Tag: Kane Gilmour

Posted on

#BookReview: No Hallow’s Eve by Kane Gilmour

Gilmour Again Makes Stoker Proud. In a bit of an ironic twist, I was reading this as my wife was watching one of her sparkly “vampire” movies. If you detest those as “not real vampires” as so many of us do, you’re going to love this tale where yet again Gilmour *finally* comes back with an old school Dracula tale that shows the Black Prince in all his glory – while actually setting in motion much grander plans. Gilmour has author’s notes at beginning and end explaining the delay since Crypt of Dracula was published 6 yrs ago and his future plans for hopefully 2020, and if all goes as planned fans of old school Dracula (among others) should be very pleased indeed. Very much recommended.

This review of No Hallow’s Eve by Kane Gilmour was originally written on November 30, 2019.

Posted on

#BookReview: Viking Tomorrow by Jeremy Robinson

Imagine the most bad ass female fighter you can possibly imagine. Now put her as the leader of a rag tag bunch of post apocalyptic warriors on a Lord of the Rings style journey to save the world. Combine that with Jeremy Robinson’s mastery of creature based action novels, and you get… one of the most kick ass books I’ve read at least this year, and possibly in several years or even ever. Wild, fun ride. Can’t wait to see where he takes this tale!

This review of Viking Tomorrow by Jeremy Robinson and Kane Gilmour was originally published on October 24, 2017.

Posted on

#BookReview: Refuge by Jeremy Robinson

This book was originally published in 5 parts. The following are the reviews for each part, compiled together here.

Night of the Blood Sky:
Small town New Hampshire. July 4th. Most of the town is emptying out to go to the fireworks in a nearby town, a few are staying behind to either get drunk or get frisky. Nothing too earth shattering.

And then the church bell starts ringing… without anyone pulling it!

When the bell stops ringing, the town itself appears to be the same… except that somehow everything outside the borders of the town has… changed. Buckle in your seatbelts, because things are about to get wild!

Darkness Falls (w/ Daniel S. Boucher):
Book 2 of the Refuge Saga opens with a new primary character waking up from a drunken stupor to the new “reality” of life in Refuge. The church bell has once again sounded, and now a darkness has fallen, along with ash falling like snow and covering everything. Thanks to Book 1 taking care of the setup, this book dives right in to the mystery and action. More creepy, more monsters, and more heartache than Book 1, this is an excellent continuation of the series!

Lost in the Echo (w/ Robert Smartwood):
This series just keeps getting better and better. Each book building on the last, in this one we finally get a few answers, including the last words of the book.

In this one, Refuge starts out fairly peacefully – a welcome respite from the dark and ash of the previous book. Frost decides the town needs heavier weapons in case big bads like the ash monsters come back, and the only place that might have what they need is the abandoned National Guard depot on the edge of town.

But is it really abandoned?

Ashes and Dust (w/ David McAfee):
The Refuge Saga continues, this time the town gets transported to a world that is barren and dusty, possibly from some sort of nuclear explosion that seems to have originated from where Refuge now sits.

But then, the monsters are discovered, along with some startling revelations…

Excellent episode, and def sets up this season’s season finale in book 5…

Bonfires Burning Bright (w/ Kane Gilmour):
This series was GREAT. You start off in a not untypical small NH town that happens to have a few high tech upgrades – the entire town has been switched to solar power, for example, putting the local electrician out of business. The town is getting ready for July 4, including most of the town going to the next town over to watch the fireworks.

And then, the local church bell starts ringing… (Minor point that I’m unsure about: Where I live in the South, there are FAR more than one church per town!)

When the bell stops ringing, the world outside of City Limits is completely different… and very strange. This starts a sequence that repeats throughout the series, with the town bell ringing and the town transporting to a new world filled with its own mysteries and dangers. Along the way, the people remaining in the town are just trying to survive – and later trying to figure out exactly what is happening and how to stop it. By the end of Season 1, they find out WHAT is happening, and even a bit of HOW it is happening…

But how can they stop it? CAN they stop it? Will they ever return home? How will they know it is actually home? All of this needs answered, and for those answers we must wait for Season 2 (at least!)…

These reviews of the components of Refuge by Jeremy Robinson were originally published on January 23, 2014, January 23, 2014, January 28, 2014, January 28, 2014, and February 18, 2014.

Posted on

#BookReview: Omega by Jeremy Robinson

Picking up right where RAGNAROK leaves us, we think we know what is coming. Particularly with a title like OMEGA, you’re expecting an ending.

And an ending you get. But it is NOT going to be one you see coming.

Along the way, you get classic CHESS TEAM level kicking of ass. You get old bad guys. You get a couple of new ones. You get old friends. You get new ones. You get old players switching teams.

And in the end, you get…

an end.

Jeremy and Kane throw plenty of loops in that were not expected, as well as a couple of kick ass scenes that are. One fight that you know is coming you do indeed get – but not in the way you expect. One fight that you expect gets one of the players changed – and quite possibly becomes a bit cooler because of it, particularly due to the setup of this particular fight in some regards.

Long time fans may be torn by how this plays out – I know I am. But it is absolutely one of the best books out there and deserving of the full 5 stars and then some. Read this book and you’ll see what I mean about the stars, and possibly understand why I am torn. But then, long time fans are already going to pick this up. For people considering Jeremy and the CHESS TEAM, I’ll say this: Go ahead and buy every single one of them. You’ll want them available as you finish them. Then read them in the order they were published: PULSE, INSTINCT, THRESHOLD, the CALLSIGN novellas, PRIME, OMEGA. You will be in for the ride of your life!

This review of Omega by Jeremy Robinson and Kane Gilmour was originally published on September 25, 2013.

Posted on

#BookReview: The Crypt of Dracula by Kane Gilmour

Gilmour warns at the outset to the book that he is a big fan of the 70s and earlier incarnations of Count Dracula, and he sticks to that warning throughout the book while doing a superb job of showing what vampires are SUPPOSED to be like.

From the opening scene of the book where a pile of ash gets bloody and a creature arises, to the first time we see our hero and see the reaction of the villagers when they are told where he is going to be working, to the first time we see Castle Dracula, and at every point in this book… you get the dark, mysterious, awe inspiring power of evil that is Vampire.

None of that sparkly, angsty, weak crap here. The only romance you’ll see is just a touch of it between our hero and his wife – who are both subsequently put in mortal danger along with a couple of their friends.

Instead, you get intriguing mystery – what happened at this castle? Why is it in such disrepair? Who is the mysterious Count? Why are his servants never seen? – and fast paced action.

With a particularly good ending.

If you want to see what Vempires – and particularly the infamous Count Dracula – are REALLY supposed to be, do yourself a favor and pick up this book!

This review of The Crypt of Dracula by Kane Gilmour was originally published on May 2, 2013.

Posted on

#BookReview Resurrect by Kane Gilmour

RESURRECT is Kane Gilmour’s first work, and I would EASILY put it up there with other first works such as Dale Brown’s Flight of the Old Dog, Clive Cussler’s Mediterranean Caper, or Tom Clancy’s Hunt for Red October. Yes, this book is THAT good – or better.

The action starts with a plane crash in a remote region of China near Tibet, picks up with the survivor and her rescuers being chased through a mountain by people trying to blow them up, and reaches a finale with the group battling their adversaries INSIDE St Peter’s Basilica.

Along the way, we meet Jason Quinn and Curtis Johnson, our heroes and best friends who work together at ARGO – a group reminiscent of Cussler’s NUMA or David Golemon’s Event Group – who will be featured in at least Gilmour’s next work. Johnson is the practical, friendly side kick to Quinn’s friendly yet mysterious do-whatever-it-takes hero.

Gilmour is an author Jeremy Robinson has taken under his wing, and it shows. In one more blatant way, in the weapons used by the bad guys. This is not a bad thing at all, but fans of Robinson’s CHESS TEAM novels (and novellas, the latest of which, CALLSIGN: DEEP BLUE, was cowritten by Gilmour) will recognize them as probably the only other novel they’ve ever read that feature these particular cutting edge weapons.

So yeah, absolutely go pick up this book, and while you’re at it, go ahead and pick up DEEP BLUE. Based on Robinson’s past work and the strength of RESURRECT, I’m confident in telling you that you won’t be disappointed in either purchase.

This review of Resurrect by Kane Gilmour was originally published on December 10, 2011.

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”