Beth Tabler's Blog, page 187

#Bookcook – Giant Donut Cake – I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly, J.M. Ken Niimura

Cake in all its glory.





Synopsis

Barbara Thorson, a girl battling monsters both real and imagined, kicks butt, takes names, and faces her greatest fear in this bittersweet, coming-of-age story called “Best Indy Book of 2008” by IGN.

Have you come to battle your demons, Barbara has, and I know I have? Oh wait, this is cake. Nope, no slaying of anything but a slice of this cake. So come with me on an epic and emotional heroes journey whilst slaying this bad-ass donut-shaped cake from Epicurius.

 
 
 

I Kill Giant is a graphic novel based around a child slaying demons and giants. It is emotional and wonderful. You simultaneously cheer Barbara on and want to grab her into a huge hug. There is no real creature as giants, right?

Giant Vanilla Donut Cake

Recipe from Epicurius.

INGREDIENTS

YIELD Makes 1 (23 cm/9 in) cake

Cake:

230 g (8 oz/2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
230 g (8 oz/1 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
4 medium eggs
230 g (8 oz/1 3/4 cups) sifted self-rising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp whole milk (if needed)


Pink vanilla bean icing:

500 g (1 lb 2 oz/4 cups) icing (confectioner’s) sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
50 ml (2 fl oz/1/4 cup) full-fat (whole) milk
Pink natural food coloring


Giant sprinkles:

100 g (3 1/2 oz) fondant icing (shop bought is fine)
Natural food coloring in pastel blue, yellow, pink and lilac


Special Equipment

23 cm (9 in) savarin ring tin (mold)

 

 Photo from epicurious.com





PREPARATION



 






Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF/Gas 4) and liberally grease the savarin tin (mold) with butter.
Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk until pale and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a spoonful of flour with each egg. Gently fold in the rest of the flour, baking powder and salt, trying not to overwork it. Add the milk if it seems stiff.
Place the mixture into the cake tin and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until skewer or cocktail stick inserted in the centre should comes out clean. Leave to cool before transferring to a wire rack.
Place the icing sugar, vanilla bean paste and half the milk into a bowl and stir.
Gradually add the rest of the milk, while mixing, until you end up with a smooth mixture. Add a drop of pink food coloring. Mix together and set aside.
To make the giant sprinkles, divide the fondant into 4 even pieces and color each one with each of the shades of food coloring.
Using the palms of your hands, make small sausage shapes of around 1 1/4 cm (1/2 in) width with each of the colors. With a sharp knife, cut 3 cm (1 1/4 in) lengths from each sausage shape to make giant sprinkles.
Turn the cooled cake out onto a stand or dish. Give the icing a quick stir then pour it over the cake. Be quick and confident with it—you don’t want it to begin to set before you’ve finished covering the cake, otherwise lumps will form. If the icing seems too thick, warm it up a little either in the microwave for a few seconds or in a pan on a low heat.
While the icing is still damp, press the fondant sprinkles onto the cake in a random formation.
Let the icing set before slicing up to serve!



Check Out I Kill Giants

#BookCook Boeuf au Daube from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

#BookCook Chew by John Layman

 

 

The post #Bookcook – Giant Donut Cake – I Kill Giants by Joe Kelly, J.M. Ken Niimura appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.

Review – Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

it is a hard book to review, because it may have suffered under the weight of my expectations

 

Gideon the Ninth is an interesting beast. It’s been sitting on my TBR list for quite a while, and I finally managed to get to it post-SPFBO. I’d heard all the scuttlebutt around it for the past two-ish years and I was super jazzed to finally read it. Now, having read it, and having perused other people’s reviews – a benefit of a late review – Gideon seems incredibly polarizing. Either you fall in love and squee about it all over the place, or you bounce hard off of it and it’s totally not for you.

I, with my questionable tastes, of course, land somewhere in the middle.

Gideon the Ninth is a hard book to review, because it may have suffered under the weight of my expectations – which I saw was a common theme amongst the lower scoring reviews. It’s billed as ‘lesbian necromancers in a haunted castle in space’, and – to its credit – its exactly what it says on the tin. It’s full of creepy gothic space nonsense that’s very lovingly and creatively described – plenty of bones, and skeletons, and death magic, and facepaint that readers have crowed about. But the other thing that gets frequently mentioned about the book is its sense of humor – particularly the character of Gideon who is a proverbial Great White Snark who feasts on jokes and memes.

And the marriage of these two things is where I feel the book hits a stumbling block, because they constantly feel at odds with one another. The monstrous gothic death castles and necromancer societies and Gideon’s 2020s-style rebellious attitude are two great tastes that don’t necessarily go great together.

It’s not that I don’t like the character of Gideon or her attitude or her jokes. On the contrary, that’s the part of the book I love. I’m personally a very jokey boi, and I wanted more of that! But the somber, dark, epic worldbuilding doesn’t give the character of Gideon enough breathing room to explore herself or for us to explore her. The world and the other necromancers in it – who are generally very dry characters that I often had a hard time telling apart – constantly push back against her and just kinda silence her voice and numb the narrative. For most of the first half of the book, Gideon is literally barred from talking aloud, so I felt robbed of the witty quips and banter I was looking forward to. Consequently, the voice of the book felt snuffed, with fun taking a back seat to dry narrative about fighting styles, necromancer politics, and the admittedly limp mystery of the gothic castle.

Now take what I say next with your saltshakers at the ready, because it’s all supposition. But I don’t feel like Tamsyn Muir deserves the blame here. There’s bones (haha) of a more integral humorous voice there, but I can’t help but feel like it’s being hamstrung, and thus commits a cardinal sin of comedy: not committing to the bit. My hunch is that the editor(s) had a pretty heavy hand in toning down the book from something that might’ve been a bit more consistently outrageous and funny. Why? Because as I’ve been repeatedly told by multiple sources, humor doesn’t sell. Which may or may not be true*, but it may have been a driving principle on why the book is less funny than I was promised/expecting.

Regardless of if that is the case or not, it doesn’t change the fact that the narrative struggles to transition between Gideon’s snarkiness and the more serious world and plotbuilding. The voice vacillates between comedic and straight so abruptly it sometimes gave me whiplash. I couldn’t help but feel that if the comedy were spread more evenly, the book would have been able to hand the audience off to the more serious parts with a bit more deftness.

But listen, at the end of the day, Gideon the Ninth is still a pretty fun book with a lot of crazy ideas and nice little meme jokes that will keep those readers who are less obsessed over comedic craft laughing. There is a great, dark world that Tamsyn Muir constructs here. One with outside-the-box rules and bizarre, arcane mystique. It’s certainly one of the more creative space opera-style books I’ve ever read. And despite everything I said above, I did enjoy it. I just felt like it could’ve been so much more.

Will I read the sequels? Probably at some point, but I’m not personally rushing out the door for them.

3/5

*It’s definitely true if you look at the sales numbers of my dumb sci-fi comedy books.

Check out Gideon the Ninth

 

The post Review – Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.

Review – Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters by Ennis Rook Bashe

This is a special little book. What is Rescued by The Married Monster Hunters About?

Vessel is a creature living in a dimension-hopping dungeon. His destiny? Working for his colony until he outlives his usefulness. But secretly, Vessel engages in acts of rebellion: he mercy-kills human prisoners meant to feed the colony’s parasitic larvae. When a doomed human prisoner, Clarien leaves Vessel a diary about his life as a monster hunter, it opens Vessel’s eyes to a possible new life. But when his kindness to humans is discovered, he’s sentenced to a brutal, slow death.

Rhys and Sera are monster hunters, graduates of a school that takes in disabled children cast out by their families and gives them powers and training. Although they have an open marriage, nothing lasting has come of it. When clearing out a dimension-hopping dungeon, they find a young hunter named Clarien who’s been left to die by monsters. Catching feelings while taking care of him isn’t something they planned on.

However, the man they know as Clarien is Vessel, who’s taken on the first Clarien’s identity using his diary as a guide. Pretending to be human is hard, though, and he’s started having strange feelings for Rhys and Sera that he has no idea how to interpret.

Feelings that scare him with their intensity. Feelings that might not matter if Rhys and Sera find out that he’s the sort of creature they hunt…

This book features a trans character in a setting where being trans is no big deal, badass disabled monster hunters, an enormous gruff swordsman who would do anything for his adorable bard, a back brace that doubles as armor, and a soft bisexual eldritch abomination learning what love really is.

My Thoughts

Someone on Twitter recommended this book as a good example of monster romance, and as soon I saw the title I was hooked. Rescued? By the Married? Monster Hunters? Sign me the fuck up! The book is described as “a hurt/comfort fantasy romance,” which, once again, what’s not to like? I’m not going to lie: this is a weird book, and it’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re anything like me, it might be just the book you’re looking for.

The main character, Vessel, is an underling in an interdimensional dungeon, subservient to the more powerful Denizens who run the place and plot raids on the human world when they’re able to get an anchor to hold them in place. And of course there are these roving monster hunters who try to keep them in check, the timeless struggle between the uncountable monstrous hordes and the valiant humans who slay them. Vessels sometimes have to serve as hosts for the Denizens’ children, which burst from their chests, killing them, only to be born again, most likely into continued servitude. It’s a grim world, but Vessel is…different than the rest. When the Denizens capture a human Hunter and torture him, Vessel finds himself sympathizing with the poor human. He wants to know more about the human world, with its blue skies and grass and flowers and beings of such beauty as this Hunter.

His relationship with this Hunter is a tender, precious gift, opening his mind to things he’s never been allowed to dream of. But it brings him trouble, which tends to compound itself when you’re a lowly Vessel, and he soon finds himself on the outs with his society, only to be—you guessed it—RESCUED BY THE MARRIED MONSTER HUNTERS. Since it’s the title, it’s hardly a spoiler, and the relationship that forms between the three of them is the main reason I’m writing this review.

Vessel hurts, for reasons I can’t reveal due to spoilers. His whole body hurts, all the time, but when he’s around them, he hurts less. He’s been a nobody all his miserable, short life, but to them, he’s someone special, someone they want to take care of. And possibly make sweet monster love to, WHO KNOWS? There’s literally only one bed, so anything can happen.

His discovery of love, of being comforted, of offering comfort to others, kept me going throughout the book. The writing of Vessel’s blossoming romantic feelings is often jaw-droppingly gorgeous:

These shivers like tasting an earthquake between his legs, the way his chest felt tight as if his clothes were too confining, the way every breath seemed to carry their scents to his mouth—

The pace lagged a little during the parts about fighting—the married monster hunters (MMH) spend time running through the dungeon, hacking up monsters, like one does, with Vessel at their side. The fights aren’t much as action sequences; they’re more like ways to demonstrate Vessel’s emerging relationship with the MMH and his conflicted feelings about his culture and the friends from his dungeon life. The book shines when he and the MMH are together away from the dungeon, them helping him through bouts of intense pain, showing him gentleness and love. And he, in turn, desires nothing more than to protect them. As powerful as they are, they each have physical disabilities they have to cope with, so all three of them comfort and support each other.

Which is delightful, since they’re the badass MMH, and while he has some powers, he’s no hero, though there is some spoilery confusion on that point. His imposter syndrome is hella relatable, and the way the MMH give him strength and reassurance, comfort for his hurt, was a balm for my reading soul.

His shame at his monstrousness, at his lowly status, the way he’s been treated all his life—they make it go away.

He hadn’t even noticed that shame was there until it was gone. That gnawing feeling low in his belly that told him he was doing something terrible being alive, that his very existence was an affront to all decent people, that he ought to apologize to the floor when he walked on it.

The book’s fantasy plot, the dungeon plot, is a little flimsy in spots, and the book could have used a bit more editing, but it’s a fun world with lots of great details to enjoy, so long as you’re not expecting an epic level of worldbuilding or a grand adventure arc. It’s a bit episodic from that perspective, which makes sense, given its dungeon theme. The dungeon is a plot device, like in a D&D adventure, and the accumulated weight of all that fighting and struggling together solidifies the bonds at the core of the book. It’s the character arcs that matter, especially the romantic ones—this is a fantasy romance after all. That’s what we’re here for. And on that count, it delivers in a beautiful, touching, and uniquely satisfying way.

This is a special little book. Not a perfect one, nor a grandiose one, but I highly recommend it for readers who like queer fantasy romance with a little light monsterfucking (and even more monstercuddling) and some great hurt/comfort vibes.

Check Out Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters

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Indie Military Science Fiction and Space Opera books – Part 1

Space opera and military science fiction are genres that have benefited tremendously from the boom in indie publishing. If nothing else, geeks love space and thus the kind of people who own kindles and other e-readers are inclined to check out this pair of genres. However, there’s a massive amount of books that can be intimidating for readers to sort through. This is in addition to all the wonderfully traditionally published books that can be found on Barnes and Noble or Amazon’s websites.

Rather than take on the daunting task of recommending twenty science fiction novels in space that are published by someone other than the “Big Six” publishers, my friend Steve Caldwell and I have decided to combine our respective love of the genre to talk about stories that you can’t go wrong with. Yes, some of these books have some rough edges but others are just plain fantastic. All of them are worth giving a read. I should know, I’ve written my own in Lucifer’s Star and Space Academy Dropouts.
Here is part 1.

C.T. PHIPPS’ PICKSPoor Man’s Fight by Elliot Kay

Poor Man’s Fight is the story of student debt combined with Starship Troopers. A young man fails to get into the college of his choice and decides he’s going to end up enlisting in hopes of escaping his financial situation: a very common story in the real world. The difference is that it is in space and rapidly becomes Die Hard with a luxury liner. I very much enjoyed this military sci-fi coming-of-age drama and while it’s not the most original story, I read the rest of the series immediately thereafter.

What it is About?

“This test completes your compulsory education. Congratulations! You have graduated high school. Your financial obligation is 67,879 credits. Please visit our loan officer as you exit.”

Tanner Malone never bought into military myths of honor and glory. He never wanted to wear a uniform or medals. Yet when family upheaval brings his otherwise stellar performance in school to a disastrous end, Tanner’s plans for university lie in ruins. Facing homelessness and a mountain of debt, Tanner enlists in his home planet’s tiny navy.

It’s a hell of a time to sign up. Vicious pirates stalk the space lanes, claiming to fight an oppressive economic system even as they shed innocent blood. Civil war looms beyond the borders of Tanner’s home star system of Archangel. Corporate security fleets are nowhere to be found when trouble arises.

In response, Archangel begins ambitious military expansion. Basic training becomes six months of daily bare knuckle brawls, demanding cross-training and constant stress. Brutal as it is, Tanner will need the preparation. The pirates grow more audacious with every attack. As if that’s not enough, Tanner is assigned to a small ship whose disgruntled crew has no patience for cerebral new recruits, and they’re on the front lines of all of Archangel’s woes.

Tanner soon learns there is only one way to deal with his bullying comrades, their ruthless foes and the unforgiving void of space, and that’s to get up close and personal.

Starship’s Mage by Glynn Stewart

Glynn Stewart is a master of writing science fiction and space opera. However, of all of his series, my favorite has to be Starship’s Mage. In the future, magic has been unlocked via alien genetic engineering and is the sole way to to travel faster than light. Our protagonist just wants to get a job hauling freight but events make him an outlaw. However, it’s actually the beginning of a massive destiny that is an easily-readable epic.

What it is about?

In a galaxy tied together by the magic of the elite Jump Magi, Damien Montgomery is a newly graduated member of their number.

With no family or connections to find a ship, he is forced to service on an interstellar freighter known to be hunted by pirates.

When he takes drastic action to save the “Blue Jay” from their pursuers, he sets in motion a sequence of events beyond his control – and attracts enemies on both sides of the law!

Starship’s Mage was originally released as five separate episodes.

Star Quest: The Journey Begins by Patricia Lee Macomber

Patricia Macomber’s Star Quest novels are on the much lighter side of reading. Humanity has already won a war against an alien invasion and now they’ve decided to use their reverse-engineered alien technology to explore the galaxy. It’s a shameless Star Trek homage and I loved every minute of it, especially as humanity doesn’t have any idea what sort of rules there should be for space travel.

What is it About?

Cara Bishop already saved the world. Now, with the war over and the aliens defeated, she’s teaching other pilots to fly the alien ships that turned the tide. Until the government approaches her about joining a super secret mission, that is.

Steve Hunter is the product of alien DNA. He was created in a lab, designed to destroy the aliens in a ground war that was never fought. Now, they’re finally putting him to use as the leader of this new mission.

Together with the scientist who created Steve and the genius who invented the ship, Cara and her captain set off on a final adventure. The U.S.S. Endeavor goes in search of allies among the stars. What they find is more than they ever bargained for. If their mission is to be a success, they will have to solve a mystery and escape destruction at the hands of an all new foe. All in a day’s work for the Endeavor crew.

Expeditionary Force: Columbus Day by Craig Alanson

Expeditionary Force is a interesting story of self-publishing success as it went from a mild success to something that is approaching a phenomenon thanks to the narration of R.C. Bray. While I strongly recommend the audiobook version of this series over the written, I still enjoyed it both ways. It’s the story of humanity getting into space as part of an alien visitor’s forces, only to find out our patrons are scumbags and we’re hopelessly outmatched by everyone. However, a chance encounter gives one schlub a super-advanced AI that changes everything.

What is it About?

We were fighting on the wrong side, of a war we couldn’t win. And that was the good news.

The Ruhar hit us on Columbus Day. There we were, innocently drifting along the cosmos on our little blue marble, like the native Americans in 1492. Over the horizon come ships of a technologically advanced, aggressive culture, and BAM! There go the good old days, when humans only got killed by each other. So, Columbus Day. It fits.

When the morning sky twinkled again, this time with Kristang starships jumping in to hammer the Ruhar, we thought we were saved. The UN Expeditionary Force hitched a ride on Kristang ships to fight the Ruhar, wherever our new allies thought we could be useful. So, I went from fighting with the US Army in Nigeria, to fighting in space. It was lies, all of it. We shouldn’t even be fighting the Ruhar, they aren’t our enemy, our allies are.

I’d better start at the beginning…

Hard Luck Hank: Screw the Galaxy by Steven Campbell

Contrary to the other stories in this list, Hard Luck Hank is a space opera story about someone who is not a galactic hero or a military commander. Indeed, Hank is a real piece of garbage that serves as a petty leg breaker on a space station in the vast Colmarrian Federation. He’s a great character with a Patrick Warburton-esque vibe even when he’s not having his narrator speak like him. I really enjoyed this book series and while it drags in places, the first novel is note perfect.

What is it About?

Hank is a thug. He knows he’s a thug. He has no problem with that realization. In his view the galaxy has given him a gift: a mutation that allows him to withstand great deals of physical trauma. He puts his abilities to the best use possible and that isn’t by being a scientist.

Besides, the space station Belvaille doesn’t need scientists. It is not, generally, a thinking person’s locale. It is the remotest habitation in the entire Colmarian Confederation. There is literally no reason to be there.

Unless you are a criminal.

Because of its location, Belvaille is populated with nothing but crooks. Every day is a series of power struggles between the crime bosses.

Hank is an intrinsic part of this community as a premier gang negotiator. Not because he is eloquent or brilliant or an expert combatant, but because if you shoot him in the face he keeps on talking.

Hank believes he has it pretty good until a beautiful and mysterious blue woman enters his life with a compelling job offer.

Hank and Belvaille, so long out of public scrutiny, suddenly find themselves at the epicenter of the galaxy with a lot of very unwelcome attention.

Into the Dark (Alexis Carew #1) by JA Sutherland

Steampunk is something that is normally not associated with space opera. However, Into the Dark is a delightful Honor Harrington-esque story of a young woman joining a starship crew to escape a sexist society on her home colony. The Navy proves to be even worse in some respects but few people are as capable or determined as Alexis Carew in her desire to prove themselves. Sails, rum, and the lash are part of Her Majesty’s Navy but so are darkspace shoals as well as space pirates. Fun for the whole family!

What is it About?

At 15, Alexis Carew has to face an age-old problem – she’s a girl, and only a boy can inherit the family’s vast holdings. Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded spaceship with no other females.

The Skald’s Black Verse (The Dreadbound Ode #1) by Jordan Loyal Short

https://www.amazon.com/Skalds-Black-Verse-Dreadbound-Book-ebook/dp/B07K826497

Warhammer 40K is its own unique brand of storytelling, combining dark fantasy with post-apocalypse space opera. The Skald’s Black Verse is set on a distant planet that has degenerated to Viking-like barbarism and occupied by a brutal intergalatic empire that is, itself, barely hovering above Medieval ethics. It’s dark, gritty, and full of both magic as well as twisted gods. Michael Moorcock and Black Library would be proud.

What is it About?

Brohr has been lied to, abused.

All he wants is to live in peace, away from the ignorance of his village, to outrun the raging ghost which haunts him.

But a hidden evil seeks to harness Brohr’s fury.

Accused of murder, hunted by ruthless soldiers, Brohr delves the way of the Skald, unlocking forbidden blood magic as he unearths terrible family secrets.

When the red moon is broken, and all is lost, it’s up to Brohr to lead a rebellion, or face the end of the world.

Starship for Sale by M.R. Forbes



I was a big fan of The Last Starfighter movie that is one of my guilty-pleasures. Basically, a young man’s skill at video games results in him getting recruited into a cosmic space force. Except, this time it’s a con man and he’s actually trying to bilk his friend out of an inheritance. The starship is real, though, and so are all the troubles when our teenage heroes get themselves sent into space. I really enjoyed this book and it is my favorite of M.R. Forbes’ works.

What is it About?

When Ben Murdock receives a text message offering a fully operational starship for sale, he’s certain it has to be a joke.

Already trapped in the worst day of his life and desperate for a way out, he decides to play along. Except there is no joke. The starship is real. And Ben’s life is going to change in ways he never dreamed possible.

All he has to do is sign the contract.

Joined by his streetwise best friend and a bizarre tenant with an unseverable lease, he’ll soon discover that the universe is more volatile, treacherous, and awesome than he ever imagined.

And the only thing harder than owning a starship is staying alive.

If you like found starships, unlikely heroes and intergalactic mayhem, you’ll love Starship For Sale, the latest sci-fi adventure from bestselling author M.R. Forbes.

Backyard Starship by JN Chaney, Terry Maggert

A somewhat similar book to Starship for Sale, Val Tudor inherits his grandfather’s starship as well as all of his debts. I really enjoy this kind of “fish out of water” stories and seeing an adult man get the chance to explore the universe after a life on Plain Ol’ Earth is an interesting twist on the subject. The book has a great sense of humor and also a really good grasp of tension. It doesn’t take itself too seriously but just seriously enough to be great fun.

What is it About?

When Van Tudor returns to his childhood home, he inherits more than the family farm.

His grandfather used to tell him fantastic stories of spacemen and monsters, princesses and galactic knights. Little did Van realize, the old man’s tales were more than fiction; they were real.

Hidden beneath the old barn, Van’s legacy is waiting: a starship, not of this world. With his combat AI, an android bird named Perry, Van takes his first steps into the wider galaxy. He soon finds that space is far busier and more dangerous than he could have ever conceived.

Destiny is calling. His grandfather’s legacy awaits.

Embark on the adventure of a lifetime with USA Today best-selling author J.N. Chaney and Terry Maggert in this galactic quest for glory.

Assassination Protocol (Cerberus #1) by Andy Peloquin

Assassination Protocol is about a crippled former Space Marine named Nolan Garrett. Nolan’s brother is in maximum security prison and the only way to keep him safe (and possibly free him) is to serve as an assassin for a galactic star empire. Armed with an AI and special suit of armor, Nolan is beneath suspicion but his bosses are as untrustworthy as a rattlesnake and his big heart is bound to get him in more trouble than even he can handle. I binged the entire twelve book series when I read the first book.

What is it About?

Nolan Garrett is Cerberus. A government assassin, tasked with fixing the galaxy’s darkest, ugliest problems.

Three thrilling novels featuring fearless heroes, non-stop futuristic action, and neck-breaking plot twists.

Armed with cutting-edge weapons and an AI-run cybernetic suit that controls his paralyzed legs, he is the fist in the shadows, the dagger to the heart of the Nyzarian Empire’s enemies.

Then, he found Bex on his doorstep….

A junkie, high on the drug he’d fought for years to avoid, and a former elite soldier like him. So he takes her in to help her get clean – Silverguards never leave their own behind.

If only he’d known his actions would put him in the crosshairs of the most powerful cartel in New Avalon.

Facing an army of gangbangers, drug pushers, and thugs, Nolan must fight to not only carry out his mission, but to prevent the escalating violence from destroying everything he loves.

This Special Edition Omnibus contains the first three books in the thrilling Cerberus military space opera series. It’s perfect for fans of JN Chaney, Jay Allan, and Rick Partlow. Grab your copy today!

Bonus Recommendation

Because it’s my list, here’s an 11th recommendation because why not?

Against All Odds (Grimm’s War #1) by Jeffrey Haskell

Jacob Grimm thought he was going to be a hero when he managed to wipe out an entire flotilla of enemy starships engaged in a sneak attack. However, it turned out some of those ships contained cargoes of children. Exiled to the rear-end of space, he unwittingly becomes a pawn in an attempt to rebuild the gutted Navy. But is he going to do too good of a job in his new assignment? What if he has a chance to make right his awful mistake? Can he?

 

 

What is it About?

Wrong crew. Wrong ship. Right captain.

Idealistic navy Lieutenant Jacob Grimm just wanted to honor his mother’s sacrifice in the last great war. When he’s forced to return fire and destroy a squadron of ships to save his own, he thinks he’s the hero….

Until they discover the ships are full of children.

Disgraced and denied promotion, Jacob’s career is over. That is until the head of ONI needs a disposable officer to command a battered destroyer on the rim.

There’s just one problem: Interceptor hasn’t had a CO in months, and the ship is a mess. Worse, the system he’s assigned to is corrupt and on the verge of all-out civil war with the Alliance.

However, no one told Jacob he was disposable.

Pirates, smugglers, and Caliphate spies complicate the situation, and one captain with an old ship can’t enforce the law, let alone stop anyone.

The single greatest discovery of all time is about to change intergalactic politics forever. If Jacob doesn’t find a way to succeed, then it won’t just be the end of the Alliance, it will be the end of freedom for humanity.

The post Indie Military Science Fiction and Space Opera books – Part 1 appeared first on BEFOREWEGOBLOG.

Review – The Last Prince by E.G. Radcliff

This slow-burn, character-driven novel, touched my soul.

A Kindle Book Award Semi-Finalist in 2021, The Last Prince by E.G. Radcliff, is Book Two in the author’s The Coming of Áed Series, but is a prequel, rather than a sequel, to the outstanding The Hidden King, which was the first book in the series.

At first, I candidly admit that I found it a curious choice to write the follow-up book in a series about the events that took place before the first book. Moreover, I was concerned that, knowing the fate of Ninian and Áed’s relationship, I would not be as invested in reading about prior happenings.

Wow, was I mistaken! This poignant, heart-wrenching, beautiful book greatly moved me, and now I can’t envision reading this series any other way, then having the second book as a prequel.

The Last Prince truly is Ninian’s story. We see him alone, a young boy, an orphan, and a vagrant, barely scraping by on the streets of the Maze, which is the seedy, depressing, labyrinthine slum-like residential area that readers were first introduced to in The Hidden King. Ninian is starving, stealing to survive.

Máel Máedóc is a store owner, whom Ninian steals from. Caught by Máel Máedóc, Ninian is in the gruff but secretly tender-hearted store owner’s debt. Feeling compelled to earn back the money equaling the value of the stolen food, Ninian meets a woman, Laoise, who displays unusual kindness towards him, in a place where the denizens are frequently without mercy or compassion.

But kindness on the streets of the Maze typically comes with a price. In this case, Laoise, after seeing Ninian defend himself well in a brawl, “sells” Ninian’s fighting services to a dangerous street gang.

Trapped in the vicious gang, with no seeming way out other than death, Ninian, who learned his fighting craft from his deceased mother, earns credibility and worthiness to the gang as a fearsome fighter and enforcer. Though, after a horrific incident, the noble Ninian vows not to kill any of the gang’s enemies, only injure them.

In time, working to pay of his debt to Máel Máedóc, Ninian meets Áed, a wounded and seemingly mute boy, whom Máel Máedóc rescues and fosters. What initially begins as Áed fearing Ninian, and Ninian desperate to protect and help Áed recover, turns into a deep friendship, and years later, an abiding love.

But the constant danger of Ninian’s life with the gang, and a secret that Ninian uncovers about Áed’s heritage, threaten to rip the two damaged lovers apart forever.

This slow-burn, character-driven novel, touched my soul. It would take a very cold heart not to be warmed by the beauty of Ninian and Áed’s love for one another. With this installment, we learn much more about the backstory of Ninian in particular. The loss, tragedy, abuse, and despair that both Ninian and Áed come from, only to find comfort and security in each other, greatly accentuates the pathos for those who have read “The Hidden King”. Because we the reader knows what awaits them.

While the courage and humanity of Ninian and Áed shine through their pain, trauma, and capacity to still trust, and love, the complex secondary characters are mostly decidedly unlikable. Still, they evoke empathy, and are very realistically drawn by the author. For the most part, they are products of the soul-crushing existence that the downtrodden must eke out in the Maze. Either take advantage of, and hurt others, or hurt or be taken advantage of, is the Maze’s code.

Though the tougher themes in the novel, including abject poverty and misery, brutality, torture, and sexual abuse, are extremely sensitively and properly handled, it does not mean it won’t be hard to read.

I was heartbroken by what Ninian and Áed endured, and what Ninian felt forced to do to others, in the book. Still, seeing the two lovers find each other was wonderful, even if we know it will be only temporary happiness. My recommendation, don’t read this book without a tissue box handy.

As with the previous book, Radcliff’s prose is delightful. Her stellar writing style is very eloquent, but simultaneously simple. At around 325 pages, this book can be read quickly, but one will want to take sufficient time to absorb Radcliff’s lovely writing.

“Ninian stepped into the sanctuary more fully, brushing his palms over the tips of tall grasses. The air smelled earthy and living, and though the plants looked a little scrawny, there were a lot of them. A woody vine crawled over a windowsill, playing hose to a line of ants; yellow flowers on spindly stalks swayed in the breeze. Low to the ground, bluebells carpeted every patch of earth not covered by cobblestones or grass.”

Radcliff really earns her stars in this five-star read, a tale of struggle, survival, and love that is emotional, haunting, and ultimately unforgettable. I have The Wild Court, Book Three, and the finale in the series, already on my shelves. Rest assured I will definitely be completing my reading of this wonderful series.

Check Out The Last Prince

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Interview with David Towsey, Author of Equinox

David Towsey is the author of the upcoming Equinox novel, The Walkin’ trilogy, and one-half of the creative partnership of D.K. Fields. Equinox, David’s newest release takes place in a world where every human body contains two distinct identities – a day brother and a night brother. One never sees the light, the other nothing of night.

David sat down with GDM to discuss his writing, computer games, the nature of binaries, and his love of ice cream. Thank you for sitting down with us and having a chat.

[BWG:] In case people are not familiar with your work, could you tell us about yourself?

Sure thing. I write novels, short stories, and indie computer games – mostly in the SFF genre. I guess I blend a lot of genre elements in what I do; my first novels apparently cornered the market on literary zombie-westerns. My next release, Equinox, is a mix of dark fantasy, folk horror, and witch-hunts with a strong SF-style “what if?” at its core. Game-wise I’m one half of Pill Bug Interactive, and we’ve released three gam so far across Steam and Nintendo Switch. I’ve also co-written a fantasy-crime trilogy under the pseudonym D.K. Fields. I think it’s fair to say I like to mix things up.

[BWG:] I read that you are an ice cream man, is that still the case?

Ice cream is not just a dessert, it’s a mindset. Especially once you accept pistachio flavoured ice cream into your life.

[BWG:] I read that you enjoy computer games and MMOs and that you play Magic: the Gathering at a competitive level. As a game geek myself, I would love to hear more about that.

Oh wow, you have done your research! I actually stopped playing MMOs a few years back, around the release of WoW’s Mists of Pandaria. I still have a lot of love and respect for that form of gaming, but I just couldn’t give it the time and dedication I wanted to. I’ve also hung up my Magic slinging boots (not sure that metaphor works, but I’ll run with it). When my partner and I moved to Cardiff in 2016 we got involved in the local board gaming scene. We met loads of lovely people, played so many great games, that I didn’t find myself driven to keep up with Magic.

But when the pandemic hit, like many folks my work went solely online so I was in front of the screen even more than usual. I picked up an old, old hobby of mine in miniature painting. Mostly Games Workshop, but some 3D printed stuff to. It was a lot of fun getting back into that and seeing how far the hobby had come since I was a kid (YouTube painting videos are amazing!) That inevitably led to playing miniature games, and I’ve just started to get into tournaments for Age of Sigmar… once a tournament gamer, always a tournament gamer, I guess.

[BWG:] I read an interview you did where you were asked about your introduction to genre fiction being The Hobbit. I think many of us had similar experiences. Are there any other books out there that had profound influences on you as a reader?

So many, it’s hard to narrow it down. Perhaps one of the biggest influences for me as a reader and a writer would be Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. I love so much of his work, but this book in particular opened my eyes to a certain kind of horror writing. For many readers in the 1950s and 60s, he brought horror to the suburbs and showed it could exist outside places like Dracula’s castle. Even decades later, as a young reader I experienced that powerful effect which brought horror home, and it stayed with me. I don’t necessarily write horror in the purest sense (though, I suppose that’s open to debate). But I think my interest in the genre is firmly rooted in the family and domestic spaces.

[BWG:] As one half of the Pillbug Interactive duo, you’ve written for games such as Make It Home, Cycle28, and Intelligent Design. What would you say the difference is between writing a great book and writing a great game? Do you have any techniques that only work for one or the other? Is there anything that surprised you by working well in both media?

I think it’s really important to respect each form of writing on its own terms, even though there are often crossovers. It’s dangerous to assume because you can write in one medium, it’s going to be easy to write in another. So, I went into games knowing I had a lot to learn, and as open-minded as possible. One of the most obvious differences between books and games is that for most games “writing” is only part of how a story is told. There are so many other factors: visual story-cues, game play mechanics, user interfaces, sound effects and music – the list goes on. This can be quite a shock for a fiction writer who is used to having almost complete control over their story. It can feel like a steep learning curve. But the good news is: some skills do translate. I’m quite a dialogue-heavy writer, and this helped a lot with writing for games; more often than not you’ll be writing dialogue, rather than full scenes or description. If you can craft an economic conversation that covers some key story beats, without it feeling too wooden or forced, that’s a great start for game-writing.

[BWG:] Could you tell us a bit about the Bath Spa Creative Writing Masters program? 

In short: I had a blast on my MA. I was one of the youngest of the cohort, coming almost directly from my BA in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth, and it was brilliant to be around such a diverse group of driven writers. There was a huge variety of projects people were working on – in prose, poetry, and other mediums. It was a really good energy to be immersed in for someone trying to write their first novel. I started Your Brother’s Blood on that course, and have a lot of people to thank for how it turned out (don’t worry, they all appear in the acknowledgements).

[BWG:] How has the program helped you as a writer?

I’m sure their website would tell you the particulars, but my experience of the program was of learning a lot about writing in a very intense year. I’d already started to grasp how scenes were constructed, how and when to be economic with language, and how important voice was to a story; but it wasn’t until my MA that I felt confident in applying these ideas to my own novel-length project.

[BWG:] You have a Ph.D. in creative writing, what was your dissertation on?

The critical element of my thesis explored representations of absent parents in SF novels. In one chapter I did a close reading of Matheson’s I Am Legend through the lens of Attachment Theory – as I mentioned earlier, it’s a novel that had a big impact on me as a reader. The creative element of my Ph.D. was a novel called The Orbital Son. The theme of absent parents in the critical thesis carried over to the novel, which follows a young man as he tries to reconnect with his dying father. It’s not the most subtle thing I’ve ever written, but I learned a lot writing it.

[GdM:] What was your experience with language and writing where you discovered just how powerful it can be?

As a reader, I’d say it was reading The Hobbit as a kid, which you mentioned earlier. I was on a holiday, stuck in a car with my grandparents for hours on end. I was amazed that words on the page could take me away from that hot, stuffy car and put me in a totally different world. As a writer, I didn’t have much confidence in my own ability to do that until readers started commenting on the particulars of Walkin’ characters, as if they were real people. I’d managed to use language to get readers to think about living on after death, about poking your own spleen through a hole in your chest, and how a father might convey this all to his daughter. That felt pretty powerful.

[BWG:] When you are writing a story do you start with an idea, such as “what it would be like to live forever” for example in Your Brother’s Blood?  Or do you start with a character such as Christopher Morden from Equinox and go from there?

I’m definitely an ideas-led writer. I start with a concept that might make for an intriguing set-up, and then start exploring what stories feel like a good fit for it. With the Walkin’ Trilogy that was, as you say, about how the burden of living forever might affect a family. In a sense, it’s a kind of family saga told over three books rather than one big one. For Equinox, the two-people in each body concept changes so much, I could have told a thousand different stories. But it led me down some pretty dark paths from the get-go. The idea of one half of a witchfinder falling in love with a suspect, while the other half tries to convict them really appealed as a way to link concept and story.

[BWG:] The Walkin’ Trilogy is a zombie-western and has a very different feel, it is much sparser in prose, then Equinox. Was that a conscious choice or was that how the writing evolved organically?

It wasn’t a conscious choice to make that change. The voice of both books was led by their respective worlds. We talk a lot as SFF writers about worldbuilding, but it’s a conversation often dominated by things like social or power structures, magic systems, that kind of thing. Not so much about voice or tone. When I write, I want my prose to feel part of that world. Sparse, staccato prose for the Walkin’ Trilogy’s western landscape sounded right to me. Equinox is looser, and maybe denser, to reflect the thick forests surrounding Drekenford – and the slightly claustrophobic nature of that village.

[BWG:] How do you feel about SFF as a genre in 2022? Where do you see the genre branching off to in the future?

I think SFF is in a positive place right now. It’s such a broad genre, or group of genres, that there’s work being published for a wide range of readerships and tastes. The diversity of voices is improving, but it’s fair to say there’s still a way to go on that front. I hope that more writers and readers coming to SFF will branch the genre in ways that I can’t even imagine – which is the whole point, isn’t it? It’s a playground for sharing our individual, esoteric imaginings of the future.

[BWG:] You write as one half of the creative partnership D. K. Fields with poet Katherine Stansfield. How does your partnership work? Do you jointly talk about every aspect of the story, or do you take chunks of things then combine them?

It was messy. At least, it started that way. Neither Katherine nor I had co-written anything before. When we started Widow’s Welcome – the first book in the Tales of Fenest Trilogy – we took an admirable, yet naïve, set of decisions to make the process as democratic as possible. We each wrote a chapter of the same story, passing the manuscript back and forth. When we had a full draft, we even line edited together in a Google.doc, facing each other at the same table on two laptops. Many arguments ensued about commas and the like. By the time the trilogy was finished, we’d worked out a smoother but still equal process… and we haven’t written together since.

[BWG:] Could you tell us about your upcoming release, Equinox?

It’s a dark fantasy story about a witchfinder, Special Inspector Christophor Morden, who is sent to a remote village to hunt a witch. A man has clawed out his own eyes, driven to do so by teeth growing in his eye sockets, and sorcery is the suspected cause. But in this world every physical body has two people inside it: one day-sibling, one night-sibling. So, Christophor’s day-brother, Alexsander, has no choice but to accompany him on this witch-hunt. As the investigation leads one brother closer to his witch, the other finds himself falling in love with a prime suspect.

[BWG:] How did you come up with the idea of a day sibling and night sibling?

In a strange way, I have Katherine to thank for the initial spark for this idea. She was taking a nap one day in a chair near a window and her face was almost perfectly half in shadow, half in the light. Seeing this happened to coincide with some things I was working through personally about why we’re strong in some ways and vulnerable in others. The image of her face “split” by light and shadow crystalised this duality in that moment, and I found myself imagining how I might push it to an extreme. Two different people in one body, each strong in some ways but vulnerable in others, seemed like an interesting concept to explore.

[BWG:] Is it fair to say that the concept of binaries is an important part of Equinox? I appreciated that in the story people are more complicated than “good/bad” or “black/white” but that they are shades of gray.

I think the core binary of night-day sibling is essential to Equinox. But I wanted to explore the very idea of binaries in the book. I liked the irony of a novel that presented as black-and-white (and Head of Zeus did a wonderful job on the cover in this regard) but was actually a story about the complications and nuances that are part of any binary, if you just scratch the surface. It’s not a new idea, and many better writers than I have examined this in far more significant contexts. The most I can hope for is that Equinox gets one or two readers thinking about the nature of binaries.

[BWG:] I hear that you write to music. How do you pick the music for the novel, does the playlist go along as things change? What was the playlist for Equinox?

I do indeed write to music. I construct a playlist for each project, with songs taken from a fairly wide variety of artists. The emphasis is, again, on tone. What kind of mood do I want to put myself in while writing? Sounds obvious, but like a lot of people music has a huge impact on how I feel in any given moment. The playlist for Equinox was pretty bleak. Songs from artists like Mazzy Star, Alice in Chains, and Elliot Smith featured heavily. But even more “upbeat” artists have songs that felt right for some of the darker elements of Equinox – bands like The Mars Volta, Fleetwood Mac (of course, Rhiannon had to feature), and Coheed and Cambria. It’s all stuff I’d listen to anyway, but brought together to set the tone in the background as I write.

[BWG:] You released Your Brother’s Blood in 2013, the first novel of The Walkin’ Trilogy. What lessons have you learned since then regarding your writing workflow? Was Equinox easier to write than Your Brother’s Blood?

I wish! Equinox was perhaps the most challenging book I’ve ever written – and that includes learning to co-write. The technical issues caused by having two personalities for every character when trying to plot a kind of crime investigation… do you know that Charlie Day conspiracy board meme? It became a kind of totem animal when drafting Equinox. I very nearly lost it on that book. That said, perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learned since 2013 is that I revel in the challenge. If writing feels easy, I don’t trust it. I have keep pushing myself, like a shark has to keep swimming, otherwise, I’m sunk.

[BWG:] What things do you have coming up?

Well, the release of Equinox is keeping me pretty busy at the moment. But the next novel project is in the research and planning stages, so that’s starting to feel exciting. I can’t say too much yet, only that it will be another blend of fantasy and horror that puts some fairly unusual elements together. Pill Bug Interactive is similarly in the early stages of our next game. And who knows, maybe D.K. Fields will “get the band back together” for another series. It’s an energising time, full of creative possibilities.

Interview originally appeared on Grimdark Magazine

Check Out Equinox by David Towsey

 

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A Revisit to My Old Self – A Review of The Beach by Alex Garland

Where the Hungry Came to Feed

Have you ever looked back at something you read 15 or 20 years ago and had that “A-Ha” moment? The mind-altering epiphanic moment when you realize that a plot point salient to the whole freaking novel zoomed right the hell over your head. I had one of those recently when it came to Alex Garland’s novel, The Beach.

My gorgeous and bright novel, The Beach, was not about the things I thought it was as an impressionable 20-year-old. Quite the opposite, really. I thought it was about the glories of travel and hedonism. Instead, I now know that it was about how utopia is overrated, and the beautiful and shiny might be rotting inside. That Richard was a beautiful, unique butterfly, just like all the rest of the unique and beautiful butterflies doing the same thing. Richard was a child, instead of the wild king I had remembered him being.

I did not learn any of this till I reread the book 20 years later. What a difference twenty years makes.

On the one hand, I felt foolish, looking back on my younger self through the lens of 20 years of growth and wisdom. To my credit, while I did have an astonishing naivete to many things in life, I recognized the most important thing about the book, and it is this. Under the glossy covers, the terrible movie and the fantastic music was an important idea. I, at a young age, just grabbed on to the wrong one.

I read this book when I was right out of high school and entirely in love with the idea of a wild wonderland—a paradise filled with gorgeous people and no responsibility. I wanted to see, do, and experience that life. I wanted to suck the marrow out and let it dribble down my chin. I still do now, older and grayer. However, those ideas are now tempered with age, trust, and hopefully, steadfastness. Wild abandonment and hedonism sound great on paper until you think about all the people you abandon. I am no longer willing to do that.

I looked up to Richard and his friends at the time; I yearned to have the same cultural experiences he had in the book. Am I strong enough to fly to Thailand alone? The bright and the dirty, the wild, and the serene. I wanted to lay on the beach, have crazy sex, drink water coming from a waterfall, and live in this idyllic commune. I wanted it all so much.

And yet, instead of traversing the world, I went to college. Lived at home, dated the same man for years, and lived a quiet life. I resented that life, but at the same time, I felt like I was achieving something. And that wild hedonistic dream slowly started to slip away to be replaced with different dreams.

The problem was that when I reread the novel instead of the inspiration, I was left unsettled and feeling dirty. It felt like someone had taken my brain and used it to scour pans for an afternoon. The book was like a beautiful Honey Crisp apple sitting on a shelf, but it is full of maggots when you cut into it. The novel’s plot is “After discovering a seemingly Edenic paradise on an island in a Thai national park, Richard soon finds that since civilized behavior tends to dissolve without external restraints, the utopia is hard to maintain. ” Richard, the main protagonist of the story, lives a very plus lifestyle at home, enough that he can set out to travel the world, mostly alone.

Richard ends up in Thailand, where he meets a young french couple. Richard experienced something he didn’t have much experience with, jealousy. He wanted her. They hear a rumor and see a map to a hidden paradise. Honest to God untouched paradise unsullied by tourism. They take a boat out, follow the island’s plan, pass some through fields of marijuana, and come to a waterfall.

They jump, and because they jumped, they are introduced to a community of people just like them.

That community is idyllic on the outside, but a scene that I thought was just sad then is horrifying to me now. A group of Swedes who are part of the community surf in the lagoon while the tide is low. They know that sharks come into the cove at this time to fish, but it is so beautiful the surfing couldn’t be missed. The sharks promptly murder and eat a few group members while leaving one with just his leg hacked off.

The commune has a choice, take the man back to safety via boat and not be allowed to come back to the idyllic island and then the man will probably live. Or leave the man on the beach on a comfy blanket and hope for the best. And, in best, they mean to let him bleed to death. In their minds, they are sacrificing the individual for the good of all. I see this often in novels and later in life, which is terrifying. Covid has shown the true colors of many people.

“Trust me, it’s paradise. This is where the hungry come to feed. For mine is the generation that travels the globe and searches for something we haven’t tried before. So never refuse an invitation, never resist the unfamiliar, never fail to be polite & never outstay the welcome. Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience— And if it hurts, you know what? It’s probably worth it.”

― Alex Garland, The Beach

It had not lived up to my fantasies. I felt cheated and weak. What was weak was my perspective and understanding of life beyond my hometown at the time. “The Beach” has nothing to do with paradise, but the outlook on what constitutes a paradise, the darkness in people, and the lengths to which one would go to protect it. It is a smart book and subtle in its narration. Its overall gravitas was not something I could appreciate at the time, but it is something that I can look back on now and understand.

One of Garland’s subtler things and I noticed on rereading it, is that Garland keeps the travelers’ everyday life very mundane. He describes the day-to-day tasks that they need to accomplish; Fishing, farming, and partying. At the time, all I read was background noise. However, I see this as how each of the character’s reactions to the mundane subtly hints at the darker parts of the characters’ psyches. It reminds me of a much less ham-fisted and more eloquent lord of the Flies, but for a more modern audience. In the end, the characters are scarred both mentally and physically.

“The first I heard of the beach was in Bangkok, on the Ko Sanh Road.” ― Alex Garland, The Beach

If you are looking for a book that tears you up inside a bit, look no further. It is worth the second read, especially if you have some life experiences behind you.

 

Read The Beach by Alex Garland

 

 

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Review – Kill The Dead by Richard Kadrey

“Let me make sure I have this straight. The cavalry just now rode into town and it’s a Czech Gypsy porn-star zombie killer. Have I got that right?”
― Richard Kadrey, Kill the Dead

 

About

From the publisher, “What do you do after you’ve crawled out of Hell to wreak bloody revenge? If you’re Stark you turn to bounty hunting, tracking and decimating whatever rogue monsters you’re paid to kill. Stark hates the work, but he needs the money, especially the big bucks Lucifer is offering. In town as an adviser on a biopic of his life, Lucifer needs protection, and he wants Stark as his bodyguard. But the gig isn’t all bad; there is the very sexy, very hot French porn star Brigitte Bardo, a friend of Lucifer’s in LA to remake her reputation as a legit actress. While it isn’t love, it’s pretty damn good, and after 11 years of demonic chastity, it’s enough for now.

Stark has enough trouble juggling a diva devil and a scorching French bombshell without a zombie plague to complicate matters. And just what happens when a human-angel half-breed is bitten by the living dead? His human side begins to die, transforming him into an unstoppable angel of death—a killing machine devoid of emotion or thought, with no regrets or future to worry about. Not a bad way to be when your choices are limited. Now, Stark has to decide . . . if he does find a cure for the zombie infection, will he take it?”

My Thoughts

“Hell is hilarious if you’re the one in charge.” ~ Lucifer

I absolutely love this series thus far.  I read the first “Sandman Slim” book, aptly named just “Sandman Slim” and dudddde, holy anti-hero batman. Yaas. Bring on the “I don’t give a shit attitude.” I love that the language in Sandman Slim is punchy. Not overly wordy and detailed.  I want some concisely written words.

I received everything I asked for and more from reading #2 in the series. Sandman Slim should be on more lists and garner more praise. It should be up there with the likes of Dresden, and October Daye; it is just that damn good. It is refreshing when there seems to be so much unoriginal urban fantasy. Always the same sort of schtick. Not this book…

“Twenty percent? What am I, your waiter? I got you five vampires, not a BLT.”
― Richard Kadrey, Kill the Dead

This story picks up a while after the first Sandman Slim story left off. We have our resident anti-hero having a hell of a time mentally, and in some ways physically while he tries to pay the bills by doing the odd killing or menacing here and there. I don’t want to give too much away, but if you enjoyed the first book in this series, “Sandman Slim” you will probably enjoy this one. They are a little different in style and texture. But, the dark humor and great story come through. There is a bit of a love interest, and a new interesting character getting fleshed out in Lucifer. I am going to keep this short, as this book is a pause in a longer story. But read the series. It is so worth it.

First Chapter, First Paragraph – The Everything Box by Richard Kadrey

Check Out Kill The Dead

 

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Review – This Thing of Darkness by Allan Batchelder

This is the rare book I state is just extremely good from start to finish

THIS THING OF DARKNESS by Allan Batchelder is a high concept novel if I’ve ever heard one: What if William Shakespeare faked his death and tried to make a new life in Jamestown? It’s an interesting promise that I am arguably spoiling a bit of a reveal but is the chief reason to pick up this fascinating novel. Its title and events certainly give this the appearance of a horror novel but it also works very well as a character study. I am happy to recommend it without further bringing any elements of its plot in on the basis of its research and authenticity of human feeling. Which is not something I normally say about a monster stalking a bunch of English settlers.

The premise, as quirky as it may be, is something that is grounded by “William Kemp” whose true identity is something that the story eases into but leaves plenty of clues to from the beginning. William has his reasons for wanting to fake his death and flee England that we gradually discover through the judicious use of flashbacks but the point is that he is not someone who easily fits into the ranks of the new colony.
Partially due to the reasons that he fled, partially due to his high intellect, his irreligiosity (mostly expressed in a lack of interest in regular churchgoing–a horrible offense then), and his fear of being discovered, he lives at the edge of the community. He makes association with other outcasts, though, and forms his own little community that leaves him content for a time.

There is something out there in the woods, though, and William’s imagination draws parallels between Grendel and his own Caliban, especially when signs that it’s a kind of cannibalistic monster. Is it a werewolf, 16th century serial killer, troll, or something wholly new? The locals, as you can imagine, are quick to blame the local Powhatan. Even William is skeptical of his own mind at work when he notes that a perhaps more likely explanation is some of the released criminals at work in the colony combined with the victims’ bodies being feasted on by animals postmortem.

If I were to make an odd comparison, this reminds me a bit of the John Cussack Edgar Allan Poe movie, The Raven, except much better. That movie suffered from making its titular celebrity the center of the murders as well as forced into their investigation. Here William is a reluctant detective and doesn’t have any skill at it but is moved by the fact it personally threatens him as well as those people he cares about. I appreciate all the effort Allan Batchelder takes to humanizing the Bard with his regrets over his failed marriage, relationship with a prostitute named Luca, and the jokes of plagiarism made about him.

This is the rare book I state is just extremely good from start to finish and is one that benefits extremely from its prose. While not William Shakespeare himself, he manages to create a believable enough man that could theoretically come up with England’s greatest plays. A somewhat roguish man but never so much as to be unbelievable for the time period. A somewhat darker and more morose version of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE’s take on the Bard perhaps. The supporting cast is solid too and I cared enough about them to want to see whether they became monster chow.
Highly recommended.

5/5

Check Out This Thing of Darkness

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Review – The Roach by Rhett C. Bruno

an extremely engaging style that sucks you right in and I totally believed in his fictional city of Iron Heights

 

THE ROACH by Rhett C. Bruno is a deconstructionist superhero tale in the vein of Watchmen. One of the things that Alan Moore suggested in said work as, and this is a shocking idea, that people who decide to beat up criminals in a costume are probably not mentally sound. The Roach is something of a combination of Batman, the Punisher, and Rorshach with more of the latter than the former.

Reese Roberts is no longer the Roach, though, because he’s been crippled in the line of duty. A gunshot injury has left him confined to a wheelchair and with nothing but regret as well as simmering anger to keep him going. He has a single friend in the young woman he saved from her rapist and almost no one else. Reese is suicidal because of his status but he wasn’t in a healthy mental place to begin with and the fact he’s considered a serial killer isn’t something that’s easy to argue against.

This isn’t a happy story. This ostensibly takes place in the “real world” or something significantly more grounded than your average comic book world. There’s no magical therapy or cure for Reese’s condition and he’s never going to get out of the chair. He also is a thoroughly detestable person if you don’t have values that believe all criminals are pure evil and deserve to die. However, it’s never BORING to be inside Reese Roberts’ mind and that is the best thing to say about any book. The plotline is about all the Roach’s sins coming back to haunt him and dealing with the final mission that got him crippled. I felt there were perhaps a few too many coincidences but compared to your average comic book, it’s the height of plausibility. We also have a lot of memorable characters as the Roach touches multiple lives for both good and bad.

As a writer of superhero fiction, myself, it’s a rare story that I would say is a “hard R-rated noir detective thriller” but this certainly qualifies. It touches many ugly places, and the protagonist is not someone that the author hesitates to make unlikable. He is an awful person and quite possibly ill but he’s also very charismatic as well as someone that I wanted to know the next move of.

Rhett C. Bruno has an extremely engaging style that sucks you right in and I totally believed in his fictional city of Iron Heights. I will state that readers should be warned this book contains such triggering subjects as suicide, rape (offscreen), child abuse, and graphic violence. It is grimdark as all get out.

Check out The Roach

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