Book Review: Ghostdrift by Suzanne Palmer

Ghostdrift by Suzanne Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Finder Chronicles has been one of those series I eagerly anticipate the next installment. Each story is set in a completely different setting than the previous novel, giving the world depth, but Fergus always remains a fun, interesting main character - and he has growth throughout each adventure.

Ghostdrift is billed on the back cover as the fourth and final novel in the Finder Chronicles. That makes me sad. No more of these adventures?! This does make a satisfying resolution to Fergus' story though, as he comes to accept who he is and what's been done to him. The ending of Ghostdrift leaves the world and possibilities open to new stories though. So I will hope for more when the author decides to return to Fergus.

Read the entire series! Then read it again! I can only imagine reading these books back to back would make an even better adventure!

Review eARC provided by Netgalley.

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Book Review: Kinfolk

Kinfolk by August Niehaus
My GoodReads rating: 3 of 5 stars

Overall Kinfolk was an enjoyable book.

 
Kin, the main character, was supposed to be a war-hardened badass but he came across as an incompetent, constantly horny, distracted basket case. His awesomeness is told to us more often than shown to us.

Fraya, the captain of the pirate crew Kin serves with, is always kissing her crew, flirting with them, trying to seduce one or more of them... and it's never explained why she's like that. It's implied her crew loves her and would do anything for her, but it seems more like her crew are just thirsty for her. Most of the rest of the crew are side characters.

 
The main antagonist, Tana, is a cartoony villain who seems like she just wants to have sex with everything. In fact, a lot of the characters seem like all they want to do is have sex with the main character. Tana's motivations are revealed late, but not thoroughly explored nor explained other than cursorily.

Cessie, the young girl Kin kind of adopts, is awesome and the only believable character.

The best part of the book is that there's a treasure hunt, but it's not resolved, and that ongoing threat is saved for future books.

I received an Advanced Readers Copy from Netgalley for the purposes of this review.  

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Book Review: Murderbot #7 System Collapse - No Spoilers

 

System Collapse by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

No Spoilers there, but this is another exciting, fun entry in the Murderbot Diaries. It opens en media res and the action rarely stops.

MB and it's close friend ART are a fun, playfully antagonistic pair with a high regard for the protection of their humans, and maybe the mission too.

MB is growing as a real, feeling being and it's nice to see it grow and realize it needs help sometimes, both physically and mentally. MB's mental health and PTSD is a constant subplot as its story progresses.

When's the next book out?!

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Book Review: The Ninth Metal

The Ninth Metal by Benjamin Percy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A superhero origin story in disguise as a rough family drama.

Only, the superheroes are more anti-hero. There's really no likeable characters in this book. John, arguably, the main character is a murderer and his family is basically the local mafia. Stacie, the rookie cop, is a wholesome character but is changed by the events of the book. Victoria basically tortures a kid "for science" but knows it's wrong and wants to free him. There are other characters that come and go, all are driven to extremes because of the gold-rush atmosphere after a meteor crashes into their town and leaves masses of a new metal that has world-changing properties.

Speaking of the meteor - it's like if the vibranium meteor from the Marvel movie Black Panther crashed in Minnesota instead of Wakanda. The metal has many properties similar to that comic book metal, at least as portrayed in the MCU movies.

Hints sprinkled throughout the story indicate there may be more to the metal than just as a power source and creation of superheroes. Lovecraftian dreams, portals to elsewhere are just a part of the subtle world-building I hope is explored deeper in the sequel. I didn't realize this was the first book in a series until I looked it up on Goodreads. I'm intrigued enough by the world-building to read the sequel when it comes out.

Review eARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley.

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Book Review: Hench

Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hench grabbed me off the street and held me for ransom! I could not put it down.

As I was reading I thought to myself "Oh I know how where this is going", and it kind of did but in a way that surprised me. I was pleased I hadn't guessed the ending.

The main character, Anna, is the only main character that really gets any development. Keller and Quantum Entanglement both get some development, but I'd consider them secondary characters. Everyone else is a bit player there to serve Anna's development. That's not a bad thing as it's her story.

Perched high above my city I watch, waiting for the sequel.

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Good book! Stars Uncharted

Stars Uncharted by S.K. Dunstall
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book hit many of my likes in a story!

• Space travel.
• Set in an indeterminate future time.
• Space salvage (though not much of this, and mostly just kind of mentioned).
• No aliens.
• Tech that just exists, with no need to explain it.
• Male and female characters that don't fall in love and are just friends or co-workers (though a couple of them maybe started down that path).
• Main characters living on the raggedy-edge of making a living, worrying about where their next paycheck is coming from, but happily working for it doing what they want.

And probably many more.

Read it!

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Book Review: Ocean of Storms

Ocean of Storms by Christopher Mari
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good book!

I liked the characters. I liked the mystery and discovery on the moon and elsewhere. I liked the conspiracy. I liked the little touch of the one character always going for a drink.

It was almost a 3rd of the way in before we even got the characters to the moon, but I guess considering what happened once they were in orbit and on the moon, it made sense.

I wasn't crazy about the earth-side political situation - would have liked more time on the moon and more time with the main characters.



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Book Review: Leviathan

Leviathan by Jack Campbell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow. What a ride.

Black Jack Geary has certainly taken the First Fleet into battles where the odds seem insurmountable, but he's Black Jack and has always managed to scrape through. Now he's facing the dark ships, and their AIs are designed to act and react like he would!

I really enjoy the Lost Fleet novels. There's plenty of action and down-time as well, but when the combat starts I can't put it down. There's plenty of character within these stories as well, and when we lose one it hurts; when we lose ships-full, it's incomprehensible.

Many surprises lead Geary to the dark fleet's home base where he hopes he can destroy their repair and replenishment facilities since he can't outright destroy the fleet the itself without significant losses to his own fleet. Old friends and new return to help out where they can.

An emotional ending brings the book to a close, though the First Fleet sails on.

Leviathan is great read!



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I received my review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

Book Review: Lords of the Sith

Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Darth Vader? Scary awesome when he was younger.

I need more Star Wars fiction like this that features Vader in his prime: piloting the heck out of his starfighter, using the Force to do crazy things without thought of failure, plowing through enemies with his lightsaber; you know, still doing the things Anakin Skywalker was doing during the Clone Wars, but blatantly evil.

I really enjoyed the introspection Vader had in his quiet moments, the seeming omniscience Palpatine showed of Vader's thoughts, and Vader's responses to his master questioning and testing him. There need to be more Vader/Palpatine stories!

Also? Palpatine unleashed! He and Vader become stranded together on a planet, and as they make their way to civilization they encounter wildlife and terrorists (freedom fighters) that are trying to kill them. Since they're pretty much alone, Sheev can use the Force without witnesses. I'm just glad it wasn't Jedi facing them when he and Vader both ignited their lightsabers. The lords of the Sith tore through the jungles and caves (and citizens) of Ryloth with a controlled fury.

Darth Sidious expertly manipulated the fledgling rebellion on Ryloth to his own ends, as always. And the sad Imperial presence there suffered as well under an inattentive Moff and a traitorous second-in-command. I really didn't care much about the Imperial characters beyond the Darths, though they served their parts well in the story. There are rumors Moff Mors may be a recurring character. If so, she had better stop being lazy and start serving her Emperor!

It would have been nice to get to meet a young Hera, the daughter of the leader of the rebels on Ryloth. She's mentioned briefly, but we know she becomes the leader of a rebel cell years later in the Star Wars cartoon Rebels.

Many characters die within these pages, and the Emperor achieves his goal; but an ember still remains for the rebellion.

Great space combat, awesome Vader scenes, and the Emperor being cunning. What's not to love?



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I received my review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

Book Review: Homefront

Homefront by Scott James Magner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating premise, emotional ride, and kind of a twist ending potentially setting up a sequel, Homefront is quite a ride.

We start off the book being introduced to a cast of unusual characters from the Colonies on some kind of mission they don't expect to succeed. These characters appear to have a caste system, and are each of a variety of post-human. Shortly, we're introduced to regular humans as well and their space defense force. From there, the body count rises, and new relationships and families are formed.

I can't really describe more without giving too much away, even though I may have already. Even the blurb from the book itself is intentionally vague.

Homefront brings space battles, ship-board combat, ground combat, plenty of character building and world building, relationships developing and ending, emotions flying all over the place, and plenty of character deaths.

Good stuff!



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Book Review: Star Wars A New Dawn

A New Dawn: Star Wars by John Jackson Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A refreshing change from previous Star Wars novels, Star Wars: A New Dawn has launched the new Star Wars universe that will include the new novels, the new and existing movies, the new cartoons and The Clone Wars cartoon, some new fiction from Star Wars insider, new comics, and anything else coming out henceforth. It essentially excommunicates almost all previous fiction to the realm of Legend.

A New Dawn does not rely on the bloated universe that existed in all that legendary material before, and while the author had written in that sandbox, this new novel - this new world is fresher. It's still Star Wars. It still expects you, as a fan, to know know what certain races, ships, weapons, and armor look like, it doesn't bother to describe them in much or any detail. The story itself is clearly meant as a setup for the new Rebels cartoon coming out in October 2015 and serves to introduce two of the main characters to each other before the show starts. It's a standalone story though, no need to have any knowledge, or interest, of the Rebels show.

The two main characters are a former Jedi student now grown into adulthood and hiding in the bottle between shifts at a mining operation, and a Twilek pilot looking for civil unrest she can potentially exploit at some point in the future to undermine the Empire. A strong cast of secondary characters also have interesting stories that all intertwine with the main cast and each other. Really, it's more of an ensemble cast that shares the spotlight than focusing mostly on the two mains, though the Jedi Kanan is pretty much the primary character.

If you're a Star Wars fan: read this and get ready for Rebels. If you're looking to jump in to the world of Star Wars novels, this is a good place to start - though I'd suggest you'd have at least seen Star Wars Episode III to share a frame of reference with Kanan's character.


Disclosure: I received an eARC of this novel for review from the publisher through Netgalley.


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Book Review: Robogenesis

Robogenesis by Daniel H. Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The world is in ruins following the events of Robopocalypse. Archos-18 was defeated, or was it? Other mega AIs scramble to life as well. The Freeborn, humans, and a strange intermingling of man and machine all try to find their place in this new world they thing free of the looming threat of the AI supercomputer. They soon discover they're wrong, and again the fight is on to survive.

Robogenesis picks up pretty well right after the events of Robopocalypse. Though at first we're with some new characters in Russia. We're reintroduced to characters from the first book as they're thinking the war is over and can start moving on with life. Things don't go well though, and the characters slowly realize the war never really ended, and eventually everyone is reunited, and some new characters are brought in as well on both sides.

I absolutely loved Robopocalypse. I was excited to read Robogenesis and see where the story went. This books feels like a middle book in a trilogy, especially the way it ended.

There was very little happiness for the characters in the book. I can only think of two events that were really happy. And I happen to like some happy in my books, even post-apoc end-of-world war stories need some happy in them in my opinion.

I think my favorite character this time around might be Houdini. Loyal and faithful Houdini. A close second would be Nine Oh Two, is almost more human than the human characters, and definitely more human than the other freeborn.

Overall, it's a good book. I don't think it's as good as the first one, but if there's a third book in the series I'll definitely keep reading!

I received an eARC of Robogenesis through Netgalley.


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Anthology Review: Far Orbit

Far Orbit: Speculative Space Adventures by Bascomb James
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Far Orbit is a wonderful collection of short science fiction stories.

A few of the standout stories to me were:

Open For Business, by Sam Kepfield, is a tale of (practically current day) entrepreneurs starting up an asteroid mining company, and the fall out from doing so.

Composition in Death Minor, by Kevin Jewell, where a cellist assassin has to make a choice.

Spaceman Barbecue, by Peter Wood, is a Twilight Zone-esque throwback with a happy ending.

A Game of Hold'em, by Wendy Sparrow, is an Old West tale set on a colony world.

And I think my favorite was Bear Essentials, by Julie Frost, about a small trading vessel run by a grumpy man and his adult daughter, along with their small crew. This tale has them transporting a live bear from one world to another, along with an unusual passenger, and discovering something amazing along the way. I definitely want to read more stories about this crew (especially if that bear comes back).

Need a quick fix of good old-fashioned science fiction? Far Orbit is it!


An eARC of Far Orbit was provided to me by the publisher for review (thanks!).


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Book Review: Starship Grifters

Starship Grifters by Robert Kroese
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What did I just read? And why did I like it so much?

Starship Grifters is a crazy story about a gambling, alcoholic, con-artist and his robot assistant that accidentally become owners of a planet that put them deep in debt and smack-dab in the center of a conflict between the current galactic empire and the rebels who want to overthrow it.

There are character names like Rex Nihilo and General Issimo, the Malarchy Empire, and the prison planet Gulagatraz. There are borrowed quotes from The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and Star Wars, as well as plenty of other similarities and ... parodies. If Ex Nihilo means out of nothing, then does Rex Nihilo mean king of nothing? There were probably other names that had plays on words that I didn't catch.

Taken piecemeal, that would make this book seem quite silly and derivative. However, on the whole it all works. I got caught up in the story, and the absolute wonder of how Rex Nihilo spins his yarns to con people, and the witty, snarky banter between him and his robot assistant Sasha.

If Douglas Adams and Mel Brooks wrote Star Wars as an episode of Leverage, and JJ Abrams and Michael Bay directed and produced it for the SyFy channel, you might end up with something close to Starship Grifters.

And that twist at the end... just another crazy whiskey tango foxtrot moment in a book full of fun moments.


Starship Grifters was provided to me by the author for review. Thanks!


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Completely Satisfying! Book Review: Heaven's Queen

Heaven's Queen by Rachel Bach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rachel Bach (Rachel Aaron) has done it again: brought a fantastic series to a completely satisfying conclusion.

I'm kind of disappointed the series is over (as I usually am when a great series ends), but the end here successfully wraps up the story. Other adventures in the this universe could be told, but Devi's story is at a good place to leave her; happily ever after, as it were.

Devi's story starts out in Fortune's Pawn and seems pretty straight-forward and simple: mercenary on a new ship making her way. But things quickly escalate and by the end of that first book we know there's much more going on than that. The second book finds her on the run from people who think they're saving the universe and want to make a weapon out of Devi. This third book finds her quickly captured and she struggles to convince all the players she knows what needs to be done.

This series has space combat, powered armor, lots of gruesome hand-to-hand combat and gunfights, crazy-interesting aliens. It even has some romance, which becomes a crucial part of the story and Devi's character development as the series ends.

Good stuff!



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Book Review: Steadfast

The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Steadfast by Jack Campbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is military science fiction done well! Not too political, not just all space combat - Jack Campbell hits all the right notes with the Black Jack Geary series.

In my opinion, Campbell outdoes Weber at military science fiction. Whereas Weber's excellent Honor Harrington series gets deep into the political actions of ...well, absolutely everyone who ever took a breath, Campbell's Lost Fleet series keeps the long-winded political machinations to a minimum. Oh, you'll still get interstellar politics and conspiracies, but it's always shown from the main characters' points of view.

You also get great space battles, interesting aliens, some exploration (though not in this particular book), and an galaxy in-flux as the war has ended and star systems are trying to figure out where they stand and with whom they stand.

To round out what makes the Lost Fleet series, and Steadfast in-particular, great reading is the characters. Everyone has a story and gets a little bit of the narrative without taking focus from the story.

One of the things I like about this series is each novel is named after a ship in the fleet. We find out what's special about Steadfast towards the end of this book.

While Steadfast, the novel, takes place deep within the series, it does a good job of briefly mentioning what's come before. If this is the first book you pick up, you won't be completely lost as to what's going on and why. I've read a few of the novels in the series before Steadfast, and enjoyed them all.

Fans of the Honor Harrington series, Star Wars or Star Trek, or any other military science fiction series will enjoy the Lost Fleet series.

Steadfast is due to be published on May 6, 2014.  Thanks to the publisher for providing my copy for review!


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Book Review: Baltic Gambit (Vampire Earth)

Baltic Gambit: A Novel of the Vampire Earth by E.E. Knight
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thought a Vampire Earth book without David Valentine as the main character wouldn't be as good. I was wrong.

Valentine plays second fiddle to Alessa Duvalier this go-round. The book takes her out of her element of scouting and quick combat, and puts in the role of escorting a delegation to a rare conference of the Freeholds in Europe.

We get deep into her thoughts and psyche, and see what makes her tick and how she deals with the things she's done in the fight against the Kurians and what it drives her to do.

Very good book!

I skipped the book about Anh Kah - I'm thinking I should go back and read that too, now!



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Oh yeah! Book Review: Honor's Knight

Honor's Knight by Rachel Bach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is good stuff!

I love it when a story does things I don't expect, and this book doesn't disappoint! Honor's Knight is not your ordinary space marine story. Devi is a female mercenary who just wants to survive her current assignment long enough to get accepted into the Devastators elite special forces team. But her current captain has a bad habit of getting his mercenary security guards killed in the line of duty, and he's definitely no ordinary trading captain. Devi's only been on a few months, but has seen plenty of action, and inadvertently stumbled into a war she didn't know existed. And she's become a weapon all the sides either want to use or suppress. And Devi doesn't even know which side she's supposed to be on.

There's so much more to this novel; you have to experience it for yourself!

Honor's Knight is the sequel to Fortune's Pawn, part of the Paradox trilogy. The next book is due out later this year. (I love that Orbit Books is putting out complete series within months instead of making us wait years between books.)

The author, Rachel Bach, also wrote a fantastic fantasy series under the name Rachel Aaron. That's the Eli Monpress series and I highly recommend that too!

Fans of awesome military space fiction will love this. Read it!



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Book Review: Grunt Life

Task Force Ombra: Grunt Life by Weston Ochse
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Starting off with a thorough reading an uncomfortable topic (suicide, specifically a service member suffering from PTSD committing suicide), this book gives him and others suffering like him a second chance in a special unit fighting an alien invasion.

The alien invasion comes fast, and off-screen, while our characters are still in training in their new unit. This leads quickly to the typical trope of the last remaining vestiges of military fighting the aliens. They quickly realize all their efforts are having no effect, and must find new ways to gather intel, fight effectively, and win. By the end, they've made some progress, but in no way have won the war yet.

I enjoyed this book, though the suicidal tendencies of the characters were at times uncomfortable to read. People this distraught, this broken, make unique character point-of-views. But it's their overcoming of this that makes them readable heroes.

There's no paranormal stuff here, it's just the military against the aliens. Fans of Bob Mayer's Atlantis and Area 51 series, James Rollins, Matthew Reilly, Myke Cole, or Jean Johnson will enjoy Grunt Life.

An eARC of Grunt Life was provided to me for review through NetGalley.

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Good stuff! Book Review: Peacemaker

Peacemaker by Marianne de Pierres
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Good stuff!

Set in Australia in an undetermined point in the future, it's future noir. Park Ranger Virgin Jackson and a US Marshall reluctantly team up to solve an impossible murder, and Jackson learns there's much more to her world than she ever suspected.

This book has great characters and character interactions, an interesting setting and world building, and so much possibility. And pretty much no one is who they seem at first glance, or at least everyone has secrets.

Great ending too: satisfying, but leaves room for sequels.


An eARC of Peacemaker was provided to me for review through NetGalley.

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