Tag: Jeremy Robinson

Posted on

#BookReview Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson

gotta admit, I’ve never really been a fan of the Godzilla-type stories. Not in movie form, and I’ve certainly never read a book about them.

And then I picked up Robinson’s Project Nemesis – specifically because it was written by Robinson.

Now I can’t wait for my second strange beast book!

The basics: Guys find something in Alaska. Later, one of the guys heads a team working on human regeneration. Hands some strange DNA to his team after they have gotten close, but not close enough. Tissue with the new DNA seems to finally work.

Only it has side effects that are only learned too late. The human grown without a brain, specifically to harvest its organs, *lives* after having its heart cut out.

Meanwhile, a Homeland Security office chief goes to investigate Sasquatch. The local (female) Sheriff finds him after a night of drunkeness and first meets him in his boxers. Together, they stumble upon a secret facility that is not what it seems.

Just as a strange beast lays waste to the place…

If you’ve never heard of Robinson, there’s really not a bad book to start with from him, and this is no exception. It has some similarities to his Chess Team books, and even a passing resemblance to his Last Hunter series. Pick this one up. You won’t be disappointed – and you may well have found your new favorite author.

This review of Project Nemesis by Jeremy Robinson was originally published on February 10, 2013.

Posted on

#BookReview: Ragnarok by Jeremy Robinson

If you like globe trotting action (ala PULSE or THRESHOLD), you’ll love the first half of this book. If you like more one-location action (ala INSTINCT), you’ll love the second half/ final battle of this book. If you want to know what happens with the Chess Team spread all over the planet, each off doing their own thing, and how they come back together, you’ll love this entire book. If you love action mixed with a bit of sci-fi, you’ll love this entire book. If you like balls to the wall action, you’ll love this entire book.

Robinson is quickly gaining more and more space on bookshelves, both in bookstores and in personal libraries, and this book is yet another masterpiece. Seriously, about the only people that won’t like this book are those who prefer more Nicholas Sparks style books. If you like action and mystery, this book is for you. And even if you think you know what’s coming…. you don’t. Filled with in references to Jeremy’s other books even outside the Chess Team series, any fan will have plenty of laugh out loud moments – and anyone new to the series will have plenty of references to track down in Jeremy’s other works.

Brief plot synopsis: The Chess Team is spread all over the place. Rook is where we left him in his novella, Bishop and Knight are in Uganda taking down a splinter cell of the LRA, Queen is tracking down Rook, and King is…. stumbling across a bomb plot at Disneyworld while trying to take his new family on a much deserved vacation.

Suddenly, mysterious glowing balls start showing up all over the place, taking everything that was inside them with them when they go – and unleashing mucho devastation while they are here.

King and Deep Blue are sent off to examine one globe, Knight and Bishop are sent to handle another…. but where is Rook? And where is Queen? One Chess Team member alone is devastating. Any two are deadly. But if they are going to solve Ragnarok, they will need the full force of all five members (and then some!) to tackle their biggest enemy yet.

This review of Ragnarok by Jeremy Robinson was originally published on October 19, 2012.

Posted on

#BookReview: Callsign: King by Jeremy Robinson and Sean Ellis

I’ve read every single book Mr. Robinson has put out so far, though Mr. Ellis is new to me. So I have a pretty good feel for Mr. Robinson’s writing…

… and like the title says here, I couldn’t tell that there were two authors involved in this project. It flows just like any other CHESS TEAM book, though the only member of the Team that appears in this one is the titular leader.

The story is GREAT – basically 1/5 of a full-team CHESS TEAM book, full of the same type of action, adventure, and ancient mystery that series is becoming known for. Overall, this novella adds to the overall mythos in a surprising (based on the prior mythos) yet refreshing way, and portends even more adventure for the Team in the face of the new twist. While having read the prior CHESS TEAM books will give a richer depth to the story, this novella could also serve as a good intro to the overall style for those hesitant to commit to a full book, and thus can be recommended for both fans of Mr. Robinson as well as people looking for new action-adventure authors.

I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing where Mr. Robinson and Co. go with this novella series – 2011 just got a lot more interesting!

This review of Callsign: King by Jeremy Robinson and Sean Ellis was originally published on July 11, 2011.

Posted on

#BookReview: Insomnia by Jeremy Robinson

Overall, the short stories in this collection are just that – short. Yet Robinson still manages to tell distinct, engaging stories in each. The explanations after each are rather interesting as well. For example, the motivation for the actual ‘Insomnia’ short story was Robinson’s own battle with a disorder he has given a character in one of his actual books and how it typically keeps him awake at night longing for sleep.

This project was something Robinson has called a “test bed” of ideas, and many of them worked well.

Going down the list:

‘Insomnia’ could very well be made into a 1984-type long form book, and the possibilities there are intriguing.

‘The Eater’ was intriguing in short form, as the story of three young brothers who deal with an unknown black substance, but I think a long-form treatment would have to go a more horror route, which I’m personally not a fan of.

‘Harden’s Tree’ could very easily be made to fit into an almost ‘Chess Team’ style book, and was another solid short story.

‘Star Crossed Killers’ was a Mr and Mrs Smith style story that worked well in this collection.

‘Counting Sheep’ could be very interesting as one scene of a much longer story.

‘Hearing Aid’ was probably my least favorite of this collection, but I appreciate that Robinson is stretching what he normally does.

‘Dark Seed of the Moon’ could be another potential book for Robinson, and maybe even an ANTARKTOS level series if played right.

Overall, the collection was very solid and a refreshing look at an author actively working to test and refine his craft.

This review of Insomnia by Jeremy Robinson was originally published on Jan 26, 2011.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Last Hunter (Collected Edition) by Jeremy Robinson

This book was originally published in 5 parts. Here are my reviews in order:

DESCENT:

I’ve been speaking with the author over the past couple of days about this book, and my trepidation of buying it even though I am an avid fan of his work. The reason for my trepidation is one factor alone: the Young Adult classification.

But I bit the bullet and bought the book last night – and even though it didn’t arrive on my Kindle until 12:01a, I’ve already finished it. It is that good. I don’t know how Kindle lines translate to pages, but as far as length goes this was 4K or so lines compared to 6K or so from Lee Child’s Worth Dying For, which was the first book I bought on my Kindle.

TRUST ME: Buy this book! It is from the ANTARKTOS RISING universe, and as its title implies, it is set up to be a multi-part series. That fact – that you can feel throughout that it is destined to be a multi-book story – is the ONLY drawback to this book. It is set at least a few years prior to the events of ANTARKTOS RISING, as the creatures are still buried under the ice.

The story is intense. Shortly after his 13th birthday, a young boy travels to Antarctica – the land of his birth – with his parents. While there, he is abducted, taken underground, and broken. He is forced to learn an entirely new way of life, encountering myriad strange creatures. He is nearly killed several times, and comes face to face with many of the entities and characters from ANTARKTOS RISING, many of which are terrifying. Along the way, he becomes a strong, stealthy hunter – the last hunter.

It is at this point that he learns what is truly expected of him – and that there is much more to him than even his captors realize.

This story takes the ANTARKTOS RISING mythology to a whole new level, and I’m going to have to re-read that story now! Truly looking forward to seeing how this new series comes out, and how it dove-tails into the ANTARKTOS RISING story line. This is truly Young Adult in name only, and while it is debatable as to whether this is truly among the author’s best work – or maybe even the best (a claim he made yesterday), if you’re a fan of Jeremy Robinson – or Matt Reilly or David Golemon – you’ll be THRILLED with this latest addition.

Continue reading “#BookReview: The Last Hunter (Collected Edition) by Jeremy Robinson”

Posted on

#BookReview: Instinct by Jeremy Robinson

I literally finished this book in about 36 hours after starting it – I couldn’t put it down!

The action starts with the Chess Team getting ready for a relaxing barbeque with the President – his way of thanking them for their battles in PULSE and other successful missions between the books, since they refuse any other medals or commendations.

All of a sudden, the Team is called out on a mission – without Deep Blue, their eye-in-the-sky fearless leader.

King, Queen, Bishop, Knight, and Rook get dropped into a hot LZ in Vietnam along with Pawn, a CDC virus specialist. The mission is to keep Pawn alive while she can track down a cure to a virus that has already claimed the life of the President and threatens to kill every male on the planet – including King, Knight, Rook, and even Bishop.

Facing Vietnamese Special Forces, along with a far more sinister and unknown adversary, the Team fights to keep Pawn alive, as well as themselves. Will they survive, or will the adversaries – human, virus, and unknown – kill every single member of the Team and doom humanity?

For that, you’ll just have to read this AMAZING book.

Pay attention to the end of the tale for the reveal of Deep Blue’s real identity, among other surprises…

This review of Instinct by Jeremy Robinson was originally published on Amazon on June 28, 2010.

Posted on

#BookReview: Anarktos Rising by Jeremy Robinson

This was an AMAZING book. Better than Cussler’s *Atlantis Rising*, better than Alten’s *Domain*, and yet this guy doesn’t have a major publishing contract yet!!

I found Jeremy Robinson on myspace after he invited me to be his friend there. Ordered Antarktos Rising and Didymus Contingency that day from his site, got them two days later, and had Antarktos finished 2 days after that. (Actually closer to within 36 hours. 300+ page book, and when I wasn’t working or sleeping, I was reading it. It was THAT good, and THAT interesting!)

As far as specifics: The ‘Day After Tomorrow’ type scenes early in the book were excellent, as was the ending of that sequence. (Touches of 10.5 there.) The battle scenes with the Chinese army were excellent – you could TOTALLY see the Red Army doing exactly as they did – as was the tension in the American team, particularly after they ‘adopt’ another member. Furthermore, I found that the theories revealed in the endgame were intriguing, in a similar fashion as to those revealed in the later stages of Alten’s ‘Domain’.

I fully look forward to a sequel, and have officially found a new author that will have at least one buyer of any book he puts out as long as I am alive.

This review of Antarktos Rising by Jeremy Robinson was originally published on Amazon on Feb 25, 2008.

Posted on

2018: My Year In Books

2018 was going to be a big year in books for me from the start. At the end of 2017, I realized I had averaged more than 70 books in each of the last two years, so I set myself what I saw as an ambitious goal: 108 books. It started out as a specific list of books, with the acknowledgement that I would add the occassional Advance Reader Copy (ARC) and would probably end the year at 120 or so – still nearly double my recent average. I distinctly remember even 53 books being very difficult in 2008, but my life had also been much different at the time, as a new person in my day job profession, new husband, and driving 100 miles one way to work for over half of that year. 2018 was going to be much easier – I was working a fairly easy job in a settled position in my career, married to the same lady from 2008, and working just 15 minutes from home.

I started the year with a couple of 19th century philosophical works, Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thorau and On Liberty by John Stuart Mills. Those would be the oldest books I read this year, and the only books published before the current Millenium. Over the course of the year, I would find many amazing books, a few duds, march through my mountain of a TBR (while adding even more, peril of a bookaholic), joined several more book and author groups, started a book blog, and overall surprise myself in a couple of ways:

1) I surpassed my original goal of 108 books in *October*. I closed the year at 156.
2) I didn’t realize it until counting yesterday, but of those 156 books, 46 of them turned out to be ARCs!

But let’s take a brief look at some “best of 2018”, shall we? I believe we’ll break it down by month before finally picking from those selections for the annual award.
Continue reading “2018: My Year In Books”

Posted on

Featured New Release Of the Week: Space Force by Jeremy Robinson

This week we’re going to look at the most hilarious book I’ve read this year. This week, we’re going to look at the book that the author had just finished writing when I met him almost three months ago. This week, we’re going to look at Space Force by Jeremy Robinson.

The book itself is classic Robinson as far as the science fiction itself goes – alien invasion, Earth forces have to stop it. But it is the way Robinson crafts this particular tale that makes it stand out above even his own amazing books. The pop culture (and specifically geek/ gaming culture) references abound arguably more than in even Ready Player One – you seriously seemingly can’t go more than a paragraph or two without some reference. And they all work well in the story he is telling with the tone he is telling it in. Specifically, a very irreverent, literally laugh out loud comedy that happens to have a solid science fiction backing. In some ways, it is reminiscent of the 2015 Adam Sandler movie Pixels as far as the mix of science fiction, gaming, and comedy goes, but Robinson is far superior on his execution and more modern on his gaming, using some of the latest and biggest trends in gaming -battle royale games ala PUBG and Fortnite – as one of the primary plot points of the book.

Coming from a man that is written into one of Robinson’s other books (HUNGER) and literally has a tattoo featured in another Robinson book (UNITY, see over there ->) on his arm, this is arguably one of my favorite Robinson books to date because while his other books have been fun, they have always had a very serious undertone. This book is basically pure fun, even while the characters and indeed, Earth itself, are in mortal peril. Robinson shows that he is equally as gifted at creating pure light-hearted escapism as he is at crafting solid science fiction heart wrenching drama, but these days I find myself preferring the more light hearted side of things, and thus this book is very welcome.

So help me out here. I’m going to read Robinson’s books regardless, because I absolutely consider him the Modern Day Master of Science Fiction. But I would REALLY love to see more of these pure fun, light hearted books from him – but he is absolutely sales driven. So I really need this book to sell better than his others, preferably *all* of his others. That way he’ll be convinced to write more of this style of book, and we can all laugh a little more.

And really, given all that is happening in the world right now, we could all use a little more laughter.

So go buy this book!

As always, the Goodreads/ Amazon reviews:

The Master Of Science Fiction Adds Humor! Jeremy Robinson, the modern day Master of Science Fiction, has now added even more to his stories: literal laugh out loud, and very nearly literally roll on the floor laughing, level humor to a science fiction adventure that is just as breathtaking as his other books.

If you like science fiction at all, this is a must have. If you like geek humor and/ or battle royale gaming, this is a must have. If you just want to laugh amidst all the drama in the world right now, this is a MUST. HAVE.

So stop reading this review and go buy this book and start reading it instead already! President Kanye West demands it!

Posted on

Robinsonfest 2018: The Wrap Up

This time last weekend, I was laying in my hotel room at the Homewood Suites Hilton in Portsmouth NH, just a few hours away from going whale watching for the first time with Granite State Whale Watch in Rye, NH. I had already had amazing experiences dining at Moxy and Tuscan Kitchen in Portsmouth, NH and Wild Willy’s Burgers in Rochester, NH and had had a lot of fun racing, gaming, and playing putt putt at Hilltop Fun Center in Somersworth, NH as well as beginning the Apocalypse while relaxing at Butternut Farm in Farmington, NH. I had even been able to step foot in Maine long enough to get a selfie at Warren’s Lobster House in Kittery, ME.

I was doing all of this really fun stuff while also having a chance to meet and hang out with an author I’ve known online for a decade, Jeremy Robinson. The event, organized by Jeremy and his long time editor/ coauthor / friend Kane Gilmour, is called Robinsonfest mostly because Jeremy’s books are what bring everyone together, and no one has yet thought of a better name for it. As Jeremy somewhat wryly states in his own wrap up, he isn’t overly fond of the name and never really has been. 🙂

But for those of us Jeremy brought together over a love of his books, it really was an awesome chance to just hang out with each other, have some fun, and relax. Having been to a few conferences of varying sizes both personally and professionally, it was a unique experience, even though it had the same basic idea – a bunch of people coming together over some commonality. At Robinsonfest, you had a fairly wide slice of life even with such a small amount of people. One person came from Australia and has made the trek across half a planet every year since this event started. One couple drove from Pennsylvania, where they both work in the government sector. Another couple came from Long Island, where he is a teacher and trying to break into the book narration field. Another guy came from the northern Chicago exurbs. I came from Georgia by by way of Jacksonville, the only person from the Southern US in the group. Most of us have known each other on Facebook for years. And while most of them had met each other and Jeremy and Kane in years past, I was the newbie to interaction in real life. And then there was the real newcomer, someone who mysteriously found out about Robinsonfest without any of the rest of us knowing and decided to come see what it was all about. Which was probably the most fascinating story of the weekend. Particularly once we discovered her reaction to the word “moist”. 😀 (Yes, I’m still needling her with it a week later. :D)

But the sense of camaraderie among all of these people, even while wildly divergent on all beliefs outside of the fact that Jeremy’s books are awesome, was simply amazing. And it was truly a truly phenomenal feeling to be a part of a group that could set aside all of those other differences and just hang out and be a community for a weekend. We laughed a lot, we cried a little. We worried when someone was worried. (A Kindle that was thought missing turned out to have been placed in an unexpected area of the person’s backpack. Yes, I am the person that misplaced his Kindle. :D)

I’ve got a summary video I shot 6 days ago as I was preparing to leave, and I’ve also got a 33 minute video I put together from everyone’s pictures and videos as well. I’ll link both of those after the jump.

But I want to close with this: I went into the weekend thinking that I could be the “weird guy”, as I have been in so many situations in my life. And instead, I was openly welcomed and embraced – in some cases literally. (There are some huggers in the bunch. :D) For someone that doesn’t have many friends, to be around people that I could so openly be myself with is always a treat. And it isn’t just fans of Jeremy’s books that come and are so embraced. There were at least three significant others there at various points of the weekend that really haven’t read Jeremy’s books at all, but were coming to support their partner. And they were made to feel just as welcome as anyone else, even if we did have to explain jokes based on Jeremy’s books (ok, so it was mostly me cracking those). So come if you’re a fan of Jeremy’s books. But come even if you’re just curious about them or have a partner that is either crazy or curious about them. You’ll be warmly embraced no matter what, and at minimum you will have a good time with good friends.
Continue reading “Robinsonfest 2018: The Wrap Up”