J.L. Dobias's Bookshelf

The Planet Savers, by Marion Zimmer Bradley The copy I have of this is from the Gutenberg project. It is taken from the pages of amazing stories. And I want to share the little quote at the beginning. [Quote] Marion Zimmer Bradley has written some of the finest science fiction in print. She has been away from our pages too long. So this story is in the nature of a triumphant return. It could well be her best to date. Marion Zimmer Bradley. The Planet Savers (Kindle Locations 16-17). [/Quote] I had not read this prior and it's fairly old. It's from Bradley's Darkover world and I think it's a masterpiece. Even after all this time it still holds together well as a relevant and well told tale. This short novel easily demonstrates the author's massive ability at world creation and her skill in writing that makes this not only a marvelous work of Science Fiction but a literary masterpiece. This is the story of Jay/Jason. A highly intelligent and driven doctor who is respected on one hand and despised on the other. He's aloof most of the time and has nothing but prejudice against most of the inhabitants of the Darkover world especially the trailmen whom he considers to be low life beasts. Ironically Jason is also the man who as a child was rescued and raised by the trailmen in their remote mountain village. They raise him until they decide he's old enough that he needs to be returned to his kind. It might be that this young man felt abandoned by them as he may have felt abandoned when his father died. Whatever the reason, he's pulled off a sort of Jekyl-Hyde or Sybil turn in his life where he has segmented the old Jason from the new Jay. Now, at the time of the reawakening of a cyclical pandemic fever he is forced to bring out the Jason- trailman- side of his personality. The Trailmen are immune to the illness because they suffer a milder form of it when they are young. The notion is that they might be able to make a serum from the trailmen blood. The problem is the trailmen never come down from their mountain. Jay even has to agree that this trip out to the trailmen is necessary because his greater understanding of medicine can see the value. They need Jason to help insure its success. Submitting to a procedure that will bring forth this other personality he becomes Jason- a somewhat genial and reckless young man. The transformation he undertakes affects even his physical characteristics to a point that colleagues who have known him for years don't recognize him. All this takes place in a matter of few pages all packed in expertly with the added bonus of creating the affect that the reader comes to identify and love Jason, while loathing and despising Jay. There's a lot more to come in this story as they make the dangerous trek into the wild and up through treacherous mountains that tax even the local Darkovans. Will they survive, will they find a vaccine, how did Jason get so messed up. All these and more will eventually come out in this gem of a short. The skill with which Marion Zimmer Bradley weaves and fills this novel and the fact that it stands the test of time make it easy to see how she became such a respected author and remains that to this very day. This book is a good read for anyone who wants to become acquainted with the author and her Darkover series. And for those already acquainted who may have missed this one, they should pick it up and give it a go. There is no way for you to be disappointed. J.L. Dobias

I don't care what everyone else says-I enjoyed this book Sunrise Alley by Catherine Asaro I picked this book up in the kindle version- probably from the publisher-I don't see it here on Amazon. I'm familiar with Catherine Asaro and had not yet read any of her novels. This novel reminded me of some of Heinlein's middle years - you know after the juvenile and after stranger in a strange and before the really wild stuff he wrote near the end. This is more on par with Friday. Except that the female character in Sunrise Alley has more depth. Samantha Bryton is a rich intelligent woman who, after having suffered the loss of her father and her husband, has become a bit of a recluse. In the year 2033 where everyone is connected by what they refer to as the local mesh, Sam is trying to shed most of technology. This is a difficult thing for her since she's a leading figure in the development of EI Intelligence and EI Psychology. To say nothing of the basement lab she has in her seclude home. We find Sam on a secluded beach near her home after a storm jogging and checking out storm damage while remaining as disconnected as she can from the mesh. She discovers first a shipwreck and then the man who calls himself Turner. It takes Sam a while and much conversation before she discovers that Turner is and EI - sentient machine that's been hybrid into a deceased human. One quibble right away might be that this story early on takes the shape of a slightly contrived plot. Here we have Turner an EI who, though he died and someone named Charon has altered his brain with an EI, claims he is still Turner Pascal the human. Since Sam has been a staunch supporter of the notion that EI intelligent machines are sentient and should be accorded the same rights as people this seems all too convenient. But the contrived nature of this story is also a plot point so it works as it is. There are a number of twists and turns in the plot and plenty of thrills and danger to match many Hitchcock suspense films. There are some places where are hero's get into tight spots and squeak out of them rather conveniently - again a plot device and that becomes clear soon enough. What isn't clear is the why and that keeps the story going. The evil character of Charon is shrouded in mystery and there are some twists and turns here but there are plenty of clues about this to make any final reveals work well. It was an easy read for me-one sitting- and anyone who enjoys science fiction, suspense and even romance will find plenty to keep them involved. J.L. Dobias

The Door Through Space by Marion Zimmer Bradley I read this; because it was there. Well, it's written by Marion Zimmer Bradley and its one of the first novels of her's that was published. I loved The Colors of Space but honestly did not read much more than that because her stories seemed predominantly fantasy and at the time I was reading science fiction. I'm almost sorry I haven't read more of her's- the good thing is that enough is out there I might still have time. The Door Through Space demonstrates that she had a lot of talent coming out of the gate. The story starts on the planet known as Wolf. The reader is introduced to Race Cargill former intelligence agent of the Terran Secret Service. He's at the spaceport in Kharsa and in the first chapter we are introduced to the natives much of the political situation and some of the back-story of Cargill all through the movement of a mob chasing a dwarf who appears to be peddling toys. And the reader is introduced to a mystery when the dwarf disappears while Cargill is trying to calm the natives, using his skill at speaking in their language. All of this is in the first short chapter. Cargill is intent on leaving Wolf on the next Star-ship. He's ready to go and on the ship waiting when he's pulled off by his employer who has one more job for him. This job involves a traitor named Rakhal. Rakhal had been a fellow agent. When he turned native he left with Race's sister Juli and he disfigured Race's face. Race has since been at a desk job and he has no desire or ambition to seek after Rakhal or to kill his own brother in law. The problem is that Juli has come back and she's desperate to have Race find Rakhal and bring back her own daughter to her. If that's not enough Race finds out that Rakhal has been pursuing the possibility that someone on Wolf might possess a matter transmitter. If that's true then Terran Intelligence needs to be on top of it. One more time Race Cargill must go undercover to find his niece and try to secure the matter transmitter. This is a tightly written tale that has survived the test of time and still stands as an intriguing story that keeps the reader on their toes and involved to the very end. I sure hope Amazon has that download fixed. If not Guttenburg has this in kindle format and its easy to upload it from a pc into your que- I believe that's how I did it. J.L. Dobias

Containment by Christian Cantrell I loved this book and the character of Arik and it would be nice to give it five stars, but that would be lacking honesty. This is good hard science fiction about a group of settlers on the planet Venus. As such, it is necessary to draw the proper picture of why we are there and how we got there and how we survive there so much of this hard science has to be there to support that. Some of the science seems questionable to me but that's only because I didn't stop to look things up to verify them and I'm just not an expert in many of those fields. Often the hard science of Containment seems to come at the reader from a distance with detachment. Other times there are moments when Arik resonates with the science. There are long paragraphs about the harshness of the planet and life in the biosphere that contrast to the Arik's feelings because he expresses a few times how he's comfortable within the biosphere that he must live. The exposition often draws on the harshness of the planet almost as though we are portraying the planet as another character, and that didn't work that well with me because I didn't see the plot developing in that direction. There also seems to be two stories happening. The present and some flashbacks. Again it's necessary, but at times it's confusing. I had this one curious problem, Containment caused what I refer to in my antiquated thinking as the vinyl record skip syndrome. It's like having that scratch on the record where the needle skips and you have no idea how much you just missed. That's where I'm reading along and stumble into exposition and then suddenly reach the bottom of a page that I can't remember reading. It's a bad habit of mine and I believe many other readers might have something similar. I know to catch it because, as is the case with Containment, the parts I nearly napped through have some plot points that I need to know. Containment qualifies as a hard science science fiction. The problem with that is that in trying so hard to do this many times hard science becomes hard to read. If the goal is to deliberately alienate readers who hate walls of exposition then it's likely to be successful at that. Most readers will accept a few of those when they clearly drive the plot. But, when a few of them seem to be there just to increase the hard science quotient, some readers end up skipping the important ones later. And, although I can point out many occasions where the exposition does drive the plot forward; for each of those there always two that are questionable. I would never ask a writer to give up their babies, especially when they are doing hard science because it does tend to create some lovely images. The problem is that they often serve as a match for the dreaded purple prose that other creative writers get noted for. Neither of these are bad, But out of necessity they should drive the plot or character development and serve a purpose that the reader can identify. Over all Containment is one of those curious books that everyone who loves science fiction might like, but it will always have a variety of reactions from love to mild acceptance to confusion. Obviously many people do love it, and although it's possible one more good edit might have made those numbers rise, it's just as likely to make it worse. By the numbers (reader response) I can't say that the author made any large mistake in leaving it as it is. It might be a tough read for one out of four readers, but overall it's a tightly written and entertaining read. J.L.Dobias

The Colors of Space By Marion Zimmer Bradley I remember reading this a long time ago. Some time after the 1963 edition was published. I decided to read it again and see if it still stood well against time. Bart Steele is a young Vegan who has come to Earth to study at the academy. He is a product of a human and Mentorian pair, although he lost his mother, the Mentorian, early in his life. His father owns a space shipping business that struggles as it must against the monopoly that the Lhari race has over interstellar flight. The Lhari have made it clear that only Lhari can survive while the warp-drive is active and that all other races must go into cold-sleep. This monopoly causes Bart and many others to have a prejudice against the Lhari. On graduation Bart is to meet his father at the Lhari spaceport where he will return home. Bart will never see his father again and will be catapulted into a universe of danger and intrigue. He discovers that his father and several others have died while trying to obtain the secrets of the Lhari and of the warp-drive. Bart is thrust into his father's world while he's become a fugitive from Lhari authorities. The Lhari are not able to perceive colors the way humans and Mentorians do and this becomes a major plot device or I should say part of several plot devices. This is the only part that my more mature insight has quibbles about during this read. There are some big things that are hinged on this color disability that might not work quite as well as I once believed. One major one is that the Lhari could not tell something was red hot because they couldn't see the red. Since often survival hinges on such things there would likely have been another way for them to discern that a surface they were working on in their ship might be hot. Most everything else in the story seems to stand the test of time and still seems to work quite well to move the plot along. Since not enough is revealed about how a specific disguise is worked out, it might seem a bit thin but it still works here. The story itself beyond being science fiction seems to contain a mix of moral elements as regards prejudices and race hate. It becomes a story of a young mans journey to grow to maturity in his thinking and his beliefs. J.L.Dobias

And All the Stars by Andrea K Host. I first had a taste of this novel in a sample; before discovering that it hadn't been released. In the bit of the beginning that I was able to read, I was hooked. I don't read a lot of apocalyptic novels or dystopian novels. I can't say with great knowledge that this contains no dystopia, but in my meager knowledge it didn't seem so much. I was drawn into the story by the great writing and story telling. It certainly wasn't the claustrophobic description or the ever-present feeling of being choked by some strange and possibly alien dust.The slow but persistent buildup of the character, Madeleine's, suspicion that she's at ground zero of a possible bio weapon. The eventual realization that she's all alone and that those around her who aren't dead are locked up in any type of safe containment that they could find. No one is going to offer to let her, and the strange dust that's choking her, into their safety. Some of the earlier pages are difficult to get through for some people-someone I know put it down very early and it's too bad they did. There are some very important plot points in those pages. So, it's important and it does help drive the story and the character. Madeleine has survived the worst of the catastrophe with some injury and is confused and afraid. Madeleine is your average rebellious teen who seems to be a bit of a loner. She's immersed herself in her art and wants to gain honor in that field at a young age. To that end she's skipped school and gone into the big city for a chance to paint a portrait of her famous cousin Tyler. Now she's face to face with that very place that parents always warn their teens about and it could be her most fatal move in her rebellion. In her early wandering she contacts her parents and continues to lie about where she is to keep them from worrying. There is a great sense that Madeleine is already dead. She's just been given a temporary reprieve and it's not yet clear if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Madeleine eventually makes it to her cousins apartment. Her cousin is gone and she's able to get in. She cleans up and while trying to avoid facing the inevitability of her death, she decides that her last act should be the portrait of her cousin even though it won't be possible to have him pose live. For me this was a very interesting type of character development. The author,Andrea, builds a believable portrait of how an artist feels and sees things while choosing what eventually ends up on the canvas. We see this development quite a number of times throughout the story. Enough for the reader to wonder if Andrea is applying how she writes to how an artist might be inspired or if, in fact, it's from her own experience with sketching and painting. Eventually our Character, Madeleine, starts experiencing the side effects of the dust. They are both strange and unsettling, and there is always the fear that she might die. All the time she's monitoring broadcasts about others who are affected, and many of those have died. I found no problem with the notion that much of technology was still active; even after establishing that this is an invasion. In fact it made sense that since this was happening everywhere that it would be more demoralizing to have a constant feed of information telling everyone how bleak things were. Eventually the side affect that causes Madeleine to have an insatiable appetite is what brings her out to brave the city and seek sustenance. This is when she begins to meet more people and make friends in a way she would never have done if things were normal. This is when the story really takes off. I found the pacing in this novel to be quite tight. I'm not a fan of seat of your pants action from cover to cover and there were plenty of well place lulls in the narrative that make perfect sense as far as plot and character development. It did seem a bit longer than 205 pages in the e-book, but when I love the characters I love more pages because I usually don't want to say goodbye so quickly once I get to know them. As has been noted by other reviewers; there are plenty of plot twists in the story to keep the reader guessing. I often catch these in most novels, usually before they are -on the next page. There is one in here though that caught me unaware- the twist makes perfect sense- and you want to kick yourself and few other people when it happens. Young, old- whatever genre- I think everyone will love this book.(Except perhaps those who are genuinely claustrophobic; as is someone I know.) Trust me. Once you get past that first bit of suffocating but possibly accurate description (I've never been in that situation so I don't know.) things will be easier to take. J.L. Dobias

Silversands by Gareth L. Powell is one of those delightful surprises that you run across while searching the internet for something else. I was searching for another author and stumbled upon a link to Silversands. The story started out slow for me but by the end of the sample I was hooked and had to download the rest. This is the story of Avril Bradley a young woman who has been orphaned and is looking for her father. A man she only knows from a photograph and her mother's memories. To quirk up the equation, her search has taken her aboard a star ship that travels through a wormhole that has so many random destinations that it's improbable that she'll succeed. After many jumps and a cargo full of refugees from a failed settlement on another star system they seem to have lucked into finding the ship that her father was supposed to have been aboard. In a strange turn of events something causes a malfunction in their ship, when they attempt to communicate with the other ship. Suspicious and unsure what caused their problem, they are forced to seek help from the settlers on the planet below the ships as their cargo begin to awaken from a long sleep. This is where the story begins to weave into a convoluted set of political plots and strange events that point to Avril and her quest. This has some excellent world building that helps drive the plot. Though I found some of the plot to be predictable it did not interfere with my enjoyment of the story.(I can't really mention more about it without spoiling things) There were plenty of ways for the whole plot to play out and Gareth gives us plenty of surprises. I recommend this to anyone who enjoys Science Fiction and is looking for some fresh new ideas and Characters. There's plenty of room for more stories in this universe. J.L.Dobias

'm a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy. So, stepping into Steampunk can be both easy and trying. Fortunately I'm not so tied up with the harder form of science fiction. I think some contemporary authors of Hard Science Fiction take the hard part to heart and make it as hard as they can. Still, I wanted to do some research before I started into the Bookman Histories by Lavie Tidhar. First, though, I must admit that I read the sample of the first book on Amazon and was intrigued to say the least. With a character using the name Gilgamesh I was assuming that someone might lose something valuable and someone would have to go through hell to get it back. And it looked in this case that the protagonist, Orphan, was to lose the love of his life, Lucy. I wanted to know how that was going to work out. Since the price of the three volumes together as an e-book was the same as each individual I saw no way to lose by purchasing the Bookman Histories. I was not disappointed. In my search to help define Steampunk I was led to one place where there was a notion that such authors as Jules Verne,H.G.Wells and even Mary Shelley could be considered to be influences of Steampunk. Those were good influences and I'm fairly certain that they all figure nicely into the Bookman Histories. I also found mention of the movie - Metropolis- which was intriguing. I don't have a copy of the movie but I do have one of the novel by Thea Von Harbou which is quite a bit different from the movie. It's been suggested the book was made from the film but there is not enough evidence to substantiate that and its just as likely the book was made to be a film and the screenplay was adapted from the book. It's not so much different though, to make it unqualified as an influence. In fact I found some interesting parallels with the book Metropolis and the first book of the Bookman Histories. Both Protagonists Freder in Metropolis and Orphan in Bookman have lost their mother. Both Protagonists fall in love at first sight. Freder with Maria and Orphan with Lucy. Both become driven by their love and passion, as their motivation throughout the story. Both are destined to be catalysts for change, even though they would deny it. Of Metropolis Thea Von Harbou spoke of it being a moral - that the mediator between brain and muscle must be the heart. The first book of the Histories seems to be the same since it is Orphan who seems to be the heart. His love for Lucy (his heart) is his motivation for moving forward into things he barely understands. He soldier's on in his devotion to the belief he's doing this to help him regain that lost love, Lucy. It becomes an inner conflict between his selfless devotion to undo an enormous wrong while trying at all times to do what, in his heart, is right. I first read Metropolis when I was around sixteen years of age. It was a difficult read. When I reread it for this I thought it would be less difficult. But, it's written as are many books of its time a bit florid and in a time when purple prose wasn't a nasty thing. Although it's entertaining; it's difficult. Thankfully the reader of the Bookman Histories will not find this book difficult. The entire three volumes are quite easy to read. Not only a pleasure; but, in some cases a wonder. There is an enormous amount of name dropping in these books. They are almost a who's who of famous people not only out of history but characters from the fiction of those times. We have elements of Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G Wells, Lord Byron and many more. If not in their actual appearance,then in the appearance of characters they created. Often they are anachronistically portrayed. In some ways these books remind me of the RiverWorld series by Philip Jose Farmer. And in other ways they remind me of the later work of Robert Heinlein where there was an alternate world where many of his favorite characters were resurrected. An interesting side note is that in a scene in the first book, Bookman; Orphan is going through a pile of books and they are named to a tune of around 39 various titles that are all fictitious books written by fictitious characters. These books show up in a variety of real books and are out of the imaginations of the authors of those books. I have no idea if Lavie Tidhar is suggesting that he's read all the books that those come out of; or if he did an extensive search for books and authors that don't exist. In that list there is one news article mentioned that may have some basis in reality.(It might be a foreshadow of the last book also.) And of course there is Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is quoted throughout. There are some parts of this trilogy that get a bit gruesome and remind me of the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Greene. Elements reminiscent of the surgeries of Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly Or Ras Thavas in Edgar Rice Burroughs Master Mind of Mars. The fun fantastic part is that Lavie Tidhar puts it all together with such wonderful prose and a tight plot that it all works. All I have to say is, "I want more." There are plenty of threads left-for more. Save time and money and buy the whole History its well worth it for the first story, Bookman. The rest is like icing on the cake. J.L.Dobias

'm a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy. So, stepping into Steampunk can be both easy and trying. Fortunately I'm not so tied up with the harder form of science fiction. I think some contemporary authors of Hard Science Fiction take the hard part to heart and make it as hard as they can. Still, I wanted to do some research before I started into the Bookman Histories by Lavie Tidhar. First, though, I must admit that I read the sample of the first book on Amazon and was intrigued to say the least. With a character using the name Gilgamesh I was assuming that someone might lose something valuable and someone would have to go through hell to get it back. And it looked in this case that the protagonist, Orphan, was to lose the love of his life, Lucy. I wanted to know how that was going to work out. Since the price of the three volumes together as an e-book was the same as each individual I saw no way to lose by purchasing the Bookman Histories. I was not disappointed. In my search to help define Steampunk I was led to one place where there was a notion that such authors as Jules Verne,H.G.Wells and even Mary Shelley could be considered to be influences of Steampunk. Those were good influences and I'm fairly certain that they all figure nicely into the Bookman Histories. I also found mention of the movie - Metropolis- which was intriguing. I don't have a copy of the movie but I do have one of the novel by Thea Von Harbou which is quite a bit different from the movie. It's been suggested the book was made from the film but there is not enough evidence to substantiate that and its just as likely the book was made to be a film and the screenplay was adapted from the book. It's not so much different though, to make it unqualified as an influence. In fact I found some interesting parallels with the book Metropolis and the first book of the Bookman Histories. Both Protagonists Freder in Metropolis and Orphan in Bookman have lost their mother. Both Protagonists fall in love at first sight. Freder with Maria and Orphan with Lucy. Both become driven by their love and passion, as their motivation throughout the story. Both are destined to be catalysts for change, even though they would deny it. Of Metropolis Thea Von Harbou spoke of it being a moral - that the mediator between brain and muscle must be the heart. The first book of the Histories seems to be the same since it is Orphan who seems to be the heart. His love for Lucy (his heart) is his motivation for moving forward into things he barely understands. He soldier's on in his devotion to the belief he's doing this to help him regain that lost love, Lucy. It becomes an inner conflict between his selfless devotion to undo an enormous wrong while trying at all times to do what, in his heart, is right. I first read Metropolis when I was around sixteen years of age. It was a difficult read. When I reread it for this I thought it would be less difficult. But, it's written as are many books of its time a bit florid and in a time when purple prose wasn't a nasty thing. Although it's entertaining; it's difficult. Thankfully the reader of the Bookman Histories will not find this book difficult. The entire three volumes are quite easy to read. Not only a pleasure; but, in some cases a wonder. There is an enormous amount of name dropping in these books. They are almost a who's who of famous people not only out of history but characters from the fiction of those times. We have elements of Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G Wells, Lord Byron and many more. If not in their actual appearance,then in the appearance of characters they created. Often they are anachronistically portrayed. In some ways these books remind me of the RiverWorld series by Philip Jose Farmer. And in other ways they remind me of the later work of Robert Heinlein where there was an alternate world where many of his favorite characters were resurrected. An interesting side note is that in a scene in the first book, Bookman; Orphan is going through a pile of books and they are named to a tune of around 39 various titles that are all fictitious books written by fictitious characters. These books show up in a variety of real books and are out of the imaginations of the authors of those books. I have no idea if Lavie Tidhar is suggesting that he's read all the books that those come out of; or if he did an extensive search for books and authors that don't exist. In that list there is one news article mentioned that may have some basis in reality.(It might be a foreshadow of the last book also.) And of course there is Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is quoted throughout. There are some parts of this trilogy that get a bit gruesome and remind me of the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Greene. Elements reminiscent of the surgeries of Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly Or Ras Thavas in Edgar Rice Burroughs Master Mind of Mars. The fun fantastic part is that Lavie Tidhar puts it all together with such wonderful prose and a tight plot that it all works. All I have to say is, "I want more." There are plenty of threads left-for more. Save time and money and buy the whole History its well worth it for the first story, Bookman. The rest is like icing on the cake. J.L.Dobias

'm a fan of Science Fiction and Fantasy. So, stepping into Steampunk can be both easy and trying. Fortunately I'm not so tied up with the harder form of science fiction. I think some contemporary authors of Hard Science Fiction take the hard part to heart and make it as hard as they can. Still, I wanted to do some research before I started into the Bookman Histories by Lavie Tidhar. First, though, I must admit that I read the sample of the first book on Amazon and was intrigued to say the least. With a character using the name Gilgamesh I was assuming that someone might lose something valuable and someone would have to go through hell to get it back. And it looked in this case that the protagonist, Orphan, was to lose the love of his life, Lucy. I wanted to know how that was going to work out. Since the price of the three volumes together as an e-book was the same as each individual I saw no way to lose by purchasing the Bookman Histories. I was not disappointed. In my search to help define Steampunk I was led to one place where there was a notion that such authors as Jules Verne,H.G.Wells and even Mary Shelley could be considered to be influences of Steampunk. Those were good influences and I'm fairly certain that they all figure nicely into the Bookman Histories. I also found mention of the movie - Metropolis- which was intriguing. I don't have a copy of the movie but I do have one of the novel by Thea Von Harbou which is quite a bit different from the movie. It's been suggested the book was made from the film but there is not enough evidence to substantiate that and its just as likely the book was made to be a film and the screenplay was adapted from the book. It's not so much different though, to make it unqualified as an influence. In fact I found some interesting parallels with the book Metropolis and the first book of the Bookman Histories. Both Protagonists Freder in Metropolis and Orphan in Bookman have lost their mother. Both Protagonists fall in love at first sight. Freder with Maria and Orphan with Lucy. Both become driven by their love and passion, as their motivation throughout the story. Both are destined to be catalysts for change, even though they would deny it. Of Metropolis Thea Von Harbou spoke of it being a moral - that the mediator between brain and muscle must be the heart. The first book of the Histories seems to be the same since it is Orphan who seems to be the heart. His love for Lucy (his heart) is his motivation for moving forward into things he barely understands. He soldier's on in his devotion to the belief he's doing this to help him regain that lost love, Lucy. It becomes an inner conflict between his selfless devotion to undo an enormous wrong while trying at all times to do what, in his heart, is right. I first read Metropolis when I was around sixteen years of age. It was a difficult read. When I reread it for this I thought it would be less difficult. But, it's written as are many books of its time a bit florid and in a time when purple prose wasn't a nasty thing. Although it's entertaining; it's difficult. Thankfully the reader of the Bookman Histories will not find this book difficult. The entire three volumes are quite easy to read. Not only a pleasure; but, in some cases a wonder. There is an enormous amount of name dropping in these books. They are almost a who's who of famous people not only out of history but characters from the fiction of those times. We have elements of Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle, H.G Wells, Lord Byron and many more. If not in their actual appearance,then in the appearance of characters they created. Often they are anachronistically portrayed. In some ways these books remind me of the RiverWorld series by Philip Jose Farmer. And in other ways they remind me of the later work of Robert Heinlein where there was an alternate world where many of his favorite characters were resurrected. An interesting side note is that in a scene in the first book, Bookman; Orphan is going through a pile of books and they are named to a tune of around 39 various titles that are all fictitious books written by fictitious characters. These books show up in a variety of real books and are out of the imaginations of the authors of those books. I have no idea if Lavie Tidhar is suggesting that he's read all the books that those come out of; or if he did an extensive search for books and authors that don't exist. In that list there is one news article mentioned that may have some basis in reality.(It might be a foreshadow of the last book also.) And of course there is Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is quoted throughout. There are some parts of this trilogy that get a bit gruesome and remind me of the Deathstalker series by Simon R. Greene. Elements reminiscent of the surgeries of Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly Or Ras Thavas in Edgar Rice Burroughs Master Mind of Mars. The fun fantastic part is that Lavie Tidhar puts it all together with such wonderful prose and a tight plot that it all works. All I have to say is, "I want more." There are plenty of threads left-for more. Save time and money and buy the whole History its well worth it for the first story, Bookman. The rest is like icing on the cake. J.L.Dobias

Touchstone Trilogy by Andrea K Host. I purchased this book after reading a sample of Andrea K Host's -And all the Stars-. I had already put the three books in my wish list prior to that. But after reading that sample I had a feeling I should just buy the whole and totally unrelated trilogy. I read through them in three days. People have told me that writing in first person is hard to do. They have given various reasons why it does not work and sometimes those reasons are conflicted. Some even suggest that it's this decades fad to write in first person. Because this is written as a diary it's naturally in first person. Andrea nails first person right on the head, and right out of the box. Cass is such an engaging character in Stray that she sucks you right into her story at the beginning. There is not doubt of Andrea's world building abilities and her strong characterization. But what really got me in this story is in the chapter February when Cass's birthday arrives. And I'm not giving anything away, other than to honestly say I was so into Cass by then that I nearly cried. It's not often a book does that. And then there was Lab Rat One. And by now this series is peopled with a couple of handfuls of characters that you would think you'd need a score card but there are more to come and Cass has a way of making sure we don't lose track of who is who. Or maybe I should say that Andrea does. It doesn't take long before Andrea does it to me again. Even though Cass sometimes begins to sound a bit whinny I just get so into her whole dilemma that I can't help but feel what she must be feeling. So by Caszandra the third installment, you would think I was steeled and ready to handle it. But, Andrea through Cass has a way of now drawing you into her life and the extended family of people around her. This series of books is one powerhouse. Well told tightly packed. Emotionally charged. But what really got me was how it all touched me. I would need more stars if I gave a star for every time I was greatly affected by this story. J.L. Dobias

Space Captain Smith by Toby Frost. I always like to say something good about a book before I point out the negative. It has a nice cover and I was able to read more than a full chapter for free. Being not entirely impressed I was hoping for more than that in the rest of the book Toby should look at the small piece where he introduced Paul Devrin there are a number of paragraphs where he develops this character that almost hooked me. If only he had done this with the main characters or any number of his sidekicks. Sadly he did not and it digressed quickly even with this more evil sounding character, Paul. There are few books that I don't finish. I must admit that I haven't gotten much farther than the available free part so I won't belabor any points. I can't give away plot points because there was only one that I sort of noticed here. I'm one of those people who do not judge a book by its cover or the blurb on the back. Rarely do I read the blurb that might be in the front. What I do; is read the first chapter and if it doesn't grab me I don't take it home. I tried to give this the benefit of the doubt but perhaps the humor has missed me and perhaps the development of the characters is tied to that humor. Either way even had I think its a bit over priced for the e-book I put it down after the end of the third chapter. It's likely just me but this just didn't do it for me. The three stars if for that one bright light in the dark character of Paul Devrin. J.L. Dobias

The Convent of the Pure by Sara M. Harvey is listed as a Steampunk novel. I'm not a fan of Steampunk though I have enjoyed the Girl Genius and I must admit that this novel as well as some others gave me good reason to look up the definition of Steampunk. Since I'm giving this one the possibility of a read that makes defining it almost paramount. I have been willing in the past to nod to aspects of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells that would easily slide into the Steampunk genre. There have been some aspects of the horror or shock fiction which I've struggled with. Such as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. All and all I think I came to an agreeable understanding that the Convent of the Pure qualified. It also opened the avenue to look to some of my other old authors and to see how easily Edgar Rice Burroughs could fall in this category. In fact the description of some of the scenes in the macabre lab reminded me of the Master Mind of Mars. Even the subsequent 'surgery' kept taking me back to that old novel. The narrative itself without the aspects of Genre was more than enough to sustain my attention most of the way through. There may have been two or three places where I caught myself skipping ahead. If I were of the ilk of those in some forums I would write a two page analysis of what was wrong with one paragraph or sentence. It would be more likely that the fault lie in the reader who may have been trying to get an advanced look at where things were going. It did not hurt that I'm a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and that I kept trying to draw parallels to Portia and Buffy. But, this story has its own unique elements. I enjoyed the take on the Nephilim - the children of the sons of god and daughters of man. That they survived the flood and were hiding while assigning themselves as watchers over man. Elements of this part of the story bordered on a dystopic life for these watchers and once again - not a fan of dystopia novels. But it was Portia and her relationship to the ever present spirit of her lost love Imogen that catapulted me past those parts. Being new to the genre I hesitate to say that the first half of the novel does or doesn't seem to contain much that is new and unique. It was a good and sustainable read and when I reached the second half which I'll refer to as that more grisly half I think the style and voice of the author, Sara, comes shining through. We see her show us Portia at her most vulnerable moments having to grow and learn to trust that the strength and determination she's been trying to build within herself is not as distant from her as she thinks. Overall for me Sara M. Harvey may have tipped the scale that's been balancing me away from getting immersed in Steampunk. Way to go; as if I don't have enough to read already. J.L. Dobias

Accelerando by Charles Stross The last thing this book needs is another review. It seems to run the whole gamut of stars in the system. It's that type of book that has a love hate relationship. There seem to be a lot of complaints about the overflow of cyber geek talk which doesn't surprise me. What did surprise me is that I went right through this book with only a couple pauses to look up words. It seems I cut right through the geek talk without flinching. Maybe I should say blissfully through. Since it might be argued that I was bliss-ed just enough to remain unaffected. What some of the longest -geek-speak passages reminded me of was some stuff I'd recently tried to digest at the Depau science fiction studies site.:: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/81/fernbach81art.htm ::this one in particular was what kept coming to mind every time we took a trip down through all the buzzwords and slang from every notion of cyber punk and the socioeconomic of the net. There were complaints that this is not how they will be talking in the distant future. Get real people if you can pick out the slang I will give you that but buzzwords are forever they just shift around in meaning through the years. I suppose if you can read the articles for the science fiction studies without much pause then Accelerando shouldn't affect you. There is something to say about the characters being a bit distanced and dysfunctional enough that you don't seem to feel for them. I have a feeling that Charles Stross may have been going for that. Another thing that Charles did was he put together a tough combination of things that would drive any writers forum crazy. Much of this book is written in first person and present tense. Other part seem to be third person- close- and present tense. These alone are not easy tasks to pull off. Then there are those long and greatly punctuated sentences that would grind on the nerves of the OCD driven punctuation people at a certain forum I will leave unnamed here. Charles pulls this all off well. I would almost guess he might be thumbing his nose at these forums that are trying to spit out cookie cutter writers. All of them clones of the churlish administrator who is still learning to write. And this is where I can see that a few people might not like this book. Not because it is not written well or that it is full of geek-speak but because it doesn't conform to what the majority of books are that are spit out by the presses of the large publishing houses. Sure there might be some Science in this story that is suspect. It is after all science fiction and the best of them that have started from the most solid what-if have all digressed a bit and wandered off the path. I again think that Charles has done well. Of course there is the notion that these separate stories do not quite congeal together well even though they are about the members of the same dysfunctional family. To that I say we missed a larger point. These are not just the story of Manfred Macx and his wives and children and grandchildren. This is the story of the birth of an AI (catlike) and its growth into something that transcends its creator. *Possible spoiler------------------------------------------------- This is Aineko's story- Aineko is there all the way through the whole story. Right to the end. And I'll admit that its hard to empathize with Aineko but that might be because it's not really human. J.L. Dobias

Weeping for Raven by Mel Kinder This book is a real surprise. I've been avoiding this one hoping Mel would put it on sale or maybe offer it free. Not that it's all that expensive; it's just a bit more than I pay for new author e-books. Plus I wasn't absolutely certain about the genre. And, I have all these other books here in my kindle that I haven't read yet. After reading a number of reviews- they all are pretty favorable- some are rather short and not real helpful- but the ones that took time to demonstrate they read the book left some great impressions to entice me. I wasn't disappointed. We start out with a bit of mystery with someone in a garden of flowers and trees who is wondering how they got there. The last they knew they were asleep in bed. So this could be a dream or she could be sleepwalking. The dream theory is enhanced by the fact that her hair is the wrong color. Then we move to a normal setting and for a while it's a question of; is this just another teen angst story. It takes only a few pages to get past and thankfully the author gets us into the real story. There is a great need for background though, I think. That's my theory. Gwen Penn lives with her grandparents. She's getting ready to chose a college. She's limiting herself because she is certain her grandparents need her near. During the admission process she meets Mick whose nickname is Mimic-because of a stutter problem. Gwen feels a slight connection to Mimic but because she has kept to herself recently she tries to keep it out of her mind. She is affected enough to design her class schedule around his. Gwen's mother has been institutionalized because she's not all there. This is something we learn as things go. I must confess I honestly can't remember what happened with her father if it was mentioned. I'll have to read this again soon. She has lost her best friend, Baylee in an accident. All of this is important because Gwen's about to question her sanity soon. And, I can't help but wonder about what might really be afflicting her mother. This ordinary life is created to contrast the world where the story will really take place. Rook Dresden- through a twist of fate- will happen across a young woman collapsed in a garden. This is Gwen who will find that she's not only in someone else body but she's in some rather strange world. Rook has a lot of strange similarities in his life. He's lost his mother in an accident and his sister Raven is in a coma and his father is institutionalized because he blames himself for his wife's and daughter's condition. Despite herself Gwen has an immediate and intense connection to Rook; her initial thoughts are [quote]...cute is trouble. Cute got people into trouble. Partly to blame for over occupancy at the animal shelters. It weakened good judgement. [/quote]In this world Gwens senses seem to be heightened and with the relentless nature of Rook; she won't be able to rely on her good judgement. While trying to pretend nothing is wrong with her Gwen slowly learns that this world is very different from hers. People are nocturnal. Cars don't have wheels because they fly. There are no restaurants and no banks. They don't eat but feed off the energy of a dark sun. They have magical abilities. And, partially because of the heightened sense, Gwen thinks its a paradise. Strangely one constant in both worlds is her cat-the one in the new world looks just like her's - it has a different name while her's was called Whinny this one is Chester. This is something she finds out at the same time as she finds out that its Alex Murdock whose body she inhabits. This story is like sliders with a quantum leap twist. This is when things get really interesting-like that old curse. Cat, a friend of Alexa's, shows up to inform Gwen that she knows about her and that Alexa had been experimenting with a drug to induce a condition they refer to as a Wardlow. Wardlows are a supposed epidemic that wipes away a persons soul replacing it with a beast. Alexa was trying to prove that that theory was wrong by inducing the condition. The big problem is that Cat was supposed to have been there to prevent Gwen from interfacing with anyone. Gwen was never meant to meet Rook. And there are people who hunt Wardlows -the hunters from the world of the unseen- and beings who detect them, the TAS the all seeing. When the all seeing find a wardlow they send the hunters to hunt them and because there is no cure for their condition they are executed. Okay, so I might be going too far here and I don't mean to spoil things so I better stop. There are still a lot of layers to this story I haven't touched anyway. Gwen who has otherwise isolated herself from friendship is the type of person who can't easily lie to others and now she finds herself in a position where she needs to lie to keep alive. Just when she thought she could make friends she finds that she can't trust anyone. And, she has no idea what Alexa might be doing with her own real life back in her world. This is an exciting almost paranormal romance blended with science fiction and some elements of fantasy with the potential to throw in a bit of horror. Even Gwen thinks jokingly over the curiosity of what genre she would be; when Rook compares her to an interesting book. She wonders if it would be Horror? or Science Fiction. No mater what of the many genre above if you like any of those you'll love this. And even though it promises to be a serial of some sort the ending is satisfying enough to make you yearn for the next book. J.L. Dobias

Diamond Eyes By A A Bell I honestly didn't know what to expect from this novel. I had made it to the author's web page and looked at the covers, which were intriguing. I really did not read the blurbs. I was, in fact, taking a break from another tedious novel that I felt lacked some bit of style to keep me interested. So I decided to go ahead and try the bit of sample the author is offering. It's about one hundred pages. I usually don't put a lot of stock in the cover or the blurb, but prefer to read at least ten or more pages when possible. And I will say this-about Diamond Eyes- read those pages and then try to act like you're not interested in reading the rest of the book. I was immediately drawn into the book by the engaging narrative. This is not one of the usual action packed, heart pumping, seat of your pants hooks. This is more a carefully crafted lure that is placed gently and casually entices the reader into the world of Mira Chambers and her heart rending story. Ben-recently released from prison for something he had nothing to do with- thought that he'd just been through the worst he could ever see and was looking forward to getting back into the life he had to so abruptly leave behind. He's just taken a job with Serenity-better known as Libica Isle Benevolent Asylum for the Criminally Insane. Not the best assignment but he's now an ex-con. He'll be working with youths and young adults, but is primarily here to help with Mira's case. If he thought he had it bad he's about to discover a whole new meaning of bad. Not the way that the story initially misleads the reader, though. He's about to see how much of a hell that Mira has had to confront and slowly he begins to realize that it may all be even more of an injustice than his own incarceration. Mira is blind- that's the least of her problems. She's not much hindered by her blindness and she is in no way to be considered helpless. Her real problem is that because her hold on reality seems so tenuous and her nature is to strike out at everyone, she is kept mollified through heavy medication. She has no friends in the staff and the one friend she has among the patients has recently sewn here eye lid shut. There's a lot of mystery just in this first bit of getting acquainted with these characters. And sometimes this reads like a paranormal story and for some it might not get to the action as quick as they desire. This is a suspense thriller that build slowly one brick at a time and it kept me interested all the way through. There may have been some predictable elements in the narrative but I think that helped the pacing of the story if anything. There are often novels, which I've read, that resonate with me in such a way that they really touch me and this novel had several moments. There were times when the struggles and decisions of Mira seemed so real that I could cheer when it appears that Ben has somehow connected and goes way above and beyond to help her. In the same token when Ben suffers for both his past and those decisions to help that put him a odds with the system I found myself sympathizing and trying to figure out how things were ever going to work out for him. It seem for every breakthrough in Mira's condition they run into another setback for which either one of them might be responsible and until the two researchers come into the story there seems to be little hope in a total understanding of what is going on. But, with the possibility of answers for both Mira and Ben there comes a new set of risks and dangers that begin to make everything else they have experienced so far look like a walk in the park. I'm not sure how anyone could put this book down after starting. I want the answers to the burning questions about Mira's condition. There were several times that I had to look up some of the stuff mentioned in Diamond Eyes and I'd say the A.A. Bell did the research necessary to bring as much realism into this novel as possible. If you like psychological thrillers, a bit of the paranormal, and some weird time travel like stuff you'll love this book. All this, and it could very well be considered a literary masterpiece. It's well told, clear and understandable as the author builds- each step of the way- the explanation of what the Diamond Eyes mean to Mira.(To say nothing of the Poet Trees.) Well Woven Psychological Suspense Mystery Thriller J.L. Dobias

The Raven Sage: Part 1 Raven by Suzy Turner This is one of those plots that sort of creeps along and holds you there for quite a while. Once you get to about 25% of the book it nails you. This does not have one of those page turner openings with the heart-pumping heart stopping hook. But Suzy Turner proves that you don't need that to make good stories work. When we first meet Lilly Taylor- we don't know her name. In fact for all we know it might be eat- that's what her mother seems to say just as shes addressing her in the few times we witness any exchanges between them. I think this is to help jar the reader into understanding that Lilly's home life is nothing near normal. And, just when she thought things would continue in their horribly boring way her parents disappear. For Lilly this is equally as distressing as it should be for any young girl of thirteen years and yet it's somehow less so because she has a very strange relationship with her parents. The one thing about Lilly is that she's always had this life and knows no other and she has had few friends up until December Moon, her newest classmate, shows up. Unfortunately due to circumstances Lilly will have to move away from December and from England to live with her grandfather in Canada until her parents are found. Though the disappearance of her father and mother has some strangeness attached to it, Lilly doesn't know strange until she reaches Canada and her extended family in British Columbia near Vancouver. Lilly goes from a life of seeming imprisonment to a wide open wonderful colorful world that seems to have a magic to it that not only touches her heart but pulls her deep into it's mystique. What she doesn't realize is that she has a special connection. Her grandfather Gabriel tries to slowly and carefully break some of the family secrets to her. Lilly is anxious and almost demands to know and soon she'll discover the deceptions that have been perpetrated on her and her world will be turned upside down. She's also destined to -at the age of fourteen- have her first true love. Unfortunately the family secrets and new revelations about her life will begin to interfere with that part of her new-found happiness. It seems that Lillian's true surname is Tulugaq-not Taylor-and Tulugaq means Raven. Her family carry a gene for shape-shifting into Ravens. What's more her mother-that she grew up with-is not her mother at all. But the woman Vivian is a witch who has enchanted her father somehow and stolen both of them away from the family after her sister and mother died.(All of this occurred right after her birth.) Lilly has the potential to shape-shift into one of two creatures. A raven or a cat (of some sort-usually determined by the persons character-I think). Lilly's true mother's family are cat shifters. Lilly is about to be be thrust into a secret world of vampires, werewolf, witches, shape-shifters and more. You'll have to read to find out what Lilly might become. Suzy Turner does an excellent job of creating her world where there is a special council of elders who make rules to govern all of these strange creatures. It turns out that more people than just Lilly have been victims of Vivian. And Lilly must come to terms with what she is so that she can begin to help in the search for her father who was being slowly brought to the brink of death by Vivian who uses certain special types of people to help extend her life ( at their expense). This is a great story that proves once again that your hook can actually be your great ability to tell a great story and doesn't have to include a thrill ride introduction with several paced mind numbing thrills and terrors through out. There are plenty of conflicts and things to stimulate the readers imagination throughout this and Lilly is a truly engaging character from which we are introduced to the wonders of British Columbia and the rich world building of Suzy Turner. This is definitely a great story for Young Adults and Mature Adults. I usually read science fiction but this fantasy with a small edge into the world of horror and the magical with potential for paranormal romance is quite a draw. It reads as though Lilly is growing up as the story begins to unfold and flower to maturity. I enjoyed it so much-when the last page arrived I was a bit heartbroken. It's a good thing there are two more books. I got this one free as you may also be able to do and I'll definitely be purchasing the others. J.L. Dobias

December Moon(The Raven Saga)book 2 by Suzy Turner I had just finished Raven by Suzy Turner and knew that I'd have to eventually revisit the world of Lilly Taylor aka Lillian Tulugaq. A universe where all imagined fantasy characters might exist- and possibly do. We certainly meet quite a variety. The next day after I completed Raven I came home and my wife Virginia mentioned being three quarters of the way through a really interesting book. Of course it was Raven and I knew right away that I'd have to get the other two book. I did that immediately. Then the race was on. Virginia loves romance novels I am more partial to Science Fiction though I've been known to read the occasional fantasy. So that was one reason I had picked up Raven which turned out to be a fantasy - paranormal romance novel. Sometimes we find something which crosses both our paths and this series is one of those. Being a slightly slower reader than Virginia I attempted to get that extra quarter of the novel lead on her. I knew it was fruitless but it was fun and though she finished the second book a bit sooner than I I think we both thoroughly enjoyed it. December Moon starts out with the beginning of a reveal about its namesake. Up until now December has been Lilly's normal best friend whom she's had to hid her secrets from despite their closeness. Of Course in the world that Suzy Turner has made that's a condition that is about to change. In this universe the special people have to hide the secret from the normals to protect themselves and possibly even protect the normals. Lilly is still trying to come to terms with her new life as a changeling or shape-changer. She's dealing with the loss of her boyfriend because of the necessity to keep secrets and other complications. She's still searching for her father who vanished last year. But, she does have her new-found family and she is in constant contact with her friend in England, December. She just has to angst about not being able to tell December anything about the truth of her family. December has had a few strange things happen around her and is thinking she might be losing it a bit. She's just turning 15 and I'm not sure is that's a major mile-stone in England, but she's about to discover that her father has left her an inheritance and that she's now free to decide where she wants to live. She finds out the mother who abandoned her -didn't really abandon- and that she lives near Seattle Washington in the USA. And December and her faithful servant Monty are about to embark on an adventure to the Americas where she'll be a hop skip and jump from her best friend near Vancouver. December is about to discover that she comes from a family of Witches. Her mother, grandmother and great-grand and so on have all been witches and December may likely end up being a powerful witch some day. But, she has to keep it a secret and that means she needs to keep it from her ordinary friend Lilly. This begins the narrative dance which Suzy is so good at. The reader gets a lot of reveals before the characters do so its fun to watch as they unnecessarily avoid issues because they think each other to be normal. It's all about to change because a dangerous Vampire has been stalking the community that Lilly lives in and they have been calling in outside help. The witches of the Seattle are are about to be called in, which both thrills and mortifies December since her friend Lilly is there and she might be in danger and if she sees Lilly she won't be able to tell her the real reason she's there. These books are all about the interconnection of this diverse group of paranormal people. The mess they get into while trying to blend in as normal and the dangers they face constantly when they have to face the evil half of their own people. The excitement and tension and danger ramp up a bit more than the last book. There is still plenty of paranormal romance to go around with the cast of the original novel and a whole couple handful of new players. This has a few threads carried over from the previous novel and some that will carry into the next. The story is well rounded and ends with the definite indication that there is at least one more book to follow. Once again this is for lovers of Horror-Paranormal Romance and fantasy books. Now quickly onto The Lost Soul -final novel of Raven Saga Trilogy. The race is not yet finished. J.L. Dobias

I acquired this e-book free from amazon and I can emphatically say that it was a delightful surprised wrapped in the fresh voice of a new talent. Let me first warn that this book is best enjoyed on a kindle or in a kindle for PC app and not quite so friendly in the Chrome-book app that they have for it. I was test driving the chrome at the time and endured the jagged right margin with no indents and no spaces between paragraphs and there was often some confusion about where paragraphs ended. I checked later on my other two appliances and found it to be an affectation of the poorly written kindle program for the chrome. Let me also say that this should in no way reflect poorly on the author- in fact- it says a lot that I couldn't put this book down even with those problems on the chrome. This is a sort of coming of age story. Jamie and her brother Brandon have recently left home and are trying to find their nitch in life. Brandon has his band and his band buddies, Jamie is not so fortunate as she only has the band by association. She's well organized but not yet focused on what she wants to do. So she helps out where she can with all the guys in the band and she is falling for one of them. Kyle is someone that she and her brother have known for a long time and she's becoming certain that she'd be comfortable with more than that as long as it doesn't mess with current friendships. This story is a lot more than that though. It's a story of changes and coming to understand ones own potential. It's a story of love, heart break, betrayal and growth. It's also a story of strange creatures and mystery. It starts out a bit slow, but that won't put you off. It's a slowly peculating mystery where Jessica keeps the reader wondering just what's happening. Brandon and Jamie start the story on a camping trip in the desert that goes just a bit awry when they wander into a deep cave where they both are injured and attacked by an unseen and deadly creature. Strange things begin to happen to them and it's only at about one third the way into the story that we discover a bit of what is going on. Trust me you won't want to put it down at least until you find out what that is. Then when you do, you'll have to finish it because things get really interesting. One of the amazing things about The Foretelling is how well the characters are portrayed. Not only did I easily identify with Jamie and Brandon and immediately feel a connection, but even some of the less likeable characters are still endearing enough to care about. The story is a well woven and nicely paced tale that takes you from beginning to end and leaves you wanting to pick up the next book as soon as possible to find out what is going to happen. Anyone who likes Anne McCaffery's Dragon stories will love this tale. I love mostly science fiction but the explanation and detail along with great narrative style were enough to keep me happy throughout. I really can't express how much I love the world you're building here Jessica. J.L. Dobias

Time Change Book One: The Jump by Alex Myers I loved this book. Not only was it entertaining it was educational. There are a lot of historical characters here that I might never have met without this book. It's amazing how many inventors there are that are not household names. On the other hand there a quite a few household names in the book also. I usually call this name-dropping because an author often does not do much related with that character that seems to be totally in character when they map out stories like this. This is not that kind of story- these characters show up for a reason. This book starts out like a historical novel and then sort of morphs itself-understandably-into a sort of steam punk with just a bit less steam in it. Instead of being an alternate universe which developed differently this is more like a time travel universe with the same potential as ours where the main character- familiar with today's technology- attempts to bring his new-old world up to date. This has a great storyline with a great main character. Jack Riggs-maybe later we might consider him the Jack of all trades- has a vast amount of knowledge that he seems mostly to be wasting. Jack is a womanizer. He hasn't found the woman he loves- ie; one he respects long enough to actually be in a serious relationship with. This is what gets Jack into trouble and it's something he'll find himself working on in spite of himself. Jack is teaching- which means he is using some of that knowledge. and he is presently toying with a relationship with Ashley who seems to be quite intelligent and driven and possibly a bit anal- at least from Jacks point of view. Jack has also been toying at work. He must be teaching seniors because the girl he's been cheating with, Shalah is possibly eighteen-making her somewhat legal. But, let's face it; Jack! what are you thinking. Jack has all sorts of good reasons for what he's been thinking of doing and all sorts of denial that he did that much. It seems that Shalah has thrown herself at him. This is natural since Jack is just one of those guys that women throw themselves at. The trouble this leads to is everything beyond expected when Jack is being questioned at the police station for possible terrorism. Shalah shows up with a bomb at school-one which her terrorist boyfriend made- based on knowledge that Jack was freely tossing around. This leads to a disclosure of a relationship with Shalah that seems to be trumped up by pictures Shalah had taken after breaking into Jacks apartment. Jack naturally calls Ashley to pick him up where she proceeds to break up with him in a high speed drive away from the police station and into the center of a super storm. This is when things get really strange. At the moment when Jack might be seeing his life flash before him. Surprise Ashley loses control of the care and the slide into an eventual accident. At the moment of Impact the super storm lightning strikes and some great vortex like force takes Jack back to the 1850's and some time just prior to the civil war. Now I'll stop for my quibble with this book. There is a side story that figures heavily in this novel and probably makes more sense in the next novel. It shows up as a preface or prologue or such called Before. I won't say much about it because it confused me mostly and I'm not sure it's necessary. But, I didn't write this novel and I don't intend on rewriting it so it's there and it stands. I have the same feeling about the last chapter which is a chapter and could have been the epilogue. Either way I don't think they added to the story and could have been inserted somewhere in the second book if they are necessary, which I think they are and it might be that the author doesn't want to make it look like he thought of this at the last minute and inserted it into the second story. So, bottom line is the objection is just me- it probably is a good thing the two sections are there. There are more breadcrumbs related to them inside the story. Anyway, Jack becomes a great facilitator of inventors. He needs to eventually create most of the things he thinks he needs to stop the civil war from happening. I'm not going to name drop all the inventors involved. I think the best way to read this is to have a paper handy and write names down and later check their credentials on line. You'll be surprised at what information is there and how well the characters fit into the world that Jack is building. There's an evil group of southerners who are copying peoples patented technologies who will notice Jack and realize they need to get him on their team- not realizing that Jack is never going to be on their side. This creates the conflict. And, the woman of his dreams, Dreams Jack never knew he had, creates the pathway towards rehabilitating the womanizer. But, not before he takes an initial sampling of what's available in the past. This is a great novel for anyone who loves historical romances and it's coming real close to the strange technology anachronism of all good Steam-punk novels. It has time travel and even some strange-mysterious group(possibly time travelers). So any one who loves Science Fiction or Speculative Fiction and those other aspects should love this novel. I'm definitely reading the next few to get the rest of the story. J.L. Dobias