Alexander Pyles's Blog, page 4

Review: The Fearing Pt. 3 – Air & Dust

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I just realized the other day that we are over half way through October and I had yet to read a spOOky book! Well, I redeemed that quickly with the third installment of John F.D. Taff’s ongoing serial novel THE FEARING. I read part three: AIR & DUST and I have to say, that the dread is sinking in.

Still continuing amidst the apocalyptic calamities that are destroying the planet, Adam and Jelnik continue to make their way across the country for a meeting, while a darkness creeps after them choki...

Review: Muri

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Onto the 3rd installment of the FUTURES series and we have MURI by Ashley Shelby up. This story has to be the favorite of the series so far for me, and it is also the longest, coming in at around 40ish pages.

Shelby takes Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno and remixes it for a new century and a new crisis. The polar bear species has dwindled and the remaining bears are being relocated to Antarctica in humanity’s desperate attempt to alleviate their guilt. The last pod of Baffin Bay bears has be...

Review: Guava Summer

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Onto our second installment in the FUTURES series from Radix Media, which is GUAVA SUMMER by Vera Kurian. One of my favorite titles in the series and contains a rather complex plot of what happens when people have had enough.

Sawtelle is a somewhat quiet place, for a place under authoritarian world. We follow on private detective, who attempts to stay below the radar, despite living with a beautiful, but illegal android. Everyone is watched over by the Supreme Leader, but when Sebastian Blac...

Review: Forward Series Pt. 2

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Starting the part 2 of my review of the FORWARD Series from Amazon Publishing, I kept the order going, so I first listened to Amor Towles’ short, YOU HAVE ARRIVED AT YOUR DESTINATION, which was narrated by David Harbour, who was pretty much the perfect voice for this story.

Sam drives up to a brand new fertility lab run by Vitek, a cutting edge tech company at behest of his wife. They want to give their future child a boost in the increasingly competitive world, yet as Sam is walked through...

Review: Always Blue

 

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So, since my own story has finally been announced and releasing on October 30th, I plan to read and review each FUTURES story leading up to the 30th. This means that ALWAYS BLUE by John Dermot Woods is up first!

We follow Schulz an instructor at the City Academy, who is the foremost expert on ‘wind tuning’ and is the engineer to the famed Windwall. It is this masterful creation that protects the island city from an incredibly volatile climate that encompasses the rest of the world. Enter h...

Review: Capitalist Realism

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It is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism.

I couldn’t stay away from a book titled, CAPITALIST REALISM: IS THERE NO ALTERNATIVE? Give whoever came up with that title a medal, maybe that was even author Mark Fisher himself. Regardless, this is a brief, but piercing examination of post-modern thinking surrounding our economic and cross cultural malaise when it comes to thinking “beyond capital.”

Fisher lays out the primary premise of this book, which is also succi...

Review: Forward Series Pt. 1

Amazon recently released brand new original stories in the form of the FORWARD series. Provided to all Prime users for free as e-books along with Audible narration from various actors and actresses in the trendiest sci-fi shows/movies.

I managed to get through the first three this past week and unlike some series that are a mixed bag, I was pleasantly surprised. I’m reading them in the order Amazon gives them, but they are all standalone stories, so read whichever that sparks your fancy.

Rang...

Review: Illegal

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I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, when I picked up ILLEGAL by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, which is also illustrated by Giovanni Rigano, but I was not expecting a gut punch.

Taken from testimonies and researched by Colfer and Donkin to depict the real journeys, struggles, and brutality that immigrants and refugees from Africa endured. What they experience from their own countrymen, criminals, and the West is appalling. There were more than a few places my heart just broke at the senseles...

SYNTH #2: An Anthology of Dark SF

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I reviewed the debut SYNTH anthology back in April and I really couldn’t wait to dive back into this series curated by C.M. Muller.

Volume 2 of the SYNTH: An Anthology of Dark Science Fiction carries on the tone of the previous volume, but considering how high the bar was, it just did not reach that height as a whole. This is not to say that I did not enjoy it, nor does it mean that these stories are not worth giving a read, there are some lovely new voices here as well as one returning auth...

Review: The Reckonings

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This is another selection from the Between the Covers podcast and this time I chose Lacy M. Johnson’s essay collection, THE RECKONINGS. I’m a sucker for a great essay collection and I was utterly obliterated by Johnson’s meticulous and careful examination of society’s (and her own) motivations, not to mention her intimate vulnerability.

THE RECKONINGS began when Johnson was asked what she would like to happen to her kidnapper & rapist, the experience of which is outlined in her memoir, THE O...