Author: Jeff

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#BookReview: Every Last Fish by Rose George

More Primer Than Deep Dive. I read George’s (nearly 20 yr old now) The Big Necessity near the start of 2025, so beginning the ending of 2025 with her latest release seems appropriate, right? 😉 Like Necessity, this book takes George to several different places to talk to several different people and chronicle their lives and thoughts on the subject at hand – in this case, commercial fishing. Unlike Necessity, here George mostly stays in and around the British Isles, with a few ventures into other European areas such as Norway.

The overall text here is essentially 15 different essays, one per chapter, using wherever she is and whoever she is talking to for that chapter to glance at the history of that chapter’s focus before primarily looking to what is currently going on in that area. There is little to no overall narrative beyond “I want to look at as much about commercial fishing in and around the United Kingdom as possible.”

And yet, for what the book is, it absolutely works and works well. You’re going to learn a little about a lot here, even as George has her own distinct editorial thoughts. On those, your mileage will absolutely vary, but George does a seemingly solid job of presenting the issues at hand in a mostly even-ish manner and never treating those she is profiling in the given chapter as anything less than fully human – for good and not so good.

No, where the star deduction comes here is the just-too-short bibliography, clocking in at 12% of the overall text, at least in my Advance Review Copy, and thus coming in just shy of the 15% or so I expect to see even with my more recent more relaxed bibliographic standards. Had George been more forceful or more novel, the Sagan Rule might have applied, but I don’t think the text here warrants that particular application – through the vast majority of the text, George is relating what she personally sees as well as what those she is profiling have directly seen as well.

Overall a solid primer on the issues surrounding commercial fishing, at minimum in and around the United Kingdom, and something a lot of us will learn a fair amount from reading.

Very much recommended.

This review of Every Last Fish by Rose George was originally written on November 13, 2025.

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#BlogTour: Not You Again by Erin La Rosa

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a fun, quirky scifi romance reminiscent of Eureka. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Not You Again by Erin La Rosa.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Romance Author Creates Eureka-Esque Scifi. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was proofreading The New God of Science Fiction Jeremy Robinson’s late April 2026 release, Parallax, where he – a long time and prolific scifi author who has never really dabbled in romance at all – created a kick ass scifi action tale that was *also* a spicy romance book. Now, just a few books later, I’m reading a book by a more recently established romance author… who is introducing quirky scifi into her romance book. Interesting times, it seems. 😉

And this is absolutely a quirky scifi romance. To me, it gives off strong vibes of the now-long-dead Syfy show Eureka, where the entire town knows they are in a scifi tale and they all merrily do their own things within it. If your sense of humor is of the ‘WTF’ variety… this is absolutely going to be right up your alley.

And yes, speaking of things being ‘up alleys’ (groan, I know, sorry), if you’re not a fan of spicy romance of the habanero, maybe even hotter, level… this book probably isn’t going to be your thing. There isn’t *much* of it… until there is. But when it is there, it is *there*.

And the ambiguity. Other than giving away that there is some here, all I’ll note about it is that I appreciated it. Obviously, some readers have to have every possible thread buttoned up exactly so. I’ve never been one of those, so I appreciate books that don’t do that since they are so rare.

Another thing that is going to be one of those that some will love and others will loathe is the seemingly forced LGBT inclusion here. I don’t personally have strong feelings either direction on should it be here, shouldn’t it be here, but it *did* feel a touch out of the blue and it never really added much to the story for me, but hey, maybe I’m the idiot here and it is the fact that sells the book for you. You do you there. Doesn’t affect me in any way at all.

Ultimately, I did think that this book largely works quite well overall, and I absolutely LOVE that La Rosa was stretching herself so far here and making everything work as well as it did. That is absolutely a mark of a strong storyteller, and a brave one that can at least stretch the norms of her established genre and try different things within it that are far from cookier cutter. And that is something I will always applaud any author doing.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Not You Again by Erin La Rosa”

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#BookReview: Gemini by Jeffrey Kluger

Solid History Of A Well told Yet Unfocused On Era. The subtitle of this book speaks of the “untold story” of Gemini… which is a bit misleading. Anyone who knows most anything about NASA in the 1960s and/ or the Apollo missions knows a fair amount about the Gemini missions that created and proved the tech that made Apollo possible. What this book does is that it *centers* its focus on that exact period. (Literally, the central part of the book is specifically about Gemini, after an introduction discussing how we got to Gemini, including Mercury, and a back end that begins discussing Apollo and other fallout from Gemini.)

In this focus, Kluger does exceptionally well. He shows the key players and tech, and even provides details that even those who know a fair amount about the history involved here may not know. (Such as the Chris Kraft toddler/ sandwich story, which I had never previously heard despite reading several books about and memoirs from many of the people Kluger profiles yet again within these pages.)

Indeed, the only real fault I could find here is the absolute lack of any bibliography at all, at least in the Advance Review Copy of this book I read. Which is the reason for the star deduction.

Overall this is a book where many will probably already know a lot about this subject, but more in passing while having been focused on other things. Again, the subtitle is misleading in that the Gemini story has always been well told, but most always before now *as part of* the Apollo narrative. Indeed, Kluger’s own Apollo books, at least the ones I’ve read, have all discussed the Gemini missions to some extent as well. But in centering this text precisely on Gemini, this new version does in fact provide at least some new details even those who think they know every possible thing about the Space Race of the 1950s and 1960s could possibly know quite likely did not, in fact, know.

Very much recommended.

This review of Gemini by Jeffrey Kluger was originally written on November 12, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Great Math War by Jason Socrates Bardi

Math And History Nerds Will Love This. Solid History For Everyone Else Too. Ok, so I’m a dude that got a Computer Science degree 20 yrs ago and came within literally half a dozen classes of getting degrees in Mathematics and Secondary Mathematics Education at the same time… who also took HIST classes as electives just because they sounded interesting. In other words, this book may as well have been titled “Jeff Sexton Will Beg To Read This Book”, because I damn near did. But clearly, I *am* the very math and history nerd that my title of this review above explicitly said would love this book.

Clocking in at 19% bibliography, it has a healthy enough backing so that it doesn’t drop a star on that account, and really the only even quibble I have here is that in choosing to end in 1938, Bardi doesn’t even attempt to show how the war he describes here played out in the Post Second World War world where the rise of computers and computer science changed pretty well everything in mathematics.

Still, for what it is and what it actually covers, this is an utterly fascinating book that gives enough of the backstories of everyone involved to show how they arrived at the moments they did and why they mattered when they got there without going too deep into unnecessary detail too often. Yes, even when it looks like Bardi is going off on some wild tangent that can’t possibly be related to The Great Math War (such as the Boer War), he ultimately manages to bring it right back around and show how that tangent actually played a role in shaping the thinking of one of his principle targets or at minimum someone closely linked to them who also shaped their thinking.

For me, this was an utterly fascinating look at a period of math history I hadn’t previously really considered, featuring several names I had known of from other exploits and adventures, but had never really dived into from this angle. And yes, at least some of the most famous of their era make appearances here, up to and including one Albert Einstein.

I do think that one of the more fascinating tidbits that I had not known, particularly as someone who learned the basics of Set Theory in 2004-2005, was just how new that particular branch of mathematics was – and how controversial it had been even a century before I learned it, at which time it was (clearly) being routinely taught to Senior level college students. (And I still hold that we can actually teach it even in elementary school, as one key feature of it ultimately revolves around remainder division.)

Truly an excellent book written without the dryness that can accompany such texts in the hands of less skilled storytellers, this is absolutely one of those kinds of books that many will enjoy and a few will absolutely love.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Great Math War by Jason Socrates Bardi was originally written on November 12, 2025.

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#BlogTour: Otherwise Engaged by Susan Mallery

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid women’s fiction tale with a touch of romance where all four central characters are executed very well indeed. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Otherwise Engaged by Susan Mallery.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Solid Susan Mallery Women’s Fiction (With A Touch Of Romance). With Susan Mallery, you know pretty well exactly what you’re going to get. She basically has two styles, with a few wrinkles per style, and once you know which style and which wrinkle you’re in… well, if you enjoy reading a lot of variations on the same thing and are looking for the kinds of books that are essentially the reading equivalent of TV you can simply zone out and enjoy and know you’re not going to hit anything *too* complex or disturbing… Mallery is an author you’re going to love. Which long time fans will already know, but the above explanation was more for those newer to her or perhaps who haven’t read her books at all.

With this particular iteration, again, we’re more on the women’s fiction side, but even on this side of Mallery’s writing, romance is never far from the scene – indeed, it will always be close enough that technically the books can be (and generally are) marketed as romance tales, even when the women’s fiction side is actually more dominant in the overall story (as it is here).

Overall, I thought this was actually perhaps a touch more standout than typical Mallery, more dealing with the specifics at hand here that can’t be discussed too much without going into spoiler territory. But she absolutely nails the women’s fiction side, showing strong growth in each of her four central characters – not always easy to do with so many moving parts. So if you’re looking for a solid escape this holiday season – and have some time to invest in this near almost 370 page book – well, here’s yet another solid option.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Otherwise Engaged by Susan Mallery”

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#BlogTour: The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a solid tale in its genre that has a bit of a chaotic and potentially controversial opening. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Don’t Let Your Opinions Of Over The Top Gender Reveals, Guns, or Multi-Perspective Stories Fool You – This Is A Solid Book. Seriously, this is one of those books where the *opening scene* has a lot of ick for a lot of people – me included, to an extent. Indeed, I delayed reading this book for a week in part because of the very inciting incident literally listed in the first sentence of the description as of publication day earlier this week as I write this review. (Yes, I’ve had it as an Advance Review Copy for months and yes, I’m officially running behind. Apologies.)

You see, while I have exactly *zero* problems with guns and enjoy a good Tannerite explosion from time to time (on video, never experienced one in person), the over the top gender reveal and thus making a pregnancy a central point of this story… that was the ick for me.

And I was wrong.

Yes, the opening scene is complex and more than a bit confusing and perhaps even accurately labeled as hard to follow.

But the story opens up from there and becomes much easier to understand, even as it revolves around small town and family secrets and decades long mysteries all coming to a head.

Gudenkauf creates here a truly layered story with many things going on at the same time, in the mold of some of the best soap operas – and yet with a fair degree more danger involved.

Overall truly a fun book once one gets beyond the chaotic opening scene, one that plays very well within genre norms without really pushing the boundaries too hard. In other words, a perfectly comfortable read for genre fans that works well enough for those looking to see whether they enjoy this genre.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Perfect Hosts by Heather Gudenkauf”

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#BookReview: Parallax by Jeremy Robinson

The New God Of Science Fiction Exposes New And Unexpected Abilities. Straight up, I’m writing this review as one of *the* very first people to read this book beyond Jeremy and his long time editor, Kane Gilmour, and I’m targeting this review as much to Jeremy’s long time fans in his Facebook group, the Tribe, as I am to more general readers who possibly haven’t ever even heard of Robinson.

With this book, Robinson – who first came to my attention with several intricate, detailed, and spot on allegories of Biblical events wrapped up as kick ass science fiction action – manages to craft a romance subplot here that is rather spicy -jalapeno level, if not habanero. And yet he manages to do this *in service to* his overall kickass science fiction action thriller. So even if the romance side gets you into the door here – and it really is both completely unexpected from Robinson and yet at least as well done as most any romance book I’ve ever read, and better than many of them – know that Robinson never strays far from his roots, even with this new ability.

Another new ability – and I say this next one as someone who literally has a tattoo of an image Robinson created on one of the arms he is using to type this very review – is the particularly poignant quotability deep in this book. As in, Ender’s Game level quotability and profoundness in a couple of key sections in particular. Quotes I *WISH* I could share publicly, but can’t until after this book releases almost six months to the day after I finished reading it.

The final new ability is perhaps the most interesting of all – this is the first book I’ve ever read from Robinson where even *I* – who absolutely *LOATHES* the very concept of a “trigger warning” – point blank told Robinson and Gilmour that they may want to consider adding one to this particular text. As one of the reasons I detest them so very much is the simple fact that they are *always* spoilers, no matter how generally they are crafted, unfortunately the only thing I can note here is that in two sections in particular, both in the front half of the book and both effectively side by side, Robinson brings into this tale certain real-word tragedies that he has never before brought into any of his books, tragedies that are so dark that they tend to be blights nearly any time they are even mentioned at all. (To be clear, Robinson uses them in a responsible manner that adds depth to the characters involved without glorifying – indeed, while explicitly condemning – the tragedies at hand.)

These are all depths of storytelling that Robinson has never plumbed so deeply or so well, that despite being one of the earliest readers to have read his books at all and having been a reader of his works for nearly two decades now (since *MySpace*!), I had never really known him to show. That he is adding these kinds of abilities into his storytelling now, this deep into his career and as he beings to approach his 100th novel (and may have even already broken that?), shows remarkable advancement that very few authors ever really display – which only serves to make Robinson stand out (in great ways) all the more.

And then, yes, the kickass scifi action that is Robinson’s bread and butter. You’re never getting far from it in this book, and yes, Robinson’s more recent pop culture referencing and frequent use of all manner of cussing is equally prevalent throughout our action here. Long time fans or those just looking for a fun few hours of distraction from the so-called “real” world will find here exactly what Robinson has always done so very well – crafting an exciting and pulse pounding scifi thriller that will allow you to think if you so choose, but which also works perfectly well with all “thinking” turned off and just sitting back and enjoying the show.

Further, this is also Robinson showing some of the very profound thoughts he sometimes buries to greater or lesser degrees – this time barely buried at all, *IF* at all. Surely to get cancelled or crucified over some of the things his characters say in nearly every book he writes, this one is no different. I can tell you that even knowing Robinson as long as I have, even having shared a couple of meals over the years directly at his side… even *I* can’t tell you his actual political or religious beliefs. So before you think to one star this book over those comments… know that yes, we, Robinson’s long time fans, see them… and those reviews say far more about you than about him. 😀

Overall quite possibly Robinson’s best yet – which is not said lightly, in part due to said tattoo 😉 – that also seems to possibly be leading… somewhere beyond this particular book. Will it? We shall see…

Very much recommended.

This review of Parallax by Jeremy Robinson was originally written on November 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: Poison Wood by Jennifer Moorhead

Solid Sophomore Southern Suspense. This is a tale that builds on its predecessor, Broken Bayou, in an unexpected direction for readers of Broken Bayou – one of the secondary, yet essential, characters gets her own tale here. Which would be expected in the romance genre, but in mystery/ suspense is far less common.

And yet Moorhead absolutely makes this work. There’s enough of the Bayou here that there are at least a few spoilers from that book, but not so much that you absolutely *have* to have read it first, and thus new readers (who don’t mind a few minor ish spoilers) can come into this book without stressing about not having read Bayou first. (Though you *should* read Bayou too, as it is an excellent tale in its own right.)

Yet there is also quite the tale to be told here, and as deep as Willa’s tale was in the Bayou… this tale may even run a touch deeper. It certainly expands its world a touch, if only in that certain players have larger connections than just Ms. Meade’s home town. And yet as someone who grew up in and around similar connections – which I can’t really detail at all without revealing who some of the players in this tale are – this struck me as perhaps a touch *too* real in some aspects. Clearly, Moorhead has some similar life experiences of her own to get it *this* spot on.

Truly an excellent small town Southern mystery tale that manages to raise a lot of real world emotions without ever getting preachy about any actual real world issue, which is perhaps one of Moorhead’s great strengths as a storyteller, at least as shown in this series.

Very much recommended.

This review of Poison Wood by Jennifer Moorhead was originally written on November 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: Labyrinth by A.G. Riddle

Interesting – Yet Long – Provocative Look At Actual AI. This is one of those scifi tales that in 2025 feels like it could be a year or two from being reality, that indeed there are very likely companies working on exactly the kind of tech used in this tale – and indeed, there are and have been. I know for a fact that one of the Computer Science *part time* professors at Kennesaw State University was working on immersive computer simulated therapy as far back as 2000, when I started there as a 16yo kid. (Hi Dr. North! :D)

The tale told here is suspenseful yet reasonably realistic while still clearly being fiction. (We hope?) In its more suspense elements in the front half of the book, it works particularly well.

Where it starts going off the rails a touch – and becoming ever less realistic, while also maintaining a fairly stunning amount of realism in how things actually play out, to a degree – is more with the events of the second half. Indeed, there is one seemingly rather long section that seems like it could have been cut entirely and a few – rather than seemingly a few hundred – pages used to cover that part of the tale, similar to the 80 page “Galt’s Speech” in Atlas Shrugged, except more actually integral to the story here, which is where the “yet long” bit in the title of this review comes in to play. Even through this section though, there is a touch of an homage to The Odyssey, which is unclear if was the intent or not – but cool either way.

Overall, I’d say this is one of Riddle’s better works as a whole. You’ve got the near future scifi. You’ve got the almost domestic thriller level suspense in the front half in particular -which I’ve never really seen Riddle even attempt, and thus shows a fair amount of growth as a writer. You’ve got enough of a romance tale here that technically this satisfies all known RWA rules to be ruled a “romance novel”. You’ve got a few different homages to classic tales from Crichton (Disclosure in particular) to Homer. And yet you’ve also got an 800+ page book whose halves wouldn’t work quite as well – at least as written here – as separate books, and where another 200-300 pages to make a trilogy could be excessively long to boot, making this feel like the perfect way to present this particular story even if the one book feels (and is) long.

Very much recommended.

This review of Labyrinth by A.G. Riddle was originally written on November 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Pursuit Of Liberty by Jeffrey Rosen

Intriguing Academic Analysis Of 250 Years Of American History Through One Central Lens. With about 16% bibliography, Rosen here crafts a well wriiten – if perhaps dryly academic in styling – narrative that serves as both history (particularly of the actual events while Hamilton and Jefferson were both alive) and filter to history (as American history progresses through 2024).

On the actual history end, Rosen is perhaps at his best, seemingly almost bringing us into the rooms where these discussions and their resultant divisions first happen. On the historical filter end, Rosen does a solid job of keeping his filter intact while examining different periods of American history from its earliest days and first insurrections (the Whiskey Rebellion, among others) through the Jan 6, 2021 “insurrection” (used in quotes here because even this text shows how dramatically different they were). And yes, we get stops at Jackson and his Indian Removal, the obligatory Civil War look, several other key points in American history. All through this lens of how various leaders chose to interpret the writings and philosophies of both Hamilton and Jefferson.

Overall it really is a fascinating look that both illuminates key ideas in new ways and works well with other books and their own filters to give a more complete view of both the American Founding and the resultant 250 years of American history. Thus, it is absolutely one that every American should read and consider, and it may well be something that even those outside the United States could learn valuable lessons about either their own countries or perhaps just the American mindset which frequently flips between Hamiltonian and Jeffersonian ideals.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Pursuit Of Liberty by Jeffrey Rosen was originally written on October 21, 2025.