Review: Sons of Darkness: A Night Vigil Novel

Sons of Darkness: A Night Vigil Novel by Gail Z. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of SONS OF DARKNESS: A NIGHT VIGIL NOVEL
by Gail Z. Martin

What an exciting, adventurous, magnetic urban fantasy! So glad SONS OF DARKNESS is the first of a series, and I for one cannot wait! Brent and Travis are demon-kickin', vulnerable, guilt-ridden, grief-laden, past-baggaged, heroes; but they are so good at it! I just want to start reading all over again at Page One because I adore this novel!

Night Vigil is a loosely-knit organization of individuals who have psychic and or/magical gifts, of whatever stripe, who have not had training in those gifts and consequently have failed, made serious mistakes, perhaps cost lives, and so forth. So they band together to do whatever they can, using their gifts, to fight evil and supernatural intrusion. Travis is a former priest, also a former agent of the covert Vatican agency Sinistram, and is now director of a halfway house in Pittsburgh. He also spends his nights (and sometimes days) hunting demons.

Brent was eighteen when his parents and twin brother were brutally destroyed by demons. He went straight into the military, then the Pittsburgh police department, and is now a licensed private investigator—who also hunts demons.

Their first encounter is grisly and testosterone-laden; but after Brent's dead twin Daddy contacts Travis, who is also a medium, the two agree to partner to counteract what appears to be a cycle of inhuman evil centering about an abandoned mining town in North Central Pennsylvania.

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Review: Radioactive Evolution

Radioactive Evolution by Richard Hummel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of RADIOACTIVE EVOLUTION
By Richard Hummel

An exciting adventure awaits readers of this epic urban fantasy mixed with futuristic science fiction. If you love questing, video games, historic fantasy, post-apocalyptic narratives, or Dystopiana, you're bound to glory over this fast-paced, heartrending novel of a world after nuclear destruction, a world of mutations from radioactive poisoning, of an upper-class society that lives on floating airborne islands, disdaining the 99% (or the few who remain). Richard Hummel's writing is all-engrossing and will challenge your intellect as well as your emotions. Best of all: the introduction of a truly unexpected, mythological, life form. I loved it!

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Review: Ghosters 2: Revenge of the Library Ghost

Ghosters 2: Revenge of the Library Ghost by Diana Corbitt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of LIBRARY GHOST (GHOSTERS BOOK TWO) by Diana Cribbins

LIBRARY GHOST is every bit as exciting as GHOSTERS, the first in the series, with the pleasurable addition of a new narrator. Joey Martinez, younger brother of Theresa (one of the heroines of GHOSTERS), has high-functioning Asperger's Syndrome. Very intelligent, he doesn't do social cues well (such as facial expressions, sarcasm, and snark). But he always reaches conclusions, and in his own special and endearing, though occasionally frustrating, way.

Also introduced is Joey's new friend, Elbie Bird, a young black student who is the son of a mortician and expecting a mortician career for himself in the future. Joey isn't fond of Elbie's home (the funeral parlor started by Elbie's great-grandfather) but he is always welcomed by Elbie's parents and made to feel at home. When the boys' class experiences odd events one day in the School Library, the boys, plus Theresa and her best friend, the English emigre Kerry, begin to investigate. Before it's over, they will have exposed wrongdoing and effectively righted a wrong, with major assistance from “beyond the grave.”

This is an exciting and involving series. I've read each book in one sitting; I just couldn't stop.

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Review: Naomi Grim

Naomi Grim by V.B. Marlowe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of NAOMI GRIM by V. B. Marlowe

NAOMI GRIM is an immensely absorbing novel, and I would like to see it expand into a series. Naomi, the Protagonist, is something else—quite literally. She and her family (parents, older brother, younger brother) live in a seriously Dystopian, very hierarchically-rigid Society, controlled by a Tyrant. As Grims, they are tasked to collect “lifestones,” the emission caused whenever a Human dies. These are not Souls, but Life Force. Grims collect these to add years to their lives, according to how many years the Human would have hd remaining. At the top of the Grim food chain is the tyrant Dunningham, a man who evicted his own older twin brother for mating with a Human. Yet Dunningham's rules are the kind: “Do as I say, not as I do.” Naomi's father wants very much to move up in Society from their Farrington community to the high-class Upper Estates, and sees the opportunity when Dunningham assigns Naomi and her two brothers, Bram and Dorian, to collect Lifestones from a soon-to-occur high school mass massacre. Naomi's problem, in Grim perspective, is that she gets too emotionally involved, and sympathises with Humans. Eventually, she makes her decision, and the consequences are uproarious.

I literally could not stop reading this book, from the first pages, I was so engrossed. Naomi is a wonderful Protagonist, and the world-building (actually four different Societies in the Grim dimension, Nowhere) is masterfully created and very believable.

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Review: Ghosters

Ghosters by Diana Corbitt
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of GHOSTERS by Diana Corbitt

A delightful, warmhearted, yet very intriguing middle-grade Paranormal Mystery with a whopper denouement and conclusion. Theresa Martinez, younger brother Joey (who has Asperger's), and their grieving dad Mike move to their late mother's parents' home, a huge three-story former mansion, six months after the sudden death of Theresa and Joey's mother, at the time of Theresa's twelfth birthday. A new school, a huge new home, a father unable to write (he is an author with a few published books), and ghosts. What's not to worry Theresa? With her brand-new friend Kerry, and brother Joey, Theresa determines to uncover the secrets of the house, win a GHOSTERS TV series video contest, and so provide funds for the family. What they uncover is nothing anybody could have expected, and the author giftedly delivers characters readily identifiable and an exceedingly clever plot.

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Review: Under Crook's Wood

Under Crook's Wood by A.B. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of UNDER CROOK'S WOOD
by A. B. Martin

Readers who enjoy Nancy Drew mysteries, Hardy Boys, or the novels of John Bellairs will enjoy this contemporary urban sci fantasy with lots of suspense, danger, and a strong friendship between two girls from parallel worlds. This is the second book featuring Sophie Watson, twelve-year-old of Hampton Spa, England; and Sienna, the sixteen-year-old youngest member of The Elite, from the parallel planet. After a hairraising ordeal on offcoast Kestrel Island, in the first book of this series, the two girls became fast friends, and now are spending the half-holiday term together, while Sophie's mom is standing election for the Green Party. Unfortunately, the missing instigator of trouble for whom Sienna has been searching has reappeared, and is involved with a scientist from Sienna's world, in a new move to take over the British government and the other world as well.

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Review: The Language of Bears

The Language of Bears by John Eidswick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THE LANGUAGE OF BEARS by John Eidswick

An unusual and bizarre work of literary fiction/fantasy, involving 17th century Puritans, nearly eternal life, talking animals, and contemporary society. Yes, sounds confusing, but perfectly clear when you read the novel. Young Adam Green and his sister Daisy, then a baby, lost their parents seven years ago in the Forbidden Forest, where their parents supposedly took their own lives. So Adam has grown up people-shy, accused himself of witchcraft, and finding a talking head inside the Forest (actually a television) only fans the fires of gossip. That's not th only thing; the region in which he lives, supposedly founded some great while back by the current townspeople's great-great-grandparents, and named Arcadia, is strange—really strange. Kind of “what a wonderful place, but I really wouldn't want to live there...”or would I?

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Review: Night Shift

Night Shift by Robin Triggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of NIGHT SHIFT by Robin Triggs

I love Antarctica. I always have loved everything about the concept of Antarctica (up until the last few years of ice melt and global warming). I am fascinated by the “winter over” syndrome which seems to occur only in Antarctica: that specialized, location-specific version of Seasonal Affective Disorder, caused by isolation, deep winter, and six months of night (hence the term, night shift). So I was delighted to find NIGHT SHIFT, an engrossing, captivating, intriguing novel of a winter over in Antarctica, set in the slightly near future, after Resource Wars have resulted in the virtually complete takeover by The Company, a multinational megalith which provides resources and employment to much of the globe, and is opposed by a quite weakened United Nations.

The novel takes place in Australis, a Company-owned mining and oil-drilling site in Antarctica, not far from the South Pole. Anders Norveldt, a man with a bizarre childhood history, raised in the Company foster system, is unexpectedly a last-moment inclusion for Australis' Night Shift, as replacement for the departed Chief of Security, who apparently had psychological and health issues. Nobody likes Norveldt, from the commander on through the crew, for no particular reason it seems, but he soon becomes the target of rampant suspicion. As one tragic event follows another, morale doesn't just wane—it collapses, and eventually the remaining crew are suffering near-starvation, cold, and lack of security and privacy, wondering if any will survive till the sunrise (after Antarctica's six months of night).

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Review: Think Yourself Lucky

Think Yourself Lucky by Ramsey Campbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THINK YOURSELF LUCKY by Ramsey Campbell

I think Ramsey Campbell is a genius. Not only a Grand Master of Horror and awarded the World Fantasy Award, the August Derleth Award, and many others, he is the only author I've read who manages to personify the Inanimate and invest it with life, emotions, thoughts--and make the reader believe. With any of his works, there is no suspension of disbelief needed; the reader believes, and believes innately, and continues to believe even after the last page is turned.

THINK YOURSELF LUCKY, his newest novel (November 2018 release), focuses on an unassuming young man in Liverpool, David Botham, the adult offspring of two very dedicated local social workers. David works in a travel agency, which really doesn't elicit either his passion nor his intellectual ability, and is in a relationship with a chef. His former girlfriend unfortunately is his usually critical work supervisor.

David, he will tell one and all, is NOT a writer. Not at all. But he is also unassuming and quite a bit a people-pleaser. Roped in unwillingly and unwittingly to a local writers' group, he firmly insists "I am not a writer." But when pressed by a published author, he tosses out a title ("Better Out Than In") and then rushes away. Later, the bookstore owner (odd man) who hosts the group tells David, "Someone's using your title." True enough, there's a new Blog with that title, and it's a scary one: all about how the narrator deals with people who annoy him (which are many in number). Soon the events (actual and in thought) reach closer and closer to David, until a watershed climax.

You won't be able to set this book down. It's a compelling, ultimately nightmarish, read about a man's control of his own mind and his own life.


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Review: The Selk King

The Selk King by Glenn L. Roberts
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THE SELK KING is the second in the MAALSTROM sci fantasy series, a complex feat of world-building postulating a bizarre yet philosophically intriguing and enterprising alternative to Evolution. This is a case in which I strongly recommend starting the series from the beginning, so as to best comprehend the settings and plot.


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Review: Vengeance: A Darkhurst Novel

Vengeance: A Darkhurst Novel by Gail Z. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this epic fantasy! Ms. Martin is a fine writer, who leavens her stories with humour and all the important human emotions. I was engrossed from the first page and suspension of disbelief came immediately. The magic is glorious, the monsters are imaginative designed, and there's plenty of swordwork as well. Plus there is camaraderie, brotherhood, and the struggle for justice against unjust foes.

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2019 Literary Escapes Challenge

Read the USA
Read the World

USA:

Fwd: [New post] 2019 LITERARY ESCAPES CHALLENGE – Sign Up Today!

Mallory A Haws

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From: Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book <donotreply@wordpress.com>
Date: November 11, 2018 at 1:00:59 PM EST
To:hauntedreader1952@icloud.com
Subject: [New post] 2019 LITERARY ESCAPES CHALLENGE – Sign Up Today!

New post on Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book 2019 LITERARY ESCAPES CHALLENGE – Sign Up Today! by Dollycas 2019 LITERARY ESCAPES CHALLENGE I did better this year on this challenge, I still have some states to add before December 31 for books on my schedule. My Map  Challenge - Try to read 1 book set in each of the 50 states + the District of Columbia. (51 Points). If you complete the challenge you earn 50 Bonus Points. You also can earn Bonus Points for books set in Counties around the world. 1 Bonus Point for each country. (No repeats - only 1 point can be earned for each country.) Your books can be fiction or non-fiction and can be in any format, print, digital, audio.  So how do you decide what state a book is categorized under? 1.  In a fiction read it would be the State or Country that the book spends the most time in.  (Ie. If your main character is from Wisconsin but the book is all about his/her time in college in California – the books should categorize under California….) 2.  Non fiction reads categorize  in whatever State or Country it is about (Ie…. a book about fly fishing in Colorado is a Colorado point, and a book about women in Afghanistan is an Afghanistan point. 3.  If the book goes from one state to another… go with the state that most of the time is spent. The way you keep track is up to you. I like making the map to visualize where I have been and where I need to go but I also keep a list on Reading ChallengesPage. Here is directions on how to create a map. - http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Google-Map. You do not have to just use Google Maps, you can use a map program you choose. or just use this list Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Review: Dark Water

Dark Water by T.W. Lawless
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Journalist Peter Clancy is on leave from his San Francisco newspaper while he composes his autobiography. But that's not going well--not going at all--and he is anxious to return to journalism. Summoned home to Queensland, Australia, by an Aboriginal friend formerly employed on the Clancy ranch, and now he has plenty to investigate, including murders.

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Review: Dragonia: Rise of the Wyverns

Dragonia: Rise of the Wyverns by Craig A. Price Jr.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What could be better than dragons? Dragons plus Wyverns! DRAGONIA: RISE OF THE WYVERNS is the first in a very fast-paced epic fantasy series. I found significant parallels in both history and contemporary culture, as a monopoly government seeks to destroy all dissidence (which includes the starving poor who can't pay taxes) and dragons and dragonriders are the means. But when times are worst, Resistance arises. Finally, they have a weapon: Wyverns.

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Review: Facing the Dragon: A Vietnam War Mystery Thriller

Facing the Dragon: A Vietnam War Mystery Thriller by Philip Derrick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I didn't know what to expect from this novel, and that's exactly what I discovered: a mystery/thriller that surely is unlike any other. Starting out as a heartwarming family saga, circumstances quickly turn scary and then horrifying. This high school freshman, on Christmas holiday with his family, demonstrates intense courage and will, casting aside routine sense and truly commences on the Hero's Journey, a path I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. He is one of the most outstanding characters in fiction.

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Review: By Royal Appointment: The Love Affair That Almost Destroyed The Monarchy

By Royal Appointment: The Love Affair That Almost Destroyed The Monarchy by A. O'Connor
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Review of BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT by A. O'Connor

As soon as I read the description of this fine fictionalization of historical events, I was immediately reminded of a similar situation within the British Monarchy, only 75 years later. I refer to the abdication of the throne by King Edward VIII in 1936, due to his love for the American divorced commoner Wallis Warfield Simpson. In BY ROYAL APPOINTMENT, author A. O'Connor capably and giftedly illustrates the encounter and subsequent consequences of Bertie, Prince of Wales, an impetuous and willful young gentleman, easily diverted, readily debauched, and an equally misbehaving actress, Nellie Cliffden, in Ireland. O'Connor vividly brings history to life, drawing real historical figures so cleverly that we feel much as if they are our neighbours and friends.

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Review: The Curse Of The Nightshade: The Kingdom Of Plants Book One

The Curse Of The Nightshade: The Kingdom Of Plants Book One by Julie-Anne Fountain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Pure delight! A likeable young heroine, a mother with an odd paranoia, a delightful premise, and the heroine's very unique "super-powered" talent, create a fascinating novel--not just for middle-grade readers. This is a lovely story combining urban fantasy with serious contemporary issues such as bullying and ostracism. CURSE OF THE NIGHTSHADE is the first in a new series, KINGDOM OF THE PLANTS.


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Review: A Serenade for Selene

A Serenade for Selene by Atlas Hill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of A SERENADE FOR SELENE by Atlas Hill
(Memories from Oblivion Book 1)

An engrossing grimdark fantasy which delves into important philosophical issues such as the future existence of humanity, and are individuals who are “different” still part of the same human race—no matter what their abilities?

In a world that was suddenly nearly completely destroyed by “natural” (perhaps supernatural) disasters, a time of peace is actually a time of uncertainty, in which all are metaphorically holding their breath waiting for the arrival of the next catastrophic event; and when it comes, it comes in the form of magic, hitherto an impossible feat.

Exquisitely written with commanding sensory imaging, A SERENADE FOR SELENE is a delight, an epic fantasy unlike what readers have been trained to expect.

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Review: The Woman in the Window

The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Review of THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW by A. J. Finn

THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW is an exquisitely designed novel, written by a male author yet extolling wonderfully a woman's viewpoint. Anna Fox is a child psychologist who suffers severe agoraphobic disorder after an accident. Living alone in a vast four-story Harlem brownstone, she is fortunate in that she can have her groceries and prescriptions delivered and that her psychiatrist comes to visit her, since she is literally unable to leave her home. She plays chess and spends time in an online forum for agoraphobics and other anxiety disorders, where she endeavours to help guide others who suffer.

She also keeps an eye on her neighborhood, and herein arises the danger. Adjacent to her house, on the West, is a small city park, and on the far side, new neighbors have just moved in, apparently a couple and their adolescent son. Nobody in this neighborhood seems to understand the concept of window coverings (the only problem I had in relating to this novel), so Anna (and her Nikon) observe their goings-on. One afternoon she tries to step outside her front door and collapses; the new neighbor helps her back indoors, and spends a few hours with her, drinking Merlot and playing chess. Anna thinks she has made a friend, but shortly thereafter she sees a shocking event in the neighbor's parlor: the woman appears, bleeding, then disappears. Anna calls 911 and tries to go to the neighbor's home through the park, but collapses again.

Anna is an aficionado of classic black-and-white films, and there is so much of the film “Gaslight” in this story. No one believes Anna, everyone thinks she is disordered, mentally and emotionally unstable, and a rampant alcoholic. All blame it on her past circumstances. Yet although all of these “facts” are true, she is in danger, far more than she realizes.

I admire the character of Anna, because no matter what, she perseveres. She doesn't stop, she tries, and tries, and tries. She doesn't give up. She isn't catatonic in a psych ward. She lives, she does so alone, and she helps others online, and tries to help her neighbors. Despite it all, her character is strong and high in integrity.

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Review: Perfect Prophet

Perfect Prophet by Diane M. Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Years ago a famous ad campaign that queried "Is it live or is it Memorex?" (Recorded on tape) That stayed on my mind throughout this novel, which in large part faces the question of "Is it Fake, or is it Real?" and the concomitant question, in essence asked of all its characters: "Do you really believe?" Also there's the Theological Conundrums:
"Does Satan exist?" "Does God exist?" "Do I worship, or trust in secular humanity?" As.you read, you will witness the unraveling of conspiracies and ponder these questions for yourself.

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Review: Tales from The Lake Vol.5: The Horror Anthology

Tales from The Lake Vol.5: The Horror Anthology by Kenneth W. Cain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Whenever a new Anthology from Crystal Lake Publishing appears, I approach it with an air of anticipation and enthusiasm: what will I find in these new pages? This volume, volume 5, is edited by Kenneth Cain, one of the as yet unsung heroes of dark horror fiction--an author in his own right who deserves much more attention and spotlighting.

I also need to remind myself not to read these tales alone at night. The selected authors are too excellent to miss, but each tale is guaranteed to bring either sleeplessness (did I REALLY just read that???) or nightmares--often both.

Get it. Devour it. Marvel in awe.


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