#BookReview: Spores by Michael McBride

Visceral Horror Thriller Sets Up Horrifying Series. When two different friends release a book with the same sky high general premise within a year of each other – in this case, fungi, with this book and Jeremy Robinson’s POINT NEMO – it is always interesting to see how divergent they will be. While Robinson’s has some horror-ish elements, it remains more of a pure scifi action thriller. *This* book however is absolutely scifi horror, on the level that will have you squeamish at best and potentially mind-melting at worst. Featuring elements similar to Greig Beck’s BENEATH THE DARK ICE and even Lee Child’s DIE TRYING, this book manages to combine a deep backstory from decades earlier with hot off the presses current issues of environmental protection in the Western US (and even specifically referencing the Centralia, Pennsylvania coal mine fire that has been burning for over 60 yrs now).

Truly a book horror fans, and particularly fans of multiple types of horror, will love, this one has everything from scenes that will make those suffering claustrophobia lose their minds to several great creature horror elements and scenes that will give creature feature lovers chills in the best possible ways. This book is going to make your heart pound *hard* almost no matter what makes you anxious or or terrified – it truly does have a bit of everything, including even elements of disaster stories.

And then that ending… wow. Blatantly sets up an ongoing series, but that is all that I will reveal about it here.

Truly one of the better books early in the year, and very much recommended.

This review of Spores by Michael McBride was originally written on February 4, 2024.

#BookReview: The Sentinel: The Complete Jane Harper Trilogy by Jeremy Robinson

Terrific Trilogy Puts A New Spin On Well Established Entities.

As this *is* a review of the entire trilogy, let me start by placing my reviews of THE SENTINEL and THE RAVEN (Books 1 and 2) here first:

THE SENTINEL:

A Long Time Coming. Let me tell you a story. It begins in 2010. Jeremy Robinson and I have known each other online for a few years now, having met in MySpace. I’ve read every book he’s written (just a half dozen or so at this point), and he is now releasing a book he calls TORMENT – his first outright horror book. So I read it too. And it literally gave me nightmares for YEARS after reading it.

A year later, Robinson releases his next horror book – The Sentinel. And it becomes the first of his books that I would not read… for 13 years. Until November 2024, when he is gearing up to release the completed Jane Harper Trilogy via writing a book called THE HOST and packaging it similarly to how he did FAMINE and HUNGER: THE COMPLETE TRILOGY earlier in the 2020s.

And now that my nightmares from TORMENT have faded – particularly after Robinson retconned it into his INFINITE TIMELINE event in the late 2010s/ early 2020s and weakened it significantly – I’m finally in a position that I can attempt to read THE SENTINEL.

And what I found… was nowhere NEAR the horror of TORMENT. Yes, it absolutely has its horrific moments – many times over. Its got an almost Carrie-type callback. Its got a ship sinking. Its got creatures. Its got the same irreverent wit that Robinson would come to develop more over the last 15 years. Truly, having read everything Robinson has released since THE SENTINEL (other than its sequel, THE RAVEN), this may as well be included in his “Origins” package, because you can absolutely see in this book the beginnings of his style to come for the next decade+ of his career.

So pick this book up, even now – or maybe wait until March 2025 when THE SENTINEL: THE COMPLETE JANE HARPER TRILOGY is released. You’re going to laugh. You’re going to cry. You might even puke a few times at the horror on the screen. But you’re going to have a blast doing it, and you’re going to want to have the next book available immediately at hand anyway.

Very much recommended.

THE RAVEN:

Second Book In Series Picks Up Weeks After First Book And Raises Stakes. This is one of those second books where we get direct (if a few weeks later) follow-up to the story from the first book – so absolutely read The Sentinel first, or wait until March 2025 when The Sentinel: The Complete Jane Harper Trilogy will be available, as you absolutely need that context to understand much of any of the insanity happening in this book. As has always been the case in a Robinson book, the New God of Science Fiction – a moniker I gave Robinson long after the original release of this book over a decade ago – takes a somewhat common concept in scifi (zombies, here) and makes it 100% his own while creating utterly wild action sequences that you’ll never see anywhere else. And boy do this book have a lot of those. Wow.

The one issue with this particular book – soon to *finally* be rectified – is that it very clearly sets up a sequel and likely conclusion to the trilogy… that Robinson then waited *over a decade* to deliver on. Though he’s still faster in concluding his stories than a certain famous “Game” / “Song” writer. 😉
So read this one now if you haven’t, to get ready for THE HOST, available in the aforementioned THE SENTINEL: THE COMPLETE JANE HARPER TRILOGY in just about 3 months as I write this review. Or pick up that book when it comes out in March, because I guarantee you that by the time you finish this book, you’ll be glad THE HOST begins on the next page.

Very much recommended.

And now, the conclusion of our trilogy:

THE HOST

Concussive Conclusion. Man, if you thought THE RAVEN hit hard and heavy, this book is about to feel like you went a few rounds with Iron Mike Tyson in his prime… in the best of ways. The action here, well, Robinson has had a decade since writing the last book to hone his craft even further. And with that truly demented mind… yeah, you’re in for some pretty awesome treats in this particular tale.

As a conclusion to this trilogy (finally, though still faster than that “Game” / “Song” dude), this works on many, many levels. You get the callback to using a particular name that Robinson used a few times in his earlier books, though in a completely different character here. (For those who don’t know, that name happens to be Robinson’s long time editor, assistant, and occasional co-author, and while those who *do* know now know he shows up, that’s all I’m saying here.) You get some of the more metaphysical discussions that Robinson has packed into a few of his books over the years to great affect (at least in my opinion, and hey, this is my damn review :D). You get the humor and action and heart that has defined Robinson’s career from the earliest books through now and presumably for as long as he is writing. And you get a conclusion for all of these characters that works within the story told to this point, without going all “Return Of The King” and ending hours after it should have.

The *one* issue I have with this book, and I told Robinson this personally shortly after finishing in a more direct way (as it involves spoilers to get *too* specific here), is that where the metaphysical discussion is happening, Robinson reaches to what I told him seems to have become a bit of a crutch these last few years, and that I hope he ditches that particular device in the next few books. At least for a few books. So we’ll see what happens there, but even still, it absolutely worked within the story told within this trilogy, so it isn’t like it was *completely* out there – just a personal preference that I told the author, whom I’ve known for many, many years, directly and am expressing in this review. Feel free to tell me to go to hell over this and that you *love* that particular crutch and hope Robinson uses it in *every* book. 🙂 As long as you’re reading and reviewing books, I’m happy. 😀

Ultimately, again, this really was a pretty damn perfect conclusion to this particular trilogy.

Very much recommended.

And with three “Very much recommended” ratings on three books in this completed trilogy… yes, the trilogy as a whole is thus very much recommended.

This review of The Sentinel: The Complete Jane Harper Trilogy by Jeremy Robinson was originally written on December 10, 2024.

#BookReview: The Sentinel by Jeremy Robinson

A Long Time Coming. Let me tell you a story. It begins in 2010. Jeremy Robinson and I have known each other online for a few years now, having met in MySpace. I’ve read every book he’s written (just a half dozen or so at this point), and he is now releasing a book he calls TORMENT – his first outright horror book. So I read it too. And it literally gave me nightmares for YEARS after reading it.

A year later, Robinson releases his next horror book – The Sentinel. And it becomes the first of his books that I would not read… for 13 years. Until November 2024, when he is gearing up to release the completed Jane Harper Trilogy via writing a book called THE HOST and packaging it similarly to how he did FAMINE and HUNGER: THE COMPLETE TRILOGY earlier in the 2020s.

And now that my nightmares from TORMENT have faded – particularly after Robinson retconned it into his INFINITE TIMELINE event in the late 2010s/ early 2020s and weakened it significantly – I’m finally in a position that I can attempt to read THE SENTINEL.

And what I found… was nowhere NEAR the horror of TORMENT. Yes, it absolutely has its horrific moments – many times over. Its got an almost Carrie-type callback. Its got a ship sinking. Its got creatures. Its got the same irreverent wit that Robinson would come to develop more over the last 15 years. Truly, having read everything Robinson has released since THE SENTINEL (other than its sequel, THE RAVEN), this may as well be included in his “Origins” package, because you can absolutely see in this book the beginnings of his style to come for the next decade+ of his career.

So pick this book up, even now – or maybe wait until March 2025 when THE SENTINEL: THE COMPLETE JANE HARPER TRILOGY is released. You’re going to laugh. You’re going to cry. You might even puke a few times at the horror on the screen. But you’re going to have a blast doing it, and you’re going to want to have the next book available immediately at hand anyway.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Sentinel by Jeremy Robinson was originally written on December 6, 2024.

#BookReview: Revenant-X by David Wellington

Just As Long – And *STILL* Only Tells One Part Of The Story. As the title of this review harkens back to my original review of the first book in this series, PARADISE-1, I should note that in that review I specifically proclaimed “I personally would love a sequel that picks up moments after this book leaves off”. Which is *exactly* what we get here. So yes, this is one of those series you really do need to read in order – and in this case, that means sitting down for about 1400 pages of scifi space horror.

I named a lot of different scifi franchises in that review of PARADISE-1, and while they are spot on for that book, this book feels more like a different scifi franchise, one that first released months after that book – the new (now 14 month old) STARFIELD. Players of that game will note that many of its planets are barren, rocky, and almost entirely devoid of any life at all – even humans looking for a pit stop. Which is largely the case with this book, and just as Starfield can admittedly get a touch repetitive in the “find this spot, get attacked by whatever is there, kill it, move to the next spot” mechanics… yes, that same type of storytelling comes to bear here.

Where Wellington shines, and truly helps the pacing and thus makes the read feel nowhere near as long as it actually is, is in his use of shorter chapters. There are nearly 120 chapters in this book, and thus by the time you’re in the Chapter 30 range and roughly 25-30% done with the book… you find yourself looking back and thinking you haven’t actually been reading that long. Even at Chapter 100 with another 100 pages or so left, you still don’t think it has been that long, nor do you really think there is that much longer left. Or at least this was my own experience. 🙂

And yes, this one also ends with the reader demanding to see the next book immediately, as where the first book left off at a certain point that *demanded* a sequel, here things have changed and now it is because of the specific course of events and those still to come that the reader will be desperately waiting to see what happens next.

One note here, more on my personal experience, but possibly informative for others as well: I “only” read 335 books in the 644 days between reading PARADISE-1 and REVENANT-X, and Wellington does a solid job of bringing the reader back into the fold rapidly, even if you don’t remember exact details of the prior book.

Very much recommended.

This review of Revenant-X by David Wellington was originally written on November 4, 2024.

#BookReview: Point Nemo by Jeremy Robinson

Immersive And Inventive Tale Of Survival Horror From The New God Of Science Fiction. This was yet another fun scifi action thriller from the New God of Science Fiction, Jeremy Robinson, that manages to combine certain aspects of a few different comic book tales (Venom’s origins in Spiderman, the current(ly ending) era of XMen, early Greig Beck books, and even another classic tale whose name alone would be a massive spoiler and yet tell a tale entirely its own. Hell, knowing how Robinson writes from having followed him since basically the beginning (and now nearly 100 books later…), he is probably generally aware of the stories I referenced, but I doubt he would actually label them as “influences” on the story.

Some of his detractors who think they know his personal politics will probably have some more ammunition here, as the story told actually also brings forth certain aspects of US history (and, some would argue, even its current actions).

But ultimately this is simply an inventive and fun horror-based tale of survival, a well Robinson has dipped into a few times before and yet always manages to create an entirely fresh take on the general idea every time he comes back to it.

Truly a wild ride that will leave you breathless… and wanting to come back to this world or at minimum see if it plays into his *next* “Avengers Level Event” (which likely won’t be actively seen for at least 2-3 more years).

Very much recommended.

This review of Point Nemo by Jeremy Robinson was originally written on March 15, 2024.

#BookReview: Torment by Jeremy Robinson

When People Ask Me For Most Horrific Book I’ve Ever Read, This Is The Book I Name. I’m writing this review literally over a decade after actually reading this book – apparently I either never wrote a review or the places I posted it have lost it over the years. And yet I can still do an accurate review, perhaps even better since I can now speak to the lasting impact of this book. This is one that to this day is truly the singular most personally horrific book I have *ever* read. It produced nightmares for *years* any time I thought of it. And that is exactly what makes it so great. It is truly one of those books that will haunt you in unexpected ways and places, and this was one of Robinson’s (then going by Bishop to try to protect his Robinson scifi brand) *early* works. His newer stuff is *even better* – and yet this one was so phenomenal I can remember details of it a decade later. Though to be clear, this is one that if you’re not as steeped in conservative evangelical American Christian thought as I am (and was *just* leaving when I read it originally), perhaps all you really get from this is a kickass balls to the wall scifi horror thriller. Which is still awesome in its own way. But if you’re familiar with that thinking, if you’re familiar with Dante’s Inferno or the 18th century retelling known as Jonathan Edwards’ sermon Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God… be prepared for another now-modern retelling of a lot of the same ideas. Truly phenomenal work. Very much recommended – with the lights on. 😉

This review of Torment by Jeremy Robinson was originally written on February 14, 2023.

#BookReview: Paradise-1 by David Wellington

LONG – And Still Only Tells One Part Of The Story. The biggest thing I was left with at the end of this book was whether I was satisfied with the tale here – and thus the book should get the full 5* rating- or whether I thought it was a cash-grab that only told one part of the story and demands money to get the rest of the story (which I’ve seen in other books and written about in other reviews, though I note here that neither of these refer to books from this author) and thus should get a star deduction. Obviously, I ultimately sided with it being a complete tale *so far as it goes*, and I personally would love a sequel that picks up moments after this book leaves off.

As to the tale itself, think “Dead Space” or maybe a touch of the Suicide Mission in Mass Effect 2 or any number of other movies / tv shows / games / book / etc where our main characters wake up already in a survival situation… and things only get more horrific from there. Here though, we also get almost disaster movie type setup with a bit of the “normal life” of each of our crew members before they are sent on this particular mission, and this both helps ground the characters and serves as a touch of foreshadowing of how the tale plays out. The horror is real and visceral, but of a type that if you have your internal “blood filters” set, you may envision at least somewhat less carnage than others who envision the more complete “Mortal Kombat experience”. And as horrific as the physical horror is, the psychological horror here could be said to be even worse – yes, this book goes *that* deep. Ultimately, if you like any of the franchises I’ve named here – and I’ll even drop in the original, space based, Aliens movies here – you’re likely going to enjoy this book. If you like visceral survival / horror type space tales, you’re going to like this book. Again, I truly do want a sequel here, so I’m hoping either Wellington is already planning that or sales/ outcry is enough that we get one. Very much recommended.

This review of Paradise-1 by David Wellington was originally written on January 30, 2023.

#BookReview: Moonless Nocturne by Hank Schwaeble

Excellent Collection of Darker Scifi Stories. This collection does a great job of spanning a wide range of scifi types and styles, from noir/ hard-boiled detective chasing a mysterious object to concerns about the space race/ nuclear testing to AI to haunted houses to mind-bending psychological thriller, and several others to boot. While Schwaeble uses “dark fantasy” on the cover to describe what is here, to me “fantasy” is more swords/ sorcery level, and the closest you actually get to that in this collection is some stories having a touch of the paranormal to them. Otherwise this is solid scifi/ horror, and great for those “mood”/ “seasonal” readers looking for something a bit darker/ spookier in October. Also great for fans of the Twilight Zone and Hitchcockian suspense, as these stories are right there in that vein. Very much recommended.

This review of Moonless Nocturne by Hank Schwaeble was originally written on October 8, 2022.

Featured New Release Of The Week: The Dark by Jeremy Robinson

This week we’re looking at a scifi action tale that wraps itself up in horror clothing remarkably well. This week we’re looking at The Dark by Jeremy Robinson.

As always, the Goodreads review:

The Master Turns To Horror. With this book, Jeremy Robinson – The Modern Day Master of Science Fiction – again attempts a horror book… before bringing it back to the scifi action that is his bread and butter. He first establishes a loveable galoof of an anti-hero: an Army veteran who has PTSD from his experiences in Afghanistan who can’t quite fit in with his suburban civilian “normal” life. Then, he begins building in the mystery and the horror, slowly ramping it up to truly horrific levels across several different types of horror, finally culminating in a truly utterly horrific sequence that, arguably, hard core fans of Mass Effect who are familiar with Mass Effect 2 in particular may be at least somewhat jaded to. And then, the actual scifi action conclusion – almost as though Robinson has made us see hell, and now wants to leave us on a more interesting/ happier note. Long time fans of Robinson may see at least a few similarities to his 2010 “Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God” retelling, TORMENT, though for me that particular book was so horrific *because* it was essentially a modern day version of that famous sermon (which was, in itself, essentially a then-modern retelling of Dante’s Inferno). For those like me who literally had nightmares for *years* after reading that book, I can tell you that this one isn’t anywhere near that bad – at least not in the same ways. It truly is utterly horrific in a couple of sequences in particular, and these new horrors may indeed haunt your nightmares for quite some time. But dammit, that is what makes Robinson the Master. 😉 Very much recommended.