Home » Archive by category "Uncategorized" (Page 160)

Book Review: Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria by J.M. Bergen

Thomas Wildus And The Wizard of Sumeria by J.M. Bergen  ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Elandrian Press, 2019

ISBN13: 978-1732457836

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

 

Fans of magic and fantasy smile! J.M. Bergen’s Book 2 of the Elandrian Chronicles, Thomas Wildus and the Wizard of Sumeria, will satisfy preteens, teens and adults who enjoy J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. Thomas is a boy who discovers that he comes from a family with inborn magical talents, that must be developed by mysterious tutors in a faraway, mystical school. He, his friends and tutors battle sinister wizards and creatures in search of powerful, iconic weapons that can destroy the world, crystals in Book 1 and a staff in Book 2.

 

Bergen uses tropes, language and situations appropriate to teenagers in Southern California. Thomas and his nerdy friends are bullied at school, are discovering girls and are into comics and food. As in Book 1, they are teleported to the school of magic in the mountains of Asia to strengthen their skills. A new friend’s “skill” isn’t strictly magical, but a world class ability to hack into computers.

 

Thomas and his friends are following clues to find a hidden, ancient staff before the billionaire wizard whom they battled in Book 1 finds it. A fearsome, shape-shifting creature attacks the School just before they teleport to the billionaire’s fortified mansion. There they discover that another foe, the Wizard of Sumeria, is seeking the staff. The race shifts to Peru where a battle of magical forces ensues for possession of the artifact hidden in a jungle pyramid.

 

Bergen’s writing style is direct, and his plot moves along at a good pace. Reading Book 1 is recommended, but not necessary to enjoy Book 2. Hopefully there will be several more books in the Elandrian Chronicles. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Robert D. Yee

Posted on June 14, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: The Fourth Whore by Ev Knight


The Fourth Whore by Ev Knight (Bookshop.org | Amazon.com)

Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-947879-16-4

Availability: paperback, Kindle

 

The Fourth Whore is the debut novel from Ev Knight.  It’s the eclectic, and often bloody, story of Kenzi, a young, woman with hard luck, caught up in a centuries-old struggle of the gods.  Written from a number of character viewpoints, The Fourth Whore is a dark tale combining the ugliness of humanity with the insanity of the deities who are involved with it.

 

Kenzi is the focal point of the book, and her life sets the overall grim tone of the story in the first few pages.  She’s saddled with trying to pay for a slum apartment and supporting her junkie mother, which she does by peddling dope.   She also peddles herself to the landlord for rent.  Despite the fact that she’s quintessential street trash, it’s easy to like her.  She does have dreams of a better life, and her upbringing hardly resembles re-runs of The Brady Bunch.  Her pseudo-guardian, Sariel, is also intriguing; he’s a study in contrasts.  Kenzi knows him as the ‘Scribble Man,’ but he’s actually Death, the collector of souls for God.  However, he’s no faithful servant: his job is a punishment, not a blessing.  Also, his occasional sympathy for the dead, and sometimes aiding Kenzi in her times of extreme need, render him all too human.   His collecting allows for some hilariously bleak humor at times, such as when he grows impatient waiting for a young man to throw himself into a river with a load of heavy chain, thereby drowning himself.  Very morbid, but the thoughts Sariel voices are also quite amusing in a twisted way.

 

Kenzi and Sariel’s lives are quickly tied into the ‘god’ story thread, as both of them become targets of Lilith, a demi-god.  The story takes a nice turn here, as the author has re-worked the Bible story of Adam and Eve.  In this version, Lilith was the original wife of Adam, but she was tossed from Eden and tormented for failure to be a 1950’s style, submissive housewife to Adam.  Needless to say, when freed from her prison, she’s angry and wants revenge on…everything, and everyone.  She’s the closest thing to pure evil in the book, although some readers, especially women, may actually find her quite sympathetic, perhaps more so than any other character.

 

Therein lies Knight’s primary strength: she’s very good at painting her characters as somewhat sympathetic, or at least relatable, to all types of readers.   The story itself is good, but it’s the characters and how they feel that carry the book to its conclusion.  The only minor drawback is the occasional lack of cohesion around some of the plot elements in the book.  Things happen, but the reader might be questioning how they happened, as no hint of reason is given.  Events don’t always relate to each other, and seem occasionally random.  A little more explanation for some sections would have helped boost the story to the next level.

 

Overall, a solid first effort from Ev Knight, and worth reading.

 

Contains: profanity, graphic violence and gore, graphic sex.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

 

 

 

Posted on June 12, 2020 by , Reply

Book Review: Arterial Bloom edited by Mercedes M. Yardley

Arterial Bloom edited by Mercedes M. Yardley ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

Crystal Lake Publishing, 2020

ISBN-13: 9781646693108

Available: Paperback, Kindle, comiXology

 

Arterial Bloom is another great anthology from Crystal Lake Publishing, edited by Bram Stoker Award-winning author Mercedes M. Yardley. This is the first anthology with Yardley at the helm, and she curated some beautiful and horrific tales. A unique feature of this particular anthology is that it does not rely on a cohesive theme to direct the tales in its pages. I was dubious at such a risky decision, especially as this is Yardley’s first anthology as an editor. However, it is clear she is in touch with the genre. The anthology contains 16 stories. Rather than discuss all of them, I will highlight the ones that were particularly enthralling.

In “The Stone Door” by Jimmy Bernard, three sisters must keep a bike equipped with a lever system operating in order to keep a monster behind a door. The door must remain closed. When one of the sisters falls ill, they worry about how much longer they can keep this up. “Dog (Does Not) Eat Dog” by Grant Longstaff is told in a post-apocalyptic world where two old friends find themselves at a dangerous crossroads. Linda J. Marshall’s “Kudzu Stories” entwines three separate lives where they come to different ends when the kudzu gets entangled in the human condition. In “Welcome to Autumn” by Daniel Crow, a mysterious bandaged stranger posing as a journalist visits the wife of a brilliant artist who has gone missing under mysterious circumstances. “The Darker Side of Grief” by Naching T. Kassa tells the story of George, a young boy who grieves his recently deceased mother and finds himself haunted by something that calls itself his mother. On top of that, George and his sister Mindy have a new babysitter, Carla Runningdeer. He’s heard all of the rumors about their new caretaker’s violent tendencies and wonders if they are true. Ken Liu’s “In the Loop” tells the story of a young girl watching her father turn into an abusive monster who eventually kills himself. He had been a drone strike operator for the military and suffered from severe PTSD. She signs up with a company whose representative tells her they are making software to completely replace humans at the controls, something that Kyra believes will free others of experiencing the tragedy and guilt of wartime. She develops the algorithm for their drones to recognize threats, but when two of those drones kills a group of children, things get messy.

Other authors include Christopher Barzak, Armand Rosamilia, Jennifer Loring, Kelli Owen, Jonathan Cosgrove, Steven Pirie, Dino Parenti, Todd Keilsing, and Carina Bissett, all of whom contributed powerful stories. Yardley did an excellent job selecting stories that resonate with the reader, despite not having a theme behind them. I also didn’t find myself questioning character motivations or wondering why a story was included. Yardley has a good eye for horror, and I hope she continues as an editor as well as a writer. Highly recommended.

Contains: domestic violence, implied child abuse, discussion of prostitution, murder of a child, PTSD, suicide

 

Reviewed by Lizzy Walker

Posted on June 12, 2020 by , Reply
First « 158159160161162 » Last