Skin Game by Jim Butcher Review up at Buzzy Mag

The good people at Buzzy mag have published another review I wrote for them. The review is of Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files book, Skin Game. The first couple of paragraphs and a link are below the picture. Buzzy Mag also sells the audio book versions of the Dresden Files so check them out there as well.

Beloved series are a joy when one first discovers them. A loyalty and following is built up and maintained by giving the fans what they want. Unfortunately along the way readers can grow as bored with the characters as the author is with writing them. This is where Jim Butcher uses a bit of magic in allowing his character, Harry Dresden, to change and grow while keeping his same self-depreciating, pop culture reference-spewing “charm.” 

Picking up shortly after where Cold Days left off, Harry is on his island in the middle of Lake Michigan, training his body and learning to control his new powers that come with the Winter Mantle. Harry is occupying himself with parkour and trying not to be a danger to others. Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, shows up with a job for him. The job stinks from the beginning but it’s not like Harry can refuse. He is her Winter Knight and all. Harry returns to Chicago to work with a variety of baddies in order to pull off a heist. The job requires subtly and tact, two things Harry lacks, so he has to make up for it on the fly, usually with lots of noise and people running away. Harry reaches out to old friends but realizes that he may have just put them in the same danger he is in.

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Authority by Jeff VanderMeer Review up at Buzzy Mag

The good people over at Buzzy Mag have just published a review I wrote for them. It is a review for Jeff VanderMeer's new novel, Authority the second book of the southern reach trilogy. Check out the review and then check out the book. The first couple of paragraphs and a link are below:

Paranoia is something that touches all of us from time to time. Whether it is from all the lights turning red while you are running late for work, or all your co-workers ceasing to laugh as you enter the room several times throughout the day. Mostly it is just coincidence. But, every so often there really is something there, just under the surface. The question is: do we really want to reveal the source of our paranoia?

John Rodrigues, also known as Control, is the new director of the Southern Reach, after the previous director vanished into Area X. Southern Reach is a secret government program designed to monitor and explore Area X. It is the last place anyone wants to be stationed at, but Control has run out of options. Some strings are pulled and Control ends up in charge of people who want to see him fail and a project that is as dangerous as being on the front line. It was an unusual choice not to pick up from where the last novel left off but to turn the narrative on its head.

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Everything Is Epic review is up at New Myths

The good people at New Myths have published another review I wrote for them. It is a review for the short story collection, Everything Is Epic by Michael C. Keith. A link is below the picture, check it out and feel free to share.

Read the review here

The Influence book review up at Buzzy Mag

The good people at Buzzy Mag have published another review I wrote for them. It is a review for the horror novel The Influence by Bentley Little. The first little bit and a link is below the cover. Enjoy and don't for get to share the link.

Luck can be a blessing or a curse depending on what type you have. Even those that don’t believe in luck often attribute things to it (e.g. flat tire on the way to work, bad luck? or “ironic” if you are an Alanis Morrissette fan that doesn’t own a dictionary). But what if nothing goes your way, if your whole life everything seemed to go wrong no matter how hard you tried. And what about those that just seem to fall into the perfect job, love comes easy, and they tend to have money lying about. Luck can change, for the better or the worse, depending on the price.

Ross is down on his luck. He lost his engineering job and in this economy can’t catch a break. Before he loses his home, he takes an offer from his cousin, Lita, to move in with her and her husband, Dave. The two raise chickens and bees on a small farm in Magdalena, Arizona. Ross moves into their guest shack but soon realizes that the couple isn’t doing so well. At a New Year’s Eve party most of the town gathers at one of the larger ranches. Ross stays home. Lita and Dave call it an early night. But the rest of the town does what it always does at the stroke of midnight, fires all its guns in the air. Only this year, they shoot something out of the air causing everyone’s luck to change. More...

Dead Set Review up at Buzzy Mag

The good people at Buzzy Mag have published another review I wrote for them. It is for Richard Kadrey's YA novel, Dead Set. The first bit and a link is below:

A certain amount of despair washes over me every time I think about the young adult book market. Though it really shouldn’t. The tired regurgitated plots and the trend following that is seemingly so transparent in YA fiction also exists in popular adult fiction. I just feel that there aren’t enough YA writers going for the jugular. Teens don’t need to be handled with kid gloves. And to see some authors kick them the real deal and not lob some slow-pitch at them is refreshing.

Zoe lives in two worlds: one world is the world of dreams she shares with her dream friend Valentine, the other is the real world, a world where her father has died and her life is falling apart. We start off with a bit of a cliché of the dead parent (or friend or other family member) that seems to plague YA fiction. Zoe has to move to a different school, without her friends, and her mother can’t find a job. Zoe wonders away from all of these tired plot points and finds a rare record store. She runs her fingers over all of the old punk bands that her parents used to work with before selling out to have a normal life. The owner, Ammut Emmett to people who don’t know him, shows her the secret room where for small sacrifices, Zoe can see and experience the dead including her father. More...

Transhuman by Ben Bova, Review up at Perihelion SF

The good people at Perihelion SF have published another review I wrote for them. The review is for Ben Bova's new novel Transhuman. A slightly different take for Bova that deals less with space and more with the science of being human. The link is below check it out:

The review is the last one here.

Vyrkarion Review up at New Myths

The good people over at New Myths have published another review I wrote for them. It is a review for the fantasy/romance novel Vyrkarion. Check it out in the link below and feel free to share it.

Link to the review here