Tag: scifi

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#BookReview: The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve

More Women’s Fiction Than Science Fiction. Seven years ago, in 2018’s The Space Between, Meserve managed to take a quasi-science/ science fiction concept of a NASA scientist discovering an asteroid behind the sun and spin an electric missing person tale around it – and did so quite well.

Here, she again delves into the “science fiction” element… without ever writing a convincing science fiction book. Yes, it has elements of scifi – the main thrust of the plot is that it is now possible to “time travel” into your own memories and there is now tech to do exactly this. But that is where the science fiction begins and ends here, and other than a (brief) realistic look at the price of such groundbreaking tech and how it would spread to even remotely common use, there really isn’t an actual “scifi” bent to this particular tale.

Now, if one approaches this from more of a “women’s fiction” tale with a few nods to scifi… it actually works a LOT better and is actually quite a strong story… that just needed those nods to scifi to make it work. As a women’s fiction tale of a mother devastated over her son’s death and another mother devastated over something she did that can never be forgiven, both seeking to understand what happened and both desperate to have even a few more minutes of their lives before said events… this is a truly compelling tale.

Meserve manages to weave all four central characters’ stories together seamlessly, though the fact that all use the same tenses and even the same verbal stylings *can* make it a bit hard to distinguish which character you’re reading, particularly in the beginning bits of a hand-off. And still, you can almost see TV/ film producer Meserve – her “day job” when she’s not writing – thinking of camera angles to show viewers certain elements of certain scenes that the characters themselves won’t necessarily realize at the time. Which is actually a cool effect that she brings to the page quite effectively.

Overall I think opinions will likely be divided on this tale based on which side of it you give more weight, which is why I’m trying to caution you in this review. If you come into this book expecting a science fiction book… if you’re familiar with/ enjoy science fiction before this book, you’re going to be disappointed at the science fiction within it. If you’re coming from a more women’s fiction world and perhaps this is (somehow) your first brush with scifi… the scifi may well work for you here. On the other hand, if you’re coming into this book expecting more of a women’s fiction tale with scifi elements to make it work… congratulations, that is *exactly* what you’ve found.

If you’re more of that first more scifi-oriented crowd that is perhaps looking to branch out but need something somewhat close to your scifi preference in order to take a baby step outside of that space to just test the waters… this really is a strong women’s fiction tale that will allow you to do just that, and you’ll likely find something you genuinely enjoy here. So take the chance.

Either way, maybe you think *I’m* the idiot here and that I have no clue what I’m talking about regarding this book. PLEASE, read the book, write your own review – and feel free to call me out as the idiot you think I am, should you feel the need. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of The Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Hera’s Lament by Shaun Griffin

Unforced Errors Leave Bitter Aftertaste In Otherwise Solid Conclusion. It seems like every book in this trilogy, Griffin seeks to explore almost an entirely separate genre of books… all while telling what is essentially a scifi vampire story.

Here, we get into a near-dystopia, where in the fallout from Book 2, Faith has been unleashing the vampire virus all across America in an attempt to lure Anastasia out.

And yet again, the story absolutely works. We get a lot of excellent vampire action, we get the expected human soldiers, we get human tech trying to give humans an edge on the vampires, truly all of the expected stuff one typically sees in a book like this, done particularly well within this story.

Along the way, we even get some strong character growth from both Faith and Anastasia, which is always awesome to see.

Indeed, as a conclusion to this trilogy, this book was *nearly* perfect. But there are a couple of elements in the last 10% or so that give a bitter aftertaste, and at least one of the two was absolutely unforced – preachy politics that had no real place anywhere in this story.

The other… to avoid spoilers, I have to be a bit circumspect in describing, so allow me to mention that I tell a particular story often, I think I may have mentioned it in a review here or there, that I once read another trilogy specifically because its last book was getting *DESTROYED* in the reviews over the ending. All I can say here is that my thoughts on the ending of that trilogy and this one… well, there are reasons I say this one leaves a bitter aftertaste. As an action sequence, it was actually rather badass. But did it work for that character as portrayed to that point? How about you, oh reader of my review, read this trilogy and tell us in your own review whether you think I’m off base here.

Still, truly, truly excellent work on this entire trilogy and even this book itself. Easily one of the best vampire trilogies I’ve ever read, right up there with David McAfee’s Bachiyr series and *well* above that fucking sparkling “vampire” one. Is it Stoker? No. But is it an awesome, gory thrill ride with some interesting twists on the overall lore? Absolutely.

Very much recommended.

This review of Hera’s Lament by Shaun Griffin was originally written on March 13, 2025.

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#BookReview: Sleepwalker by Xander Weaver

Imagine Ted Dekker’s Circle Series… Without The Christian Allegory. Now toss in perhaps a dose of Jeremy Robinson or Douglas Adams, and you pretty well know exactly what to expect with this particular book.

You’ve got the man who goes to sleep in one world… and wakes in another (Circle series). You’ve got pretty damn insane amounts of balls to the wall action with a lot of inventive scifi aspects all over the place (Robinson). You’ve got jokes ranging from so subtle you barely pick them up all the way up to slap the stick upside your head slapstick comedy. (Robinson and Adams). You’ve even got a version of one particular late 90s movie going on to an extent… but revealing *which* movie gets into spoiler territory I’ll not go into. Suffice it to say that the parallels here are as obvious as the Dekker ones, and anyone who has seen this movie should easily recognize them.

And yet, Weaver still manages to craft a compelling tale uniquely his own, one full of both action and heart and one that will make you ponder things you may have pondered before, but in newer ways.

Yes, at 600+ pages this is a tome – but it is a fun one that tells a complete story and doesn’t really feel repetitive or that any scene/ group of scenes could be left out and still tell the same story with the same depth, so I would thus argue that it is exactly the right length. Even if it *is* my longest read of the year so far, and even if Weaver *did* forget to warn me about its length before I picked it up. And even if the base apparently real science underpinning the entire book does sound like something out of Idiocracy. 😉

Seriously, this is easily one of the more inventive scifi books you’re going to read this year, so if you like the scifi genre at all, you really need to pick up this book. If you like action at all, you need to pick up this book. Truly one of the early standouts of 2025.

Very much recommended.

This review of Sleepwalker by Xander Weaver was originally written on February 25, 2025.

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#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.

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#BookReview: The Genesi Cure by Tristen Willis

Pacing Issues And Out Of The Blue (And Unnecessary) Epilogue Mar Promising Sequel. With how this book ultimately comes out, to my mind it actually would have worked better as one single book rather than two, even though both books told complete stories within themselves. This book arguably brings the most similarities to Hunger Games’ Mockingjay, with so much military strategizing of a looming threat dominating the book before a quick sprint of a final fight with an almost literal blink and you’ll miss it climax. As I said in the review of the first book here, it is still solid enough for the genre and for what it is, and fans of this particular type of tale will likely still very much enjoy this particular book. The training sections and first actual battle are particularly well done and indeed also bring to mind certain elements of Breaking Dawn, which was an interesting twist given the comparisons I named in my review of the first book.

Ultimately the star deduction was 90% about the epilogue though, and while I fully cop to this being a touch of a spoiler, it is an important deal breaker for many people, so I want those types to be aware of this up front – rather than defenestrating this text from the highest available window and leaving a one star review. Specifically, completely out of the blue with *zero* indication *anywhere* else that this was even *remotely* in the cards, we find ourselves a time after the final fight… and suddenly our lead suddenly has a baby, which becomes the entire focus of the epilogue. This was not only unnecessary, but also tarnishes the story told to this point moreso than the aforementioned pacing issues ever did, to the level that it leaves quite a bad “aftertaste” on the story.

Still, up until the moment of the epilogue, this is still a solid story of its type and one many will find enjoyable – and indeed, many will even enjoy that epilogue. But for those that don’t like sudden pregnancies/ sudden babies at the end of their books… just know that you can spare yourself and skip the epilogue without missing anything of import and while preserving your own view of this book.

Recommended.

This review of The Genesi Cure by Tristen Willis was originally written on December 31, 2024.

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#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.

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#BookReview: The Raven by Jeremy Robinson

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.

This review of The Raven by Jeremy Robinson was originally written on December 10, 2024.

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#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.

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#BookReview: Hera’s Scream by Shaun Griffin

Series Second Sets Up Spectacular Climax. Seriously, this book does its job as the second book in a trilogy really quite well, resolving many of the lingering threads from Book 1 while furthering certain other threads and setting up what should truly be one *epic* climax in Book 3. Here, Griffin manages to tie up a lot of the loose ends from Book 1, maybe by stepping away from the hard boiled noir a touch and leaning a touch more into the more scifi/ action elements, but while remaining true to the world created in Book 1.

And then that ending.

DAYUM even I wish I already had Book 3 in my hands, and I’m pretty sure that as I write this review on December 6, 2024, Griffin is still *writing* said book. 🙂

Truly one of the better trilogies to come out in 2024-2025, and very much recommended.

This review of Hera’s Scream by Shaun Griffin was originally written on December 6, 2024.

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#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.