Chosen by Brey Willows

Chosen by Brey Willows

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I received an ARC of this book from Bold Strokes Books & Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really had no idea what to expect from this specific book here. I mean, I read and enjoyed the author’s Afterlife trilogy, but that was fantasy. This is science fiction. Post-Apocalyptic science fiction. What I found? Well, there is a rough-ish start, I need to mention that, but after that rough start? I found the book very hard to put down. I inhaled the book – quite enjoyed it.

There were moments in the book that reminded me of other post-apocalyptic lesbian fiction stories I’d read, though very briefly. Like there were times when the women (well two women and one man) were bravely pushing through the wilderness that reminded me of both May Dawney’s Survival Instincts (at least, again like in Vaun’s book, the wandering around outside part – though Dawney’s series is very much a darker future for mankind book), and Missouri Vaun’s Return to Earth post-apocalyptic series (mostly the part in the prequel book when one of the main characters is wandering the post-apocalyptic USA landscape, like in this book here). I stop to mention that Vaun’s ‘Proxima Five’ is the third ARC I requested this month – and there’s this weird thing that developed from reading this book here, then immediately turning to Proxima Five . . . I kind of felt like Proxima Five could very easily have been a sequel of sorts to this book here . . . at least that was the vague vibe I had in the beginning while reading Proxima Five.

But let’s talk about this book here, Chosen.

Chosen is set in the relatively near-future (not that close in time, maybe a hundred years in the future? I think a date was given at some point, but I missed it *opens book for different reason, see that this book is set in 2100) in a world wherein the Earth has succumbed to the ravages of man-kinds impact on it and society has to live with diseases that can’t be treated by anti-biotics; with every rising sea-levels; with constant outbreaks of wildfires; with massive constant hurricanes, typhoons, tsunami’s, earthquakes, etc. etc. – basically earth is trying to shake mankind off the planet.

The book opens with two main characters - Devin Rossi and Karissa Decker. Unseen in the story, but mentioned – both women received a ‘disc’ about a year ago that indicated that the government would be collecting them . . . eventually. Well eventually is now. And both women react quite differently with the pick-up. First we see Devin Rossi calmly being picked up – even being saluted and stuff (Devin, along with being a top geologist, was also a Lieutenant in the Air Force). Then we see Karissa being picked up – Devin was picked up from a falling apart (from ‘conditions) home, by herself, Karissa has her two parents there – mother dying from ‘the fever’, and father. Karissa puts up a fight – though, since Devin was picked up first, she was able to bring the tension levels down (by reminding/stating/asking if Karissa wanted her parents last memories of her being tasered until unconsciousness and dragged away, or . . .something calmer?).

Devin and Karissa, you see, have been picked up by a government convoy – that’s been going around picking up top tier scientists (stop for a moment to inject: it’s not the only convoy for this project). They are told nothing – even though Devin is respected and stuff, they are told nothing much. Just get into the truck and sit there while the truck wanders the countryside.

Eventually a new point of view suddenly appears. Unexpectedly. *glances at book description again* Yep, unexpectedly. We move, the reader does, to the point of view of ‘Van’ – one of the leaders of a survival groups (I can be more exact, but I’ll let things unfold for the reader like they did for me). The book alternates between two plot-lines (except for moments when it splits into three – when the two lead women from the beginning, Devin and Karissa, are too far apart to keep in same line), one following the ‘top-tier scientists’ and one following ‘Van and the raiders’.

And that’s how the three women meet – while stuffed in one of the trucks, Devin and Karissa hear gunfire suddenly break out. Then a voice, and tapping. Raiders force the scientists out of the truck, then start raiding the supplies.

The two-plot lines show the diverging paths of humanity in this era (well, there are more than two paths, but these are two of them) – the attempt to ‘restart’ humanity ‘elsewhere’ (and this is why Proxima Five feels like a sequel – because that’s how the book opened, earth is ravaged, people get onto ships to try to ‘make a restarted humanity better through the experience and knowledge and mistakes from ruining Earth’ – and the book opens with one of the ships on a ‘new earth’). Distracted myself. Ah. And the other path (or another path) – those who stay behind to try to ‘save humanity’ here and not there.

I loved watching the story unfold, the tension, the action, the moments of insanity, and the moments of sanity. Quite enjoyable book.

Of the now four books I’ve read by Brey Willows, I’d put this one at the top of the list of favorite Willows books. This one gets a full five stars. The first book in the Afterlife trilogy received 4.75 stars.

Rating: 5 stars

October 2 2018




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All Things Rise (Return to Earth #1) by Missouri Vaun

All Things Rise by Missouri Vaun

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There’s something about the book description, not that I could point at what I mean, that always both drew me to the book and kept me from actually starting it. I did previously read the prequel to the series, though, a good long while ago. It’s more of a vague memory at this point, though.

So – as the book description notes, this book is a two person point of view book that involves something of a clash of cultures, cultures that haven’t really interacted with each other in about a hundred years. The culture of the sky cities and the culture of the ‘groundlings’ (when oil began to reach critical low levels, the rich 1% blinked, realized they needed to do something, created an alternate energy source, used it to float cities up in the sky and abandoned the ground to the 99% rest of humanity and cut off connections to those people; naturally, then, the two culture’s languages diverged to the point wherein . . . okay, no, both can understand the other without any problem what-so-ever beyond finding the other’s ‘accent’ and ‘way of talking’ to be . . . ‘cute’; oh and I lied about the two person point of view thing).

Ava, sky-person – citizen of Easton, is a pilot. After almost fucking her best friend, she flees as she always does to avoid conflict and possible conflict. She ‘needs some time to think’. She hadn’t intended that time to involve being on the ground – because earth bound people are scary and everything down there can and will kill her (at least that’s what she’s been told since birth)), but she also probably was not in the correct state of mind to be flying. Or trying to fly. The book starts with her crashing . . . gently into the earth. Near where the . . . another point of view character was fishing.

Cole . . . well, fishes. Works on a farm, does earth based stuff like that. While finishing up fishing she notices a red glow in the sky. That’s the sun setting, though the way things were worded, I expected it to turn out to be Ava’s ship, but whatever. Eventually she notices ‘lights’ nearby and investigates. Whereupon she finds a downed cruiser. And someone inside. Glancing briefly at the thing, she instantly knows how to open the hatch, and does so.

Ava, naturally, flies out of the hatch and pummels Cole’s nose to the point of blood flowing. Eventually Ava realizes that, despite what she was taught, Cole doesn’t actually wish to eat her or do evil to her. After wiping her nose, Cole invites Ava back to her place to spend the night, since its dark and stuff and they need the light to fix the ship.

Ava and Cole give flirty kind of looks to each other. Me being me, I didn’t actually read the full book description (or any, I mean, I had already read the prequel and had an idea what the book should be about) so I overlooked the part where the book description openly and bluntly notes that it isn’t a romance about Ava and Cole. Oops?

I knew ‘something’ was up when Ava rushes a dying Cole (there’s a lot of that kind of thing going on in this book; I mean one or another character in extreme danger; and/or dying) back to the sky-city and . . . . well, was it before there that the third point of view suddenly started? Crap, I think it was before there. I didn’t need to mention dying Cole. Ah, whatever.

So yes there are actually three points of views in this book. Groundling Cole, sky-city citizen and pilot Ava (and native of Easton), and medical doctor Audrey (and citizen, I think, of Easton, though she’s from the sky city of London).

Despite my rough shod review, the book was actually quite interesting. There was a weird mix of chemistry – not-chemistry going on though (I don’t mean between Audrey and Cole, I mean between everyone and everyone; it’s like every character’s chemistry level with each other character – at least in terms of the main characters needed to be mentioned – like how Jess is probably ‘okay’ but she hangs out with Margaret, who Cole finds creepy, though Margaret keeps throwing herself at Cole anyway (that’s part of the chemistry etc. As in, Jess and Cole have a certain amount of chemistry but . . . not the right kind? Margaret fancies Cole but Cole doesn’t; everyone assumes Audrey and Ava will eventually hook up but . . .etcetc)).

I lost track of what I was attempting to say. *glances at clock, sees ‘8:37 pm’, grunts at not being to blame time*

Book was interesting. There’s a lot of sex in it. Somewhat more in the thinking about it way, though plenty of the action kind as well.

This is more of a romance book set in a future science-fictiony world, than a science fiction book with a thin romance plot.

Rating: 3.75

July 10 2018



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Coming to You Live by Mira Grant

I mentioned in a status update that this story would need a very good ending for me to give a rating higher than 1 or 2 stars.  The ending was on par with the story.

On the one hand, I do not really understand the point of having this story, on the other hand – of course, people are curious about the ‘afterwards’ part.  It is somewhat unfortunate that the fourth book in the trilogy (heh) that followed a different group of people was set in the same time period as the first book in the series, otherwise it would have been the perfect book for a little cameo ‘this is what they are doing now’ to occur. That’s ‘easier’, in a way, than a full on story.  At least for me.  Otherwise you get a story like this – one that many liked, but that I didn’t.  It was way too wordy, I mentioned in the same or different status update I’ve already referenced, that the used 99.9% more words than it needed to (actually, I worded it differently – that it could have been told with 99.9% fewer words).

Long and short – not a story I needed, and I realize that it is my fault that I read it. I read it because I generally like, no, love the short stories that got released along with the ‘trilogy’.  But, not really a story I liked – and I kind of knew hat going in (and no, I am not rating it the way I am because of preconceptions, otherwise the short story I read between finishing this one and writing this review would also have a rating around 2 stars, instead of 5).

ETA: putting this review into the review box caused me to look at my shelves. You know one of the reasons I probably didn't like this story? Spotted it when I spotted what I'd already put on my shelves. 'Zombies'.  'Horror'.  There is psychological trauma and a bunch of PTSD going on in this story, but no horror, and the only zombies representation was one wolf (if I recall correctly - Shaun is mentioned going out and 'getting' various types of zombies, animal or human, but the reader doesn't see that, just told.  So this really was a navel gazing story with no action.  I'm going to have to take a ton of shelves off this book I'd put on preread.  No this isn't a horror, no this isn't a zombie book, it's barely post-apocalyptic - only that because . . . it is, but . . . bah).

Rating: 2.0

March 25 2018

Survival Instincts by May Dawney

Survival Instincts by May Dawney

My rating: 4.4 of 5 stars


*I received this book from Ylva Publishing for an honest review*

This was one of those dense rich stories that took a while to read. If I recall correctly, and I might not, there was a similar denseness/richness in the short story I read by this same author – the only other work I’ve read by them. ‘What does that mean?’ Um . . . hmms. Boiled down: there’s a lot of ‘stuff’ packed into the words/actions/scenes. Right. So.

This story, entirely seen through the perspective of one character, Lynn Tanner, is a future post-apocalyptic world. And the majority of the story takes place in New York (well, all of it, really, just there’s references to Lynn having been elsewhere, like ‘up north’ in Canada). It is unclear what exactly happened – there are references to ‘bombs falling’ but this story takes place centuries later and I’m not sure Lynn herself knows what happened. I pause here to insert a paragraph as this reminded me.

There are two specific things I had ‘trouble with’, which were ‘problematic’. First is easy enough to mention – I despised all side characters, who were basically one step away from being evil, with the possible exception of Toby – no, strike that, he was way too loud to survive – and was a massive liability. Though some of the side characters grew on me, mostly Dani Wilson. Right, with that out of the way let’s get to the second major specific trouble spot – remember how I mentioned this is a future world, and that Lynn herself might not know what happened? Well . . . that was a mixed bag type of thing. There were things she knew, things she didn’t know, and it didn’t always make sense – considering this sometime in the future after a traumatic event, that’s somewhat reasonable. Some weird and wacky things get remembered, other things get lost. This area she’s in had once been called ‘New York’? Sure, reasonable for that to either get remembered or forgotten. Was remembered here. Remembering that a particular type of building was an ‘office building’ when their culture, their being the centuries later people living on earth, eh, okay. Remember a certain area was the ‘receptionist area’ . . . um, really? Seriously? She ‘learned’ this fact from someone? Who learned it . . . how exactly? Bah, sorry, as I said, some things get remembered that are wacky to remember, and maybe this is just one of those wacky things. But Lynn’s ability to ‘know’ the world around her was oddly off and on – like ‘knowing’ that a particular area was the receptionist area, and not knowing what a zebra is. That’s the off and on – there’s parts where she calls them zebras, and other times calling them weirdly colored stripped horses (and hey, what are zebras but stripped horses, eh?). I suppose here it’s more an off and on on what she called the zebras.

Which leads me to: one of the things I had to remind myself almost immediately is the fact that I’m reading a story set far (ish, it’s unclear how far in the future) into the future and the people and whatever culture cannot really have ‘our’ (as in 21st century) ideas forced upon them. Or, more specifically, for a while there I was thinking that Lynn was quite immature for her stated age, and seemed to be acting more on the level of a teenager (as did most of the others), until I recalled that she was – in ways, quite immature – and quite mature. Depending on the thing talked about. I think I messed up noting what I wanted to note. Basically I needed to, initially, remind myself that I wasn’t reading about characters living in my own time period, and that I couldn’t put my own time period standards and stuff onto them. This is way too many words. I move on.

Lynn has lived the vast majority of her life as someone who wanders the wilds – as someone Dani Wilson’s people call ‘Wilders’. As opposed to Wilson’s people who Lynn called ‘Settlers’. Lynn had a mother and father and . . . let’s not reveal the whole plot here, eh? Lynn has lived in the wilds most of her life and is now something like 39. While looking for food she hears something in the distance and creeps closer. Watches as a group of humans ‘take down’ an elephant. She remains hidden until she can’t – for the dog she’s with charges forward to get into the fight. And Lynn runs out to get her dog. Whereupon she’s almost immediately tackled, pummeled and almost killed by some kid. For . . . reasons. One thing leads to another and Lynn’s now these other humans captive. Based entirely on the dog – for, you see, the other humans know this dog – it’s the dog that had been with the scout that they had sent out – the scout who isn’t around anywhere. How’d Lynn get the dog? Did she kill Richard?

Eventually, after 99% of the settlers show how much of a dick they can be, Lynn meets up again with Queen Bitch (who had been off doing something or other), Kate. Who tells Lynn to lead them to Richard, the dead guy, or Lynn will die. One thing leads to another, and before you can say boo . . . Lynn’s in a closet like it’s a cage. Then later off on a journey with one of the settlers, Dani.

And that’s the story the book tells. The quest of Dani and Lynn to retrieve a dead body in the wilds of post-apocalyptic New York. Lynn is wild and, at times, feral. But the settlers, as . . . well I didn’t show did I, well, they aren’t as civilized as they might appear.

I liked the story of Lynn and Dani. Though Dani really comes off quite badly in this story. It seemed like every time you turned around let’s reveal another bad personality trait of Dani’s. But, meh, she was still okay-ish.

I liked the book and enjoyed it. For those wanting to know – there’s a bit of romance, a lot of action/adventure/thrills, a bit of sex (here or there, barely), and . . . ums, stuff.

One last bit: Warning, there are scenes that occur in this book that you do not want to read while eating food.

Rating: 4.44

March 9 2018




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The False Knight on the Motorway by Arden Ellis

The False Knight on the Motorway by Arden Ellis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Book received from both Netgalley and Less Than Three for an honest review

I had many thoughts while reading this rather exiting story. Two main ideas swirled in my mind: 1) I rather like reading stories set ‘after’ some event has happened and people are living long after ‘now’ (the reader’s present) without a lot of knowledge of what the past was like (see: Larry Niven’s Destiny’s Road (though that one isn’t actually on earth); Jack McDevitt’s Eternity Road; etc.); 2) this story seemed like a continuation, centuries later of several stories I’d read (then, when the boat was mentioned, it seemed like a continuation of a television storyline, but I can’t say more about that specific one without spoilers). Specifically I mean a continuation of a story like Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason’s Ill Wind when an oil tanker crashes, oil is released (lots of it), an almost untested substance is released to ‘eat’ the oil and . . . it does so remarkably well, all over the earth, plunging the world into an apocalyptic setting worse than what would occur with the lack of oil around (since the ‘released substance’ had a tendency to eat things like plastic as well, if I recall correctly). Well, this specific story here, the Knight one, is like that story, 100s of years later.

But what, exactly, beyond the vague words used above, is this specific story about? It’s a story of knights on a quest, but not in medieval times, not to find the holy grail, but on a quest in a future world, 100s of years from now, when an ‘event’ occurred that dramatically altered ‘our’ world. Some hints are dropped along the way in the story, but I’ll not spoil things here and now.

What’s this quest? Well, first off, the story opens with Ser Wright wandering to a neighboring Lord’s land to retrieve a spy, one Ser Kai. Kind of a straight forward quest – go there, get person, and return home. But this is how the story opens, and how the reader begins to learn about this changed world. A world of knights in armor on horseback, a world with swords. And a world with pistols (see, it’s the future, not the past this story is set). Also a world with ruins all over the place, like cars, and buildings, and the like. But I distracted myself. This first quest leads to Wright picking up another individual, named ‘Silva’, a mercenary. And leading said person back to her Lord.

Which leads to the actual main quest for this story, and the reason why I labeled these journey’s as ‘quests’. For, you see, Kai had been over in the neighboring land as a spy, but not in preparation for an invasion or something like that. But to search and find if a particular ‘facility’ is, in fact, located within that neighboring Lord’s domain. A facility a scholar, here called an ‘Alchemist’, named Preston has discovered in his research. All this being noted to say why they are going on this quest and why this is a ‘quest’. For they are after an almost mythical ‘item’. Like any good quest. Here that ‘mythical item’ is a ‘cure’ for the ‘curse’ that spreads upon the land and consumes things. And scars and marks, and can kill humans.

So that’s what the story is about – two knights (Kai, Wright), a sell-sword (Silva), and an alchemist (Preston) on a quest to find a mythical ‘cure’. Of note: Kai, Wright, and Silva are all women. And all knights or equivalent. And there’s nothing ‘odd’ about that in this world, for a woman to be a military type person. (though before ‘you’ think the world is structured a certain way, as I was beginning to think, there are in fact male knights running around, and Wright’s own lord is male (though Kai’s is female)).

The characters? Nicely created, fully figured. Hmms that might mean something else. Well, they have fully created personalities and . . stuff. But what about romance and the like? Well, I do not wish to reveal everything, since it takes a little bit of time for the people themselves to realize their own thoughts and desires, but there is a romance in this story. Between two women. And sex. Depending on definitions, it’s lightly graphically described.

A riveting, action packed adventure with romance and bits of humor here and there (though the humor came a little late to the story and was somewhat surprising to see suddenly spring up (not in a bad way)). A quite satisfying read.

Rating: 5.00

January 29 2018



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A Tie by George Mazurek

A Tie by George Mazurek

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An odd thing happens sometimes. You are made aware of a free story. You get it. Months later you read it but you have little knowledge, by this point, about what the story might be about. You are, in effect, entering blind though with a vague idea that it has something to do with Science Fiction and maybe a space station.

You start reading and . . . the main character is named Calm and he apparently is some kind of member of a primitive tribe (and I'm using that primitive word on purpose) barely scraping by. hmms . . . confused.

And, truly, it was fun to watch things unfold in this kind of dark uninformed way - for the people on the ground are in the dark and uninformed, and the people in the sky are as well. So I'll not get any more specific than I have so far.

Two points of view. One from a person calling themselves 'Calm', and a second from a person calling themselves 'Alice'. There is a bit of thrill attached to the story at certain points. Some excitement. Some confusion.

A good short story.

Rating: 4.88

May 6 2017



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The Time Before Now by Missouri Vaun

The Time Before Now by Missouri Vaun

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ah shesh. heh. - A) seconds (minutes, or whatever) before 'it' happened, an event before the end of the book, I had the thought that 'the way two lesbians would, in this world, get a kid . . .' would be x. Then, seemingly immediately after that thought, x occurred. mmphs; B) a 'touching' Cheerekee story is told - problem is that I've heard/read that story way too often while still feeling annoyed about what all occurred just there at the end of the book.

But that seemed to be a theme of the book. Tragic events occur - beginning, middle, end. Weird overly dramatic events. That don't impact me the way they probably should. Like - in the beginning of the book, Elizabeth (side character) and Vivian (main character) had an affair. There was a massive amount of foreshadowing - the kind where the character herself, Vivian, was telling herself that she was being stupid and then . . . she's horribly horribly betrayed when the worst happened. Which, sadly, can be realistic - no matter how you prepare yourself for something, an event can still deeply negatively impact you. Reasonable for the character. For me the reader? I was mostly 'meh' about the issue.

Reoccurring theme. As noted. People bouncing along and . . tragedy! Each. Bloody. Turn. I think there might have been a section missing, that I either accidentally missed, or wasn't in my book - when Vivian crossed the Mississippi river - because she arrived thinking that she had nothing to trade. She was waiting to cross on the ferry. Now we are miles away. Um, wha? And Vivian feels bad about what happened 'back there'. I mention this because that specific river crossing seemed to be the only occasion in the book wherein something 'tragic' didn't get slipped in. Every bloody step of the way - tragedy. mmphs. Unrelenting tragedy. That I mostly felt meh about pre-during-post occurrence. Weird - that.

Another weird thing was I figured I'd begin this review talking about other stories I'd read that were like this one here - the kind like S.M. Stirlings that showed 'us' (as in the readers world) go into a disaster event, and then over the course of the series reach one or more generations later - the generations that don't even 'know' how the 'prior' world was really like - the kind of world where people entertained kids by telling them stories - recreating movies in oral bard like ways. Or, stories more like this one here - wherein some event occurred, and we, the readers, are picking things up a century or more after the fact.

These kinds of books can be neat. And this one also was 'neat'. It was also . . . overly determined to have every bloody moment have a scene of tragic importance in it. mmphs.

Rating: 3.64

February 6 2017



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RIZEN by Kirk Anderson

RIZEN
by Kirk Anderson
Pages: 44
Date: November 27 2012
Publisher: Galleon Publishing

Review
Rating: 4.0 out of 5.0
Read: January 11 2014

My heart is still racing.  Shesh.

Ok, to start with, this is a short story collection, 4 stories by the same author in the same story universe.  None of the characters reoccur.  Also, it is in reverse chronological order. Which I noticed in an introduction before the stories.  Which I am glad I noticed, because I decided to read them in chronological order.  I have to say, if I had read them in the order the author had presented them, I probably would have rated the book roughly the book average rating on GoodReads of 3 something stars. Instead, by reading it in chronological order, the tension mounted from today's world, into the zombie apocalypse world.  I've no idea why the author thought the book should be read the other way around.

I recommend two things: 1) read in chronological order (the free ebook I got has a link to each of the four stories in the front of the book); 2) read the first chronological story (which is placed at the end of the book). The book is free.  It won't take too long to read that short story, and if you aren't captured, then you didn't really lose much. Except a few moments of your time.