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#BookReview: The Divide by Jeremy Robinson

David in the Dystopia. In one of Robinson’s more subtle – and yet also more obvious – allegories, we find a future where humanity has been reduced to the Stone Age and is clinging to survival by a thread. When one woman is summoned for a quest to stop her only son before he brings humanity to its final end, she is forced to question everything she believes. Yet again, Robinson creates a tale such that only he can, and does it superbly. This one will keep you guessing until the end, and give you one hell of a ride in the process.

This review of The Divide by Jeremy Robinson was originally published on March 5, 2018.

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#BookReview: Infinity Reborn by S. Harrison

What. A. Rush! In this epic conclusion to the Infinity Trilogy, we get most of the answers to the questions we’ve been asking all along, though little closure to anything. (The “epilogue”, such as it exists, is barely 1 page long.) And yes, there are bits and pieces of seeming inconsistency – without giving too much away, at one point there is a Kinetic Kill Vehicle mentioned (ie, a space=based solid metal pole, which is how it is described in the book). Except that when it is finally used, it goes off like a nuclear detonation – which KKVs do *not* do.

The most important thing to remember about this Trilogy is that it was never really about the events that finally get answered and resolved in the final third of this third book of the trilogy – literally the last 1/9th of the saga. This Trilogy is about Finn/Infinity and the struggle for her to learn who and what she is. And in that particular arena, this book and this Trilogy truly shines – and gives us the most answers and resolution.

This review of Infinity Reborn by S. Harrison was originally published on March 5, 2018.

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#BookReview: Infinity Reborn by S. Harrison

Great Tale Weirdly Constructed. Can’t really say too much about this tale without giving away things from the first book (Infinity Lost), so I’ll just say that the tale flashes forward some period of time (no more than hours) and picks up with the group from the end of Lost on the run. Around 1/3 to 1/2 in, we finally go back to finding out what caused them to be on the run, and this perspective stays through the rest of the book. Except we never quite meet up with the beginning of the book, and there are details at the end that seem to be not in sync with similar details at the beginning. Overall a great story, just very weirdly constructed.

This review of Infinity Rises by S. Harrison was originally published on March 2, 2018.

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#BookReview: Infinity Lost by S. Harrison

Slow Burn with Intrigue. This book starts with a 17yo girl, Finn, dreaming. For the first time in her life. As we get more into the story, we see her dreams becoming more and more disturbing – including the scene when she is 6yo that has gotten this book several 1 star reviews. But progressing from there, the book picks up and turns slightly in an action direction, after a bit of fantastical science fiction. And then the conclusion… well, it ends a bit abruptly, clearly designed to pick up from there in the next book. We get few answers in this book, and the answers we get mostly serve to whet the appetite for what is to (hopefully) come – with the ultimate question never answered here. Overall a great, immersive tale. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

This review of Infinity Lost by S. Harrison was originally published on February 28, 2018.

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#BookReview: The Girl He Wants by Kristi Rose

Possibly Unique Technique. This book had something not often seen in trilogies – a blending of the timeline from the first book into the third book. In The Girl He Knows, Rose has a particular scene where a new man is introduced and the lead in that book outright says to herself that this man isn’t for her – but would be perfect for her friend. So she calls her friend and demands the friend come out to where she is currently on a double date with this new man and common friends across all of the people involved here. This book actually starts up just before that moment, and the first roughly third of the book actually takes place concurrent with events from the back roughly third of The Girl He Knows, before progressing. This book’s weakness is that it spends so much time in the setup that it doesn’t really have a chance to actually show the love developing, rather than simply stating that the couple did various things together over a couple of paragraphs. But it is overall a strong book, just with the one major weakness.

This review of The Girl He Wants by Kristi Rose was originally published on February 23, 2018.

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#BookReview: The Girl He Needs by Kristi Rose

Solid Prequel. Yes, this is Book 2 of the trilogy, but really it is better thought of as a prequel, since much of what happens in Book 1 and Book 3 happens in somewhat direct response to what happens in this book. We meet the leading lady of Book 3 early in this one, and the leading lady of Book 1 is introduced in the epilogue – along with a mention of the male lead from Book 3. Enjoyable, without quite the drama Book 1 in particular had.

This review of The Girl He Needs by Kristi Rose was originally published on February 21, 2018.

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#BookReview: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Fundamentally Flawed, But With Some Good Points And Multitudinous Evidence. Overall, Alexander’s work has some good points – mostly when it concerns examining the United States’ mass incarceration system as a whole. Its fundamental fatal flaw however its its central tenet- that this mass incarceration system is a system of *racial*, rather than class, control. But at least Alexander documents her case well, even when only citing evidence from a particular strain of thought that happens to agree with her own. Worth reading – highly recommended even – for the examination of the mass incarceration system and its effects as a whole , but severely hampered in its attempts to portray the system as “just another way to keep the black man down”. In that central tenet, it does its greatest disservice to showing the full monstrosity that is the US mass incarceration system.

This review of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander was originally published on February 18, 2018.

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#BookReview: End in the Beginning by Gary Williams and Vicky Knerly

Epic Conclusion. In this truly epic conclusion to the God Tools Trilogy, the fate of humanity is at stake as the three God Tools come together with various human elements. This is the most fantastical book in the trilogy, the first one where the fantasy elements nearly override the human. But Williams and Knerly give a more complete ending than many stories do, and it works with what they had previously established.

This review of End in the Beginning by Gary Williams and Vicky Knerly was originally published on February 12, 2018.

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#BookReview: Evil in the Beginning by Gary Williams and Vicky Knerly

Great continuation with a cliffhanger ending. The first several chapters seemingly introduce new characters every chapter, but by the midway point many of these characters start meeting up. And by the end of the story, the first and second God Tools are revealed… and a clock has started up for one of our heroes. Will the other hero save the day in time in book three? That is left for us to find out…

This review of Evil in the Beginning by Gary Williams and Vicky Knerly was originally published on February 11, 2018.