SuralXiong

Touchstone Trilogy by Andrea K Host. I began reading the Stray which hooked me because it reminded me of some of Robert Heinlein's later works where people could take a a left turn in just the right way and end up in another dimension. Maybe even get lost as his character JOB did. And Cassandra is such a dear character- reminding me of one of my favorite book critics whose not afraid to use the f**k word. I could see her as this character when she discovers she's lost F**Kity F**K. Sort of jarring as an opening sentence. This novel is done from a first person perspective and that works well for this story. Contrary to what many believe, first person is not what makes this YA its the YA in the story that does that. This is a sort of Young Adult story so it throws one that it starts right way with this type of language-or at least it does us older folk. Her full name is Cassandra Eloise Devlin. She's been living a sheltered life in Australia and the last thing she wanted today was to get lost on the way home. Well at that age it's a bit embarrassing to get lost. But with this the wrong left turn thing going here it's going to take a while for Cassandra to figure out that she's not just lost. She's LOST. The good news is she has her wilderness survival kit. The bad news is it has everything she might need if she's lost in Sydney. Not much use for where she's at. At one point she's speculating New Zealand- she's still thinking just a bit on the shallow side of the galactic pool. In the next few pages I have sympathy for Cassandra because she's going to do a lot of camping. I hate camping. And she's being forced to do it while still rather lost all the way around. Of course this camping becomes survivalist pretty soon, which is totally different from camping- not that I like it any more.(at least camping usually has the full range from survival roughing it to places that have electricity so you can charge your gadgets and stuff.) No there's not hope for that. Things have gotten real by this time when Cassandra has found all sorts of mysterious flora and fauna. They look almost familiar but very much strange and unfamiliar. And very much wild and dangerous. After wearing down her few useful tools and walking endlessly she comes across a settlement. Unfortunately it seems to be abandoned. Having some time to relax a little and become frustrated by her lack of survival skills Cassandra also has a chance to check out the new world to make some few observations about things. (These become handy later but for now its mostly her own curiosity.) She tries unsuccessfully to make her own materials for bedding and clothing and other house items. Thankfully there are others who know of this world and settlement and who also seem aware of the openings between dimensions and worlds through which Cassandra has stumbled. A team of these people show up at her settlement and a couple of them scare the daylights out of her when she wakes up to them hovering over her. At this point though she's sick and feverish so she's more relieved than frightened. Taken to a hospital like environment she is poked prodded and injected. She doesn't understand the language right away but there seems to be a technology that helps her with this. Once she starts to learn things she realizes that she's considered a savage and that she possibly will never reach their level. When it finally dawns on her that they're treating the savage like a lab rat she begins to balk and that's when her true character kicks in. They say that they will try to return her to her home, but they don't have a clue yet where that is, though they seem to know how to do it once they find it. Later we find its not so easy to do that. Of course at this time Cassandra also begins conflict with the people who saved her and it interferes with whats up for her future. This is a sort of Science Fiction fantasy and almost Paranormal romance, which will contain some romance for Cassandra down the road. But with the speed bumps she creates for herself in the first two books it's going to take a while. I loved this story as Science Fiction. The characters were every much as engaging as I hope for. I'm a character driven story lover and don't much care that all the science is believable nor do I demand a long explanation of the science for validity. It's a bonus that there's a cute romance story that comes out eventually and of course one whole underlying thread that's resolved at the end of the trilogy. I think YA and Sci-Fi and fantasy and paranormal romance lovers will not only love this book but whatever else Ms Host has in that great mind of hers. Keep it coming Andrea. Sural

Weeping for Raven Book One: Inducing The Calm by Mel Kinder This e-book was around five dollars. I've been doing the free ones and usually borrowing the money ones. This is not specifically Science Fiction- it tends more to Paranormal Romance. But, its got this kind of John Carter of Mars leap from one body to another thing going so in that respect its like a Sci-Fi adventure. It has a bit of mystery at first while trying to figure out what is happening. I read a bit of a sampling first and was drawn into the story. Enough that I purchased a copy. It starts with the mystery;someone wakes up in a garden of flowers and trees wondering how they got from their bed to the garden. They think they're dreaming and their senses seem to be off a bit; plus they now have a different color hair. The story shifts to Gwen Penn who is registering for classes- perhaps at the local community college. Gwen seems to be a bit of a loner and doesn't normally interact with people much more than necessary. While waiting in line she meets Mick who calls himself Mimic, a nickname from an affectation of his which is stuttering. They seem to get along well and even to Gwens surprise- she starts to design a schedule that will intersect with his. Gwen's parents are out of the picture. Her mother is institutionalized. She lives with her grandparents and has become codependent on them. They have encouraged her to go to the college of her choice and she's decided to make her choice local. It seems that she may not be focused on what she wants to do. Contrary to that Nick seems to have a strong notion of going into Art. Gwen has some ability in that area which might explain the corresponding scheduled. Gwen's reserved nature, inward drawn personality is partly there because she has recently lost her best friend Baylee in an accident. She's not easily ready to commit to friendships because of this. We don't spend much time with this Gwen because most of the story takes place in some alternate universe. This is a universe of magic where everyone has some magical ability and where cars don't have wheels and they fly. There are no restaurants because people don't eat in this universe. And people get energized from the rays of a dark sun. They're daylight seems to be more like moon light at night and extreme dark when the black sun is up. Gwen of course is the one waking up in the garden. It is actually close to a house which is similar to her grandparents house and eventually we find that that is where she lives. She has skipped into another body and discovers that her name here is Alexa Murdock. Alexa seems to live alone-possibly an orphan. Her father died doing experiments related to an epidemic, which is plaguing the world. It seems that the victims are called Wardlows and they are people who's spirit has been usurped by demons who are considered bloodthirsty and dangerous. Alexa's father thinks there is more to it than that and had tried to create a drug that would induce the same syndrome on someone for a limited time so he could prove this theory. It seems now that Alexa has taken up his work and Gwen is the Wardlow. The original plan was for Alexa to do this while her friend Cat made sure that if it succeeded that the Wardlow would not be found out and Cat and some others could observe and discover the truth. For some reason Cat does not get there in time and a young man named Rook finds her collapsed in the garden and takes her to the hospital. Gwen has an immediate connection to him-which is very odd for her. Rook had been on his way to visit his sister at the hospital. His sister Raven is in a coma and his father is institutionalized because of his grief over the accident that left Raven that way and killed his wife. Gwen wakes up in the hospital and begins the tenuous process of learning about this strange world through Rook. She's playing it cool and by the ear because she doesn't want to end up institutionalized like her mother. What she doesn't know is that there are people who capture and execute Wardlow's like her and she shouldn't be involved at all with Rook or anyone else except for a select few in some secret group that knows about this experiment. The people looking for Wardlows are called hunters and they work for the TAS The All Seeing. The all seeing work for someone else but they have the ability to find the Wardlows and they send the hunters. The hunters are invisible normally but Gwen is able to see them. That allows her to elude them. For a time. Eventually they will catch up to her. Gwen is falling for Rook, while knowing how wrong that has to be considering she won't be staying here and the amount of danger that puts her in. She has to make sure Rook doesn't figure out what's wrong with her. She also doesn't have any idea what Alexa might be doing while she's in her world in her body. She's also beginning to see some injustice to what's happening to the Wardlows and she may have to invest more of herself into this reality to help find an answer. It could cost both Gwen and Alexa their lives. And the secret behind all of this may be something more sinister than just fear of contamination. This is the beginning book of a series that I guess would fall in the Young adult- Paranormal Romance category although it has elements that show up in Science Fiction- that's a great thing since that's what I like to read. There's more to the story- though I don't think the second book is yet finished. Sural

Adrift On The Sea Of Rains by ian sales Okay, in all fairness I will give this book a five in initially breathing life back into the images of space flight as we know it. But I truly don’t understand the praises given without any real reviews about the story being told and the content and continuity. And with all the five and four star reviews you would expect someone would have more to say than good job in two or less paragraphs. There seems to be few who go into depth. I really wish there had been more before I plunked down my handful of quarters for the story. I had not ever heard of Ian Sales before reading this. Apparently he has a presence in England (UK) with many short stories and work on several web zine sites. You can find him at his own web site and he has links to his book review site that specializes in reviewing the work of female science fiction authors. More important you can go to the Fiction Desk and read some of his work. http://www.thefictiondesk.com/anthologies/the-maginot-line.php I wish I’d done that first. The piece called Faith gives the reader a clear view of the authors style and bent. It seems to be a group of stories that might have been ripped from the pages of news during the heyday’s of space flight. Except in some cases there are bits of twists at the end where in others they seem to follow the headlines. Either way it seems to be an introduction to the paralleled universe of Ian Sales. With an introduction to his twisted endings. This story reads well to begin with; with our hero Vance Peterson the apparent commander of the moon base Falcon. We’re told that he’s been there for two years, though he was only supposed to have been there for six month. There seem to be two events that occurred around three weeks before the end of six months. One is the arrival of Dr. Kendall and The Bell, torsion field generator(which seems to be some device made by the Nazis that can push them through to other dimensions to other earths, which is going to come in handy.) The next event at this same time - unless I’m confused- is the death of earth through human destruction. Peterson seems to blame the Russians, which is interesting when considering things later in the story. The circumstances are grim so the story seems a bit grim and lacking in emotional involvement of the characters. We see mostly Peterson’s frustration. There is very little life in this story because things are pretty monochromatic coming from Peterson’s point of view. I’m a bit unclear about what the present time is, but it’s mentioned that Peterson has reached the two year mark though at the same time it is mentioned that he’s had to put up with Kendall for two years-which can’t be right. Its also mentioned that the last flight in was Kendall and his equipment and at that time there was two years of supplies. Assuming the destruction so soon, there likely were no more supplies sent. Lastly it is mentioned that there are 4 month supplies left in that Peterson is convinced they will all be dead in 4 months unless they find an earth that hasn’t been destroyed. I know I’m poor at math but this doesn't add up though if we allow a slop factor of 4 to 6 months it’s negligible. I could be wrong about the incongruous timelines but I've read this through three time and the last time was slowly and now I have a headache. Anyway Peterson is in charge and since the death of earth 3 people have committed suicide so supplies might last longer. There seems less fear about water and air though I've some questions about the pure oxygen that Peterson seems so free about using up so he can have his private time. With 9 of them left and some one and half or so years gone by; and some incalculable number of shifts in dimensions, Peterson has some time long ago given up his authority and allowed things to just happen around him. This is important because we eventually have to deal with his tantrums about the lack of discipline in some of the people. Something, which he is a major contributor to. The base is 6 years old and falling apart so one would wonder just how well the recycling of water and air is working since the two are somewhat mutually inclusive to each other. It’s got to be getting old and stale and the equipment might not be holding out.(None of that is mentioned beyond it being taken care of but,I do have my worries anyway.) The Bell torsion field generator is the only hope and its the main incongruous sci-fi in an otherwise Science Fiction story. But it is part of the Ian Sales universe and that’s another story available on Amazon. Even with the Bell, the whole story holds up well until they find a new earth then things fall apart quickly. I’m just not believing that after a long period of abdication of his authority that Peterson will get it back so easily and then so easily hijack the mission that is vital to their continued survival. There’s some excellent teamwork and science involved in the calculation of getting someone in space and if we don’t sit and try to figure out why there isn't something ready to go without all this calculating then its really neat. I just had this problem with knowing that Kendall showed up three weeks before Peterson was to leave. Apparently his departure relies on a flight from earth coming to pick him up. You would think that they would have a backup ready to lift in case the vehicle delivering his replacement encountered problems. But maybe not. Even so after all that calculation to get what they had up into space, we’re suppose to believe these rocket scientists forget to include food in the calculation and that the food for one person will take up the weight of three; so only one person can go on this three day flight. And that sounds really intelligent; we’ll send one man on a chancy three day flight by himself so we can be saved. I have this feeling that- way back- when Peterson abdicated his authority that the vacuum creates would be filled by the XO or someone else and they would clearly want the best pilot on the job, which apparently is Neubeck. Clearly though the twist of this story relies on Peterson being the pilot. Eventually the reader is shown evidence that Peterson should never have been left in command of anything and that he has a tendency to react impulsively upon his own prejudice. There are other secrets there that implicate him into the whole mess that is the death of earth and even Peterson seems oblivious to this. This book has a rather useless appendix except for the citations and references the readers are intelligent enough to understand the acronym there that haven’t been explained within context and they really don’t drive the story anyway. Needless,you should read as much of Ian’s writings prior to this as you can before reading this to catch the tone of his writing and then it will prepare you for this one and probably the next, which I don’t think I’ll bother to spend my quarters on. Ian seems to believe he’s creating a new genre here, but I've seen all of this before and it might be a mix of several which would fall within speculative fiction. I’m not sure he’s yet reached the pinnacle that he’s looking for. Best of luck in that endeavor. You have recaptured the spirit of Space Flight past. Giving the setting marvelous and sensuous texture. I just wish you could work a bit more on giving the story and the characters some emotion and life. Sural

Gabriel:Zero Point (Evan Gabriel Trilogy) by Steve Umstead Sometimes the problem with a short intro story to a trilogy; is that it’s difficult to fully capture the nuances of the character that shows up in the real story. Having not read the rest of the story I can’t make a judgement. I love Trevanian and especially his Shibumi and I love Ludlum and his Jason Borne series. But these are not really the type of book I particularly go out of my way to pick up. The reason I mention them is that the story of Evan Gabriel- in this short brought them to mind. We have the focused killer who has a little bit of heart somewhere buried under his hard core. The trick for them is to not let on to too many people or it might compromise your effectiveness. This story takes Evan from not so humble beginnings - at the top of his class at the academy- to his ultimate final evolution to the super soldier. There’s an element in this story that I found predictable- maybe not everyone will. I can’t say because it’s a spoiler. Anyway the story seems to revolve just on the edge of trying to explain Evan’s motivation for being where he is in this military program- while at the same time making it clear that he’s more hijacked into it than anything. The disturbing part is that his superior is painted as a rather ruthless individual who will do anything at all costs to ensure the security of the federation. We really don’t get a chance to see much of how good or evil that thought may be though we see a bit of life in Evan as he struggles with the whole concept. I’ll assume that in the later stories that we see where Even’s heart lies in this matter. I’m not at all sure about Biermann. Anyone who loves those thriller suspense novels with the spies and agents of exceptional ability should love these stories. It will be interesting to see how Evan makes it through all this and if he can retain his humanity. Sural