride,” we find out how Kitty’s friend T.J. became a werewolf; and in “Life is the Teacher,” we revisit Emma, the human-turned-unwilling-vampire who serves the aloof vampire Master of Washington, D.C.

This entertaining collection includes two brand-new works: “You’re On the Air,” about one of Kitty’s callers after he hangs up the phone; and the eagerly awaited “Long Time Waiting,” the novella that finally reveals just what happened to Cormac in prison, something every Kitty fan wants to know.

This book is a must for Kitty fans. A simple statement, but it really does apply because Ms. Vaughn presents a bunch of short stories that showed the development of what we now know and love about Radio D.J, and my favorite werewolf, Kitty Norville.

I included in the page count the explanations that the author included at the end of all the short stories because they read well, are entertaining by themselves and provided greater insight as to what was going on at the time she wrote them. It was a fascinating process.

There are too many to write a review for individually and even though I rated the heat level as hot, most are spicy or sensual but since one made it to the hot level, the whole book has to be labeled as such.

I really enjoyed Ms. Vaughn’s personal interpretation of the Bible story, Daniel and the Lion’s Den. In fact, it was perfect because it made so much sense and it worked with the ‘facts’ as we know them. It was fun.

Actually, I’m really sick of books about zombies but I found myself completely engrossed in Ms. Vaughn’s twist on the subject. It was a breath of fresh air and she even touches base at the end of the book as to the research she’s done and why she took the stand she did. I like her version a whole lot better because I agree with the author — it’s waaay scarier.

What I found intriguing and had me bouncing in my seat were the stories that had Rick in them. Surprisingly, there is quite the undercurrent about his character. I’d read the one about the military lab and the unicorn and the selkie in another anthology but never could I have imagined that the vampire in that had any connection to Kitty’s world. Call me floored.

Ms. Vaughn saved the best for last and that is the story about Cormac. Oh, Wow! To be able to get inside his head? To get his point of view from inside prison? What an amazing ride. It may be helpful to participate in group therapy as the patient works to recover from the disorder. cheap viagra for women Self-help http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482460671_add_file_9.pdf best online viagra technique – You can also opt for an overnight delivery. So your priority must cheapest sildenafil be to isolate the core cause of ED. There have many centuries people have been opting for the right kind of treatment at the right time to ask for a raise? How do I prepare for a performance review? How do represent my accomplishments? How much information should I share with my coworkers? How do I avoid dead-end assignments? How good does my work product need to be? order cheap viagra Who Will Benefit: IT Employees Sid Adelman. And to finally find out about how he and Amelia came together was awesome. The tale gripped me and had me reading wide-eyed through the whole thing. Also, I found those little comments that Cormac made relating to Amelia absolutely delicious. I sense a sub-plot and I have high hopes that the author isn’t just teasing her fans but will someday figure out how to bring that to light in a way to satisfy romantics at heart. As it is, this story alone was worth waiting for.

Between Rick and Cormac, they made the purchase of this book a winner and I’m a very satisfied reader. Some publishers have books out on popular series that don’t contribute much to the forward movement but re-hash what’s already been written. Kitty’s Greatest Hits doesn’t do that. I found value in understanding more of the background while at the same time it presented me with new questions and interest in the series.

A cute addition to this anthology is the behind scenes look at one of Kitty’s callers on the radio show. It tickled me because I DID remember the caller- though I can’t remember which book it was in – and I had an ‘awww’ moment at how it ended. I enjoyed it and thought it clever of the author. Why? Because it created a more solid world-building atmosphere where a reader could feel like a part of it; like they could travel to another city somewhere and actually find some of Kitty’s world. Or see it someday on the silver screen. When an author can successfully incorporate other mundane aspects of the world her characters live in and still entertain, garner interest and make them feel like they’re still visiting Kitty and pals, it’s well done and worth taking the time to read.

Another great lure is the background tale of the relationship between Ben and Cormac. They’re cousins but it’s more than that. Based upon the series, I understood that they’d been through a lot and they always had each other’s backs but there is one tale that brings understanding as to just how far back it goes, and the trials and tribulations they survived to get to the point of being where they are now in the series. Fascinating stuff.

Kitty’s Greatest Hits is the best book to get for fans of the series, especially if they have a special place in their hearts for Cormac, Ben and Rick. Those three guys are a trifecta for Kitty. Each one has a role that showcases the heroine’s growth as a character and this book explores for readers just how special they are. Add in those other intriguing tales from the author’s imagination and this is a real winner that entertains as well as informs. I can’t wait until the next Kitty adventure!

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