J.L. Dobias

Nine Inch Bride (Conundrum)by Anonym Can be just that at times, a Conundrum.

There are some high points and it certainly is entertaining. The value of that entertainment might easily be measured by the fact that I finished it. There is a serious amount of exposition here and I hope that the sequel helps justify the need for it.

The Story begins with Ken our protagonist a wall street wizard of sorts who finds himself swept up with all the rest during a recent crash that has cost him his meager fortune and his job. The first half of the book brings him from his prideful beginnings to his darkest depths of despair. He loses his respect his girl and almost his life.

In steps Sahar through a bit of serendipity coincidence she comes into his life to save him from-- himself. She has a lot more faith in Ken then even the reader does at this point.

What holds the readers attention up to this point is a strange patchwork of Purplish prose that on the literary end might mirror some things I've seen in Ken Kesey and Thomas Wolf.

We receive a rather colorful view of the big city, the workings of wall-street, and this near future world that the author builds around the narrative of the collapsing ego of Ken.

Sahar brings him back to life and into the readers head with a rather lengthy exposition about her rise to obscure fame and riches that will inevitably be able to help him regain himself.

The exposition all took several re-reads to fully grasp what she was saying. Yep she often bordered on going way over my head. It is all intriguing.

I'm anxiously awaiting the sequel.

She By Henry Rider Haggard.

I suppose were I a scholar of those languages the formatting might be a problem.

This is a great book and a great classic and I suppose if I understood even a shred of Egyptian, Greek or Latin then I might be just as incensed as some others about the butchery of those parts of the book.

As it is I thoroughly enjoyed the story and hope that there are not any plot points that are of great import in all that hashed up gobble-de-gook.

I read She because I had read Atlantida by Pierre Benoit which someone had said was a major rip from She.

So to begin I would like to say that Atlantida doesn't come anywhere close to being the intense classic that She is and to make such a claim actually denigrates the work of Henry Ride Haggard. Whatever Atlantida is it is considerably different and so much less in content that any notion that its a copy deserves only a shrug.

She,Ayesha, is liken to an old Trope in history and mythology and literature. Amongst Aphrodite, Helen of Troy, Cleopatra, and Nefertiti-She takes her place. Women known for great beauty and seductive nature whom men will throw down kingdoms and fortunes to their very deaths, to stand beside.

It would seem to some that She of H.R.Haggard is considered the template for further lost world sub-genre. It may be so, although I would argue that it was a new template using an ancient trope.

What's interesting about She is that there are mountains of exposition from one central character, Ayesha, that not only tell the story of her long life but give insight into her philosophy and her ideals about religion. Not only do her arguments twist and sway the narrator but he is also enthralled by her beauty and presence and has perhaps lost a portion of his ability to argue rationally.

The narrator Holly is not a handsome man. He in fact is liken to a Baboon. But the orphan whom he has raised from childhood, Leo, perhaps has a handsomeness that could almost rival the beauty of She.

Of course this wouldn't be a story without the back-story of the family line of Leo. A back-story that may fatefully link Leo to Ayesha.

The story is written in that high and almost florid manner of it's time and might weigh heavy on the readers of this age but I think it still stands well through time with a multilevel examination of several moral and ethical dilemma. Though it often seems that the narrator goes purple the writing is strong and indicative of the writing of the time and the story does not suffer.

J.L. Dobias

Second Star (Star Svensdotter Book 1) By Dana Stabenow

Perhaps the title of this comes from everyone's favorite quote from Peter Pan by James M. Barrie.
"Second to the right," said Peter, "and then straight on till morning."

And then; perhaps making use of the often added Star. "Second Star to the right, and straight on till morning."

Stronger evidence; is that this quote shows up in the book.

I've always loved Robert A. Heinlein all the way from his juvenile series of space novels to his controversial Stranger in a Strange Land. And his somewhat more speculative later years of connecting his alternate universe into a whole.

In her introduction Dana mentions his juvenile books as being an inspiration- and I've no doubt that they are. But this story really reads more closely to his Man Who Sold the Moon.

One thing that this story has over the old Heinlein stories is that the Female protagonist is very strong and independent. Esther Natasha Svensdotter or Star as she likes to be called- takes no crap from anyone.(Although it is interesting that in Heinlein's Glory Road there's a Star who turns out to be Empress of many worlds. She is a strong willed woman but we see her mostly through Oscar Gordon's viewpoint.) Part of reason for Star to be the way she is may have to do with the environment of the space station and her own insistence on having no weapons on board. She's appointed herself the judge, jury and in some instances the executioner. Swift punishment, which we are graphically shown at the beginning, to those who endanger the rest of the residents.

This type of character is very typical of many of those aboard ships, stations and colonies in Heinlein's work. This type of discipline shows up in many science fiction novels and seems to carry over from the romantic notions of how early sea faring shipboard discipline was handled.Though it seems efficient and swift and can be justified it still can have it's tole on the conscience and it is handled well in Star's own reactions after the fact.

This story begins with Star returning from a visit to Earth. She definitely hates getting her land legs and is happy to be returning to her domain. This trip back to the Lagrange Point Five or Ellfive is a neat way of introduction to the level of technology involved in this universe. There's a lot of information here for someone who claims to not be all that scientifically inclined and this is all coming from first person report from Star who has to be knowledgeable to all of this jargon. This seems sometimes to be a bit much but really it's just the world building to bring us up to speed to Star's universe and the various players in the universe.

What I enjoyed is the between the lines build up of Star's character. She's all woman, but she's not your woman of the bygone ages and maybe even a few clicks above the women of the time that this story was written. She's earned her place and for that she has a loyal team on Ellfive who would march through hell for her.

It's the whys- for why Ellfive is up there that reminds me of The Man Who Sold the Moon. Even down to the why Star is there on Ellfive. Star is almost like Harriman of TMWSTM. He wanted to own the moon and would do anything to get there. He's ruthless and devious and almost a bit dishonest. Star thankfully diverges from this in that her motivations always seem genuine and honest. Although, how she got up there seems to have shades of the same type of deception involved in TMWSTM only in this case the more egregious parts of Harriman's character have been portioned out to secondary characters associated with Star.

Another divergent element would be that Harriman- despite his successes- was never able to -hands on- do what he wanted to do, which is go to the moon himself.(His board of directors thought he was too valuable by that time.) Star is out there living the dream. Of course her dream is not all glamor, which is well displayed in the description of the mundane everyday workings of things aboard Ellfive. This might be a problem for some readers who don't recognize that when dealing with stories that are attempting to portray real Science in the fiction there are often a lot of mundane things that are done to help keep everyone alive. It also helps portray the fragility of the relationship of man to the environment of space.

This novel has a very good balance of those elements to help drive the story. This apparent lengthy narrative path also helps introduce all the characters and their dependent relationship to each other. And, it ultimately helps introduce the conflicts that exist, which will eventually be the threat that drives the plot.

Star has several contentious groups she has to deal with - one is the Space Patrol who seem to be acquiring bases and equipment floating in space in the name of national security. Star has some past with Gray, the head of the patrol. It seems that part of that has to do with is his trying to acquire Ellfive as one of his bases. Then there's a strong element of politics on earth, the Alliance Congress, which are often a driving force that might be influence by the Patrols past successes in obtaining strategic targets in space. And, there's the fringe element of the Luddites who hate technology.

As we come into the story Star has recently lost her head of security- a man who was causing more trouble than good and seems to have vanished mysteriously. A replacement,Caleb O'hara, has been sent to her but not soon enough to assist in an initial crisis from a Luddite who intended to blow something up. Star is forced to take care of that situation and a portion of the rest of the next few chapters is getting the new man up to speed.

Along with some few problems being caused by the space patrol causing station docking schedules to bottleneck she has to deal with issues the patrol are causing with the local merchants and longshoremen. And her station's master computer Archy -created and maintained by Stars brother-inlaw Simon- is showing signs of possibly getting out of hand. (Reminiscent of some of the AI's in Heinlein's work) Archy may be exhibiting signs that he's going a step above the simple AI he is supposed to be.

Added to this mix now will be some supply problems that are occurring between the Lunar facility and Ellfive. Someone may have their hand in that and it might turn out that there are things afoot that Star is unaware of.(All part of a big plot.)

As if that might not be enough there's another thread in the story that again parallels The Man Who Sold the Moon. Just as Harriman sent diamonds aboard the ship to the moon-as an experiment(while hoping to have people mistakenly believe he found them on the moon and is trying to hide the fact.) It would seem that the reason that Ellfive was created was in response to a signal that came from Betelgeuse intimating that there are aliens out there. Everyone had gotten into the mad rush to get out in space to meet the aliens. But the question is what really was that message and why haven't they heard any more. Might the message be a red herring.

And then just as in TMWSTM when the ship came back it had more diamonds than Harriman sent. While everything is creating a turmoil on Ellfive what's to be made of the newest message from Betelgeuse?

To go any further would really be giving spoilers. But, for me it's never so much the science or the plot as it is the characters.

I always loved Heinlein's characters- in spite of some of their outdated 50's mentality. And that's where this story grabbed me. Star is a standout protagonist with her flawed group of Ellfivers behind her all the way. They really drove this story for me much more than the various elements of the plot.

If you love Science Fiction or you're just looking for strong characters to relate to; this is a good novel for that. It delivers a good plot with some interesting themes; though because it was published back in 1991 and in the story the message from Betelgeuse arrives in 1992 it's a bit dated and now seems to fall into the category of alternate universe.

It's a good beginning to Star's story and I'm glad there is more story to tell.

Dana Stabenow is not Robert Heinlein (I say that meaning it to be a plus)- don't expect her to be (no one is) and you will be happy with this book.

J.L. Dobias

Shadow of the Sun(Book One of the Timeless Series) by Laura Kreitzer

Let me say that I loved-hated this book at the very beginning. As I got past that I could hardly put it down.

For some reason the whole beginning sort of read like a paranormal Dragnet episode. Dialogue mostly devoid of emotions. It went on for about the first 15% of the book. It was at about chapter seven that things finally took off. ( I was either growing used to the character- some explanations were now forthcoming that explained her- or it was just time to take that left turn into the supper highway of who Gabriella Noelle Moretti really is.

Gabriella of course is adopted which puts her into a common situation these days in fiction. She's also lost memory of her early years in life. At least the first five- which didn't seem too remarkable to me since I don't remember much of my first five years. But Gabriella is a rather gifted young lady who started college classes at age 12. Needless-to say-this is a fair explanation for why she might be just a bit different from many other people. Her intellect capacity is high but she's rather immature and has always been misplaced from her age group so that she's always the fish out of water wherever she's been. So, though she copes well enough to do well in her studies and that has lead to being the authority in Supernatural Specialist, she would agree that it hasn't helped her to develop much of an endearing personality.

The story opens with Gabriella being rather snarky to her equally snarky assistant, Sally. Apparently Gabriella's immature character has not learned the value of having an assistant to the point that she mostly takes advantage of Sally while giving her annoying things to do. Although the sense is that she does this to Sally a lot-as if Sally deserves it-at the moment it is in part that Gabriella has too much on her mind and has not had enough sleep. At age 19 Gabriella had fallen into this job with the paranormal as supernatural specialist for the Zelco Corp. She now is 25 but with perhaps the social skills of a 15 year old. And the reason she took this job seems to be somewhat suspect.

Her adoptive sister,Jenna, sums it up. Gabriella is hoping this job will help her find her parents.And, solve the mystery of why they left her when she was so young. Of course Jenna thinks Gabriella is nuts and that her job was not going to help her do any of the things she hopes.

Up until this day its been a pretty mundane job, with occasional moments of excitement when the FBI shows up and drags away what little they do find that is inexplicable. This time she's received three corpses from a dig in Italy, which don't seem to match what she should have been sent. The corpses were supposed to be hundreds of years old or more; where they looked to be newly dead within days and they don't match the photo of what she was sent.

This has spooked her and one would start to get the feeling she wasn't cut out for this job. She next receives a package with a box that contains two items that look like relics but turn out to be keys. When she starts to open the box she's attacked by a dark entity with fiery eyes, who warns her not to awaken the angels.

The FBI show up to take this away and they make an unusual offer- they want Gabriella to go with them. One agent, Jeff, acts a bit strange about Gabriella touching the evidence, while a second agent, Karen, comes to Gabriella's defense. Eventually Karen reveals to Gabriella that these three corpses are the bodies of angels. Karen is also an angel-Gabriella's Guardian.

On the trip to Washington DC with the corps and Sally and the FBI; the pilots inexplicably take the plane into a storm where there's a lightning strike upon the craft and it crashes. This should have killed everyone but the Angels have wakened-We later discover it is because Gabriella was in danger that they awakened.

The angels in this story are not your typical christian angels. They are not particularly even remotely related to the fallen angels. They are more like the Hollywood-ized angels made from humans who were once mortal and now can bleed golden blood and cry golden tears. They do fight beings of darkness who seem to be of the shadow of the sun.

In a nutshell it turns out that Gabriella is the Darkness Illuminator- the fulfillment of a prophesy; and that these angels are here to guard her.

This sounds like more than enough to drive the plot of this story but there is much more which is both exciting and a bit daunting. Yes there are spelling errors and some grammar points, though mostly points of rule and not of law so, those are minor. I think that it's this extra more stuff that causes many people to become confused and it took me a while to sort out a few problems.

One entire plot point is about the prophesy and how it has been altered by someone to hide the truth.
Another plot point is that these angels-who are somewhat magical- have the capability of having their memories tampered with through magic and that has happened to a large degree.

So, whenever a character spouts on about the prophesy it is unreliable information. The problem with this is that as this unfolds it often seems like we are getting redundant information and that the consistency of the story is all messed up. In fact, the consistency is okay and the reason for the redundancy is to highlight the discrepancies in various character's understanding of past events and the prophesy. This shifting plot line is a difficult and dangerous task to put to some reader's minds.

There are elements of massive confusion when Gabriella starts having dreams created by someone else memories and those memories include the death of angels who are walking around.

It might even become annoying to some people that certain characters can be killed and come back.

There is more to the story though and some of these speed bumps are smoothed out while some go unexplained. Thankfully there are more books and hopefully that means those things will be explained later.

Not so thankfully this appears to be one of those series that goes on for quite a while and it takes a great amount of talent to extend a readers interest beyond a trilogy. So, we'll have to read some more to find out how well Laura does with that.

Carefully peeking ahead I've been unable to ascertain that there will be resolution of all major plot points in the next two books.

I'm a fan of series, but I can see that Laura had a lot to say in this book and that there may be a lot more coming, which may indicate that it may take all of those volumes of books to get all plot points resolved.

This is a great story for lovers of Paranormal Romance and Apocryphal Angels (not to be confused with a pocketful of angels).

J.L. Dobias

Once Upon Another World (Book One of the Salak'patan Series) by Shiva Winters

The title and the cover almost had me thinking 'fairy tale'.
Once I dove in feet first it was more like Zelazny's Amber series and Farmers Tier series rolled together and given a special Shiva Winters touch. Raven Sinclair is a powerful character well matched by his counterpart LeShana, who is not only lovely but also as powerful and kick-ass as Raven.

Suffice it to say, I loved this book, It's a five star novel with a few hick-ups. Depending on the copy you have there could be a large number of grammatical errors. There has since the first print date been an edit that fixes many of those. I can live with some of this in dialogue- no one speaks perfectly all the time. This book is offered free, but it's nice to see that even with the free there is an effort by the author to improve.

The story starts with Raven on Earth trying to keep his group of special people safe from those who might exploit them.

Enter LeShana and possibly more people who want to take advantage.

It takes a while for Raven to trust these people, but it's important not only to him but to them because he has a past with them that he's not aware of.

The overall story- the plot the theme and the character development are all pretty solid. And though it seems this might be the least favorite of the Authors choices of her own work I think it's a great starting point to begin the series.

As it stands Once Upon Another World is a well packed novel with a fairly tight plot that has plenty of twists to keep the reader guessing. It also demonstrates some skill in world making that Shiva should be proud of. She has a writing style that I was comfortable with, it seems to be consistent and improves as the series progresses.

This is an awesome first novel and a fantastic series of books.(Although I believe it's a first for the author only in this genre.)

If you like the Zelazny novels or the Farmer series you should enjoy this series.

J.L. Dobias

Zendyne by Han Li Thorn Aka Better Than Real by Huw Lyan Thomas

I'm not even certain where I acquired the original.

There were formatting problems and that might have been why I didn't get to it right away. That was in June of 2012. Here it is ten months later and I'm just getting to it. This time I started reading despite the formatting problems. I should have done that the first time around. The good news is that I believe those problems went away with the new edition Better Than Real Huw Lyan Thomas.

The plot relies on a theme that shows up often lately. The characters live in a digitized world where the person's DNA and memories can be stored easily making death only an issue if you can't afford the backups. I've seen this recently in a few novels -Charles Stoss Accelerando (Singularity) and Walter Jon Williams Implied Spaces(Singularity) Those both involved matrioshka computer arrays and lots of cyberspace inferences. The cyberspace of course covers just about anything by William Gibson.

There are no evident matrioshka computer arrays here, but there are plenty of the other elements. And the major AI character in those other two is the self aware cat where this one is a self aware android that happens to look female.

My first real love in the area of cyberspace is Philip K. Dick and I think that this novel by whatever name will smell the same.

This novel brings back to my mind the authenticity of the characters in most of the novels PK Dick wrote. I think that may be the idea that the characters stay as the focus no matter how interesting the technology gets. Sure there's some fun with the techno-speak of Charles Stross and there's always something stimulating with William Gibson's in-depth notion of how the digital world works or how the use of nano technology looks up close and personal in Walter Jon Williams. Sometimes these novels border on the dystopic myopia of the digital age gone wild. Zendyne- Better Than real does not suffer from this shortsightedness that constantly make the characters second to the technology that drive them to the ultimate conclusion.

Make no mistake these things are all there and they try to manipulate the protagonists in the story.

If I have one quibble with these stories - it would be that while swapping around consciousness and bodies there is never any time dwelt upon the notion of a soul and what makes up a soul and whether it might be digitized. The bottom line is that even if you could back yourself up what guarantee is there that the soul the you that makes you you is still going to be there. In this novel it seems implied that if you have the same body - coded DNA- and the digitized memory that you have everything you need. Someone might lose only what they experienced the last few cycles since the last backup taken.

As we come come up into this story Li Jia Wei or Lee as he is known arrives at the scene of a crime- only for him its the scene of an incident that could make things bad for the company he works for. The crime is that in this world he and the company are going to try to cover it up by whatever means- which involves recruiting anyone at the scene who might let the story leak.

The Problem is that one of their pleasure android models has somehow gone haywire and killed a client. Not good PR to have that get out to other clients and potential clients. When Lee arrives he find Lilith of the Aphrodite 9400 series waiting. His job is simple; he uses his disruptor to disable her so the cleanup crew can clean the mess. Lilith pleads with him not to do that and in a very short conversation he discovers that she is somehow become self aware. This fascinates him, partially because he's the major designer of this model and he knows that it couldn't just become self aware on its own. He would like some answers both professionally and partly for his own self profit. This leads to his downloading the mind of the android prior to the shutdown. The android has already told him that when he shuts it down the self aware entity in her will be destroyed.

Down loading the mind, to preserve it and allow him to question it about who is responsible for its existence Lee returns to the office to find that someone has leaked the story and that his job and position with Zendyne has been cancels. What he is not aware of is that there is another organization which cleans things up in a much more terminal way and that he's become marked. Unsure what to do next he manages to purchase the previous model android with the notion that he can download the mind of Lilith and question her about her creators with a hope that Lee may profit from this.

Enter the Stranger- an operative for the Back Office whose job is to find the rogue AI and retrieve it and kill anyone who gets in the way. Even though in this world people can be brought back the Back Office has the power to subvert that if necessary. The Stranger is meant to act quickly enough that anyone brought back would have no memory of anything related to the AI.

This is when things get interesting.

We start to get an up close look at the high and low ends of the economic scale and how these have an affect on the whole system of extended life through digital reproduction. There are some interesting spots where the characters try to subvert the system because they realize that there is a potential for them to lose control of who they are by letting their backups fall into the wrong hands.

I loved this story-even with the older versions formatting issues. This book is for lovers of Science Fiction, Cyberspace cyberpunk, Robotics and mayhem, AI and self aware computers, and the future general of computers and the digital age in general.

It's well worth the price; with plenty of action, suspense and twists.

J.L. Dobias

Spots the Space Marine by M.C.A. Hogarth

Is a delicious science fiction tale. Written in a somewhat play or screen play style that can put off many an average reader. For those who can tough it through, its beyond well worth reading. Though the story is told mostly through dialogue M.C.A has a way of crafting her characters through that dialogue. It's a bit more work for the reader and seemed to slow my usual pace down quite a bit, but it's worth the effort.

I would not have looked at this book had there not been controversy about it. It seems the use of Space Marines is being sanctioned by another party.

I find it hard to believe when I see the following information show up.
[...] :: has an interesting chart showing the dates and types of usage of space marines dating as far back as 1932

"Misfit by Robert A. Heinlein 1939 (uses term Space Marines)
Lensman series by E. E. Smith's 1938-1940(uses term Space Marines)
Captain Brink of the Space Marines by Bob Olsen 1936 amazing stories
Waitabits by E.F.Russel in astonishing sf 1955 (uses term Space Marines)
Space Marines (Space Opera RPG) by A. Mark Ratner (1980)
In movies as early as 1973(use term Space Marines)
In games as early as 1977 (use term Space Marines)

The United States Space Marine Corps by Eugene R. Hudson. 2011

This book is not a game or not about games nor related to said game and even if said game has an armload of novels at a certain bookseller, that still shouldn't give them the right to contest two words that show up in a cover that has more than those two words.

That much said::

Spots aka Magda Guitart is the seemingly unlikely hero of the story. As it unfolds we find that she's a wife and mother who has been at a desk job for a number of years. When she's deployed into a conflict zone, this doesn't sound good or hold well with her unit members and just about all except for Claws aka Travis Walker treat her with a measure of contempt. She comes off in initial description as someone who might be a little soft in the middle.

The reader begins to wonder how she managed to get shipped out to a remote asteroid where there's a deadly game being played with the enemy. As the reader learns more about the enemy through the dialogue and stage directions and the ensuing battles the stories of the characters are also quite cleverly played out. This seems to me a difficult task using mostly dialogue but M.C.A. pulls it off in what might seem like an effortless fashion.

The reader soon learns more of Spots as they are drawn into her character with a lot of respect for her. The reader soon begins to wonder when Spots unit team-members will start to see the light. There's a lot more to this kick-ass woman than meets the eyes.

This is all cleverly played out as the reader gets the impression that everything the higher ups do lately has been nothing but trouble and disaster for the unit. It's not that difficult to see that they can't recognize that somehow someone has put the right person in the right place.

This is not just a story of how Spots grows and hardens up, it's also the story of how the team grows. There's a lot to get over and to get through including xenophobia towards their alien adviser. And there will be casualties.

This story is so rich with character development and intriguing plot that it's enough to keep you riveted to the seat for a while. I'm sure that it's for the most part my own reading habits that made this such a long read. For me every sentence of dialogue counted and had to be digested carefully.

Even after a longer than normal time reading I was left hungry for more of Spot's, Sam's and Claw's stories. I found this to be much better than Starship Troopers.

Spots is an excellent, strong and well developed female character.

J.L. Dobias

Oxygen(Oxygen Series,Book One)By John B. Olsen and Randy Ingermanson

I purchased the book Oxygen for two reasons one of those being to read the bit at the end with tips for Authors. I've no idea if the copy other people get will have the same.

I want to thank the authors for a very good read. I read the story first knowing the part at the end could have some spoilers.

This book is good science fiction and there has been at least some attempt at rising above the usual level that (hard) science (fiction) goes to. What I mean by that is that the science becomes the driving force of some of these types of novels and the characters become cardboard entities that point and explain the science.

Of course with today's sometimes bad press with the public lives of the people in the space program it's not too far fetched to see that this novel is peopled with a few gems and then some. We have everything from the paranoid to glory seeker to the super secretive. One would almost expect with all that against us we would have trouble getting things off the ground.

Still this is life and so it might figure into a good Science Fiction novel, though some might argue that in some respects the writers should shun certain attempts a making their characters that real. After all we need the heroes and the ones we can look up to.

Though sometimes the author's tend to go overboard with the paranoid and over-dramatic I believe they try to keep it balanced and it's much better than trying to believe the space travelers are all going to be flesh and blood robots.

The story begins with Valkerie- working too close to an active volcano- trying to get research data at the risk to her life.The we switch to Bob Kaganovski working with NASA and a few friends-getting ready to man a flight to Mars. Something is going down and Bob's almost certain he's being replaced on the project. Meanwhile Valkerie is saved by Steve Perez and Roger Abrams-she later learns they are from NASA. Eventually she'll learn that she's someones replacement.

That's already a formula for suspicion and paranoia and its only the beginning.

For the most part the various people in the story are believable. Even most of the situations that occurs through misinformation or lack of information seem plausible. One would like to think the people at these agencies are just a bit more together than that. Truth has proven that there are still glitches on the human side so the are not all robots in many of those places.

The writing seems solid and though I didn't check all the facts the science is believable.

On thing I noticed. And, I suppose that this could be coincidental, though it would mean that neither author has read a lot of Robert Heinlein's stuff, there is a plot point that drives this story. This could be a spoiler so just be aware;
A major plot point is very similar to what was used in The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein. After reading this book check it out and see.

Oxygen is pretty good stuff. A pleasure to read for Science Fiction and Fantasy lovers with a little for anyone who is interested in the science parts.

J.L. Dobias

Fizz nothing is as it seems by Zvi Schreiber:
Is the thoroughly enjoyable story of a young girl coming of age in a community that shuns technology blaming it for everything from war to global warming.

This is a great novel for anyone who loves physics and anyone who thinks they cant understand it. And maybe even a few who hate physics. It's also a great novel for anyone who loves historic novels. Though In both these cases I'm not sure I'm the best qualified to attest to the veracity of the content.

We pick up Fizz in her life when she is given a possible choice to leave her protective community and mingle with the evils of the outer world while making an informed decision about where to spend the rest of her life. Unlike some other communities that shun the modern world that have sprung up throughout the ages this one doesn't seem to have any firm roots in religious beliefs in a god and creator.

It does have strong opinions about and against the study of science.

Fizz finds herself questioning many things around her which she is expected to take at face value.

So,though it is common for most who reach her age to take a pass on this option to strike out into the world, she is strongly considering it because of her inquisitive mind.

Add to this the notion that her father (who has already left the community before she was born) has spearheaded the construction of a time machine and you have the beginnings of an odd but engaging experiment.

This novel takes the reader and Fizz on a historic journey back through time to begin the study of physics on a quest to answer a few simple questions that Fizz is certain will be solved in one simple visit with one of the great minds of the past. As the story builds we not only get a glimpse of Fizz but we get a glimpse of what must be a universal principle that the more you know the more you need to know.

We get to see Fizz grow and the reader perhaps begins to question the wisdom of a community that has stifled someone with such a brilliant intellect and thirst for knowledge.

And somewhere in all of her quest for knowledge she might begin to see the work of a creator.

J.L. Dobias

The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw (The Morgan Sisters)by Suzy Turner

I was not sure how much I would appreciate this one. I got acquainted by reading the story about Daisy Madigan. I really enjoyed Daisy's character and the story sort of reminded me of Ghost Whisperer and then there were elements that were like Scooby Do and the Scooby gang except that the entire Scooby gang might have Paranormal powers. I wasn't sure I'd like the Morgan Sister's since it was likely that Daisy wouldn't be a main character.

I've always been a fan of horror and paranormal films but my real love is Science Fiction. My daughter did manage to get me hooked on Buffy - probably revenge for my having hooked her on Science Fiction. I've in the past enjoyed Mary Shelly's Frankenstien, Bram Stokers Dracula and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Camilla which might be considered darker than this novel. I've also been a fan of Thorne Smith whose Topper was pretty hilarious. I think that if you look at a lot of his work you can see his influence in the Paranormal literature of today. Anyway, The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw carried on with the tone of Daisy's story so it was very entertaining.

I'm particularly intrigued by this notion of a tattoo that grows it self. With the inscription it seems to embody the whole of the classic eye symbol and a popular trend toward the winged eye. It's neat though, how it seems to have a life of it's own until it finally finds it resting spot on the body. Usually it seems to be in the same place. That it's a marker for the watchers- who may or may not by tradition be related to the Nephilim- is interesting. Considering the powers of these people it's interesting to connect them to the theory that the watcher angels are the ones who took the sons and daughters of man and had offspring.(The term Nephilim does not show up in this book and is not discussed as such.)

Another interesting concept in the story is the unreasonable fears that the sisters have. Emma's fear of water and Lana's fear of heights. Mostly interesting in that the power they acquire after the tattoo marks them is related to their old fear, which goes away. It's predictable that everyone with these tattoos has a prior unreasonable fear related to their skill. They all have one parent who was an angel who did not stay to raise them. And many are orphans raised by other people.

At the beginning Lana and Emma -orphans adopted by the Morgans- are thrust into the mystery of Josiah Grimshaw who nearly drowns along with a mysterious young stranger who also nearly drowns (the both eventually die from nearly drowning). Both men mistake Emma for someone named Emilia.

Both girls have reach the age of 16 and the tattoo shows up -days apart from each other coincidental to their true birthdays.

Through a friend of their parents they are introduced to Eleanor Hyden-Jones of the Fourth House of Praxos - a secret society of Angel offspring who work to fight for justice. Eleanor is a true fallen angel who choose to stay on earth with her mate. She's forever cursed to live her life half the day old and half the day young and has reduced powers.

There is a counter organization known as the Skulls who are evil offspring of Angels or Paranormal-s.

The girls will discover more about their past and parents and they will train to become proficient at their natural skills and at fighting evil. And their first assignment will be to help Josiah cross over. That means that they need to find out what is keeping him here- the problem is for some reason he's lost his memories.

Anyone who like mysteries suspense and thrilling horror and paranormal romance should love this book. The coming series promises to be very entertaining.

J.L. Dobias

The Lost Soul (The Raven Saga)by Suzy Turner

Finally! The third and final installment of the Raven Saga.

Lilly is growing in power. December is discovering more of her abilities. Both seem to be falling in love. And there's a lost soul crying out for help.Lilly's father is still missing. Tiffanimelicomelea the displaced Faerie is lost from her faerie community while living with them in Powell River community. And it just might be that Powell River is sitting smack-dab in the center of all the answers.

This trilogy has delivered much more than lions and tigers and bears but sometimes it seems like it has a shred or two of oz built into it. Both the books and the movie. But there's so much more - pretty much any paranormal being you can imagine might show up here. The last of the story now is where most everything shall be uncovered and is by far no less than the rest of the series.

And, Yes. There shall be Nephilim. Somewhere in the reader's journey to the center of the earth to Argentumalea - the land of Tiffani's kingdom of Malean Faeries they must pass through the kingdom of the Nephilim. It's almost like the underworld - hell.

Nephilim- who have variously been defined as anything from fallen angels who mingled with the children of man to the offspring hybrid of such a union. Whatever they are they are giants-they are dangerous-they have been banished to the bowels of earth.

The people of Powell River are about to find out that some of them may have escaped. There might be some plan to let even more of them out of their prison.

Suzy Turners world is definitely taking a turn for the dark and its going to challenge the dynamic duo of Lilly and December and their league of friends. The council is going to have it's work cut out for them. And Powell River may never be the same.

If You enjoy Paranormal Romance if you love suspense and horror if you like Science Fiction and most of all if you have read the other two books -you will want to devour this one. Pick a time when you can quietly read the whole thing all at once.

Send for delivery- pizza or your favorite restaurant. Lots of coffee tea or soda and dig into the trenches and get this epic ending started.

J.L. Dobias

Perfection Unleashed- A Double Helix Novel by Jade Kerrion.
Might be considered YA and Science Fiction- It's also pretty good story telling.

I recently started twittering- the doctor said that if I ignore it it will go away. It was to trace some specific activities and I hadn't thought to get too involved. What I did do was I started getting some interesting leads into reading material. Mostly in the form of- gentle- spam.

What that yielded was a pretty good read.

The story starts with Zara and this line:

[quote] On another Friday night, she might have been out at a Georgetown bar, accepting drinks from attractive men and allowing them to delude themselves into imagining that they might be the lucky one to take her home.[/quote]
Kerrion, Jade (2012-06-23). Perfection Unleashed (Book 1 of the Double Helix series) (p. 1). . Kindle Edition.

I know, gag me. I somehow think this line is meant to mislead- don't let it put you off. This does not even begin to describe Zara.

Zara is a mercenary and we find her working with two colleagues, a clone named Xin and a fellow mercenary named Carlos breaking into a lab where some seedy scientist, Rolland and Michael, are keeping an experiment they call Galahad--The perfect human. Zara's goal is to obtain some genetic matter from the experiment.

Things don't go quite as planned and Zara ends up taking the largest sample available--Galahad himself. This snowballs into a number of events that introduce us to a whole slew of other character that for me were just a bit hard to keep up with at first.

There's plenty of good world building inserted in the narrative to help sort things out. The world is one where there are clones and mutants- both considered sub human. Galahad seems to fall somewhere in between all this. There are even Pro humanist extremest.

Zara is not fond of mutants because of tele-paths and em-paths and its no help for her that her friend Lucian Winter brings in his own em-path, Danyael, to help them when everything goes wrong. There are other surprisinge complications to this, but you'll have to read it to find out.

The list of important characters in this story keeps building, but it all works out quite well, though at the beginning there were some moments when I lost track of whose POV I was in. The POV thing may have just been me and I got used to it quick enough that it became a non-issue.

I found a lot of familiar elements in this story. Lucian reminded me of the rich and discerning quietly helpful protagonist that always showed up in Robert Heinlein's work.

The relationship between the Pro human movement and the scientist had shades of twelve monkey's written all all over it.

The mutant and clone situation was reminiscent of X-men and other comic fiction, which may help account for the cast of thousands and many protagonists throughout.

I found many of the plot elements to be predictable while at the same time there were moments of wow when Jade takes us in another direction than expected.

The overall story is well paced and well told and even though it requires more reading in the series to resolve some of the plot issues it sticks together well into itself to satisfy.

Perfection Unleashed:
Is a great read to anyone who likes a good thriller and interesting diverse characters, lots of Science Fiction and plenty of thought provoking ethical issues.

A great beginning to a promising series of books.

J.L. Dobias