Nephilum Awakening is a kind of mystical fantasy quest full of action, exotic temples, awesome superpowers and a budding romance. Kiran's father is kidnapped and the ransom is to find and deliver three special blades that form the key to the prison that holds the Nephilum's Fathers. Releasing them is supposed to bring whoever opens it ultimate power, others say it will bring death and destruction. The reader has to read to find out which it will be. Kiran is a Nephilim, only she doesn't know it until now when the Nephilim spirit in her begins to awaken. The plot has a couple of layers, the characters and their lives as they are in this world, and their Nephilum aspect as they existed in other bodies in the past. At first, Kiran sets out to do as she's told, but along the way, she begins to remember the past and her relationship with the other two Nephilum who are out to get her. As she learns more, the stakes increase and the story becomes more complex. Kiran, an old friend and an … [Read more...]
A rare book I can’t fault: Waning Moon by P.J Sharon: YA Dystopian.
Waning Moon is simply excellent, a rare book that I can't fault. It's set in the future in a small town outside of Albany after a virus has killed a large part of the earth's population. The cities are run by a Dystopian government. If you stay in the town, you get fed, clothed and have access to medical care, but you do what the governments wants. Those who live outside the cities choose freedom over security. Lily, her brother and her uncle, Sam, live well camouflaged in the forest. They have to stay away from the authorities because Lily and her little brother have genetic modifications that make them very useful to the authorities. Lily can heal and her brother can kill with a touch - or two, or three. Those living outside the cities have to occasionally travel to markets inside the city to trade for the things they can't provide for themselves and the story begins with Lily preparing to take such a trip. A few days before she is about to leave, she finds another teen fallen in … [Read more...]
Truly excellent science fiction: Paw-Prints of the Gods by Steph Bennion
Paw Prints of the Gods is truly excellent science fiction. The author has not only created a unique and riveting tale, but has also set it in a seamless future world complete in all its details. The scientific details of this world are impressive, at least to me. Ravana, who I first met in Hollow Moon, book one in this series, has gone missing, and when her father finds out, he gathers his team around him, makes hasty repairs to his old ship and flies off to find her. Meanwhile, she escapes captivity and meets a woman who agrees to help her get back to the archaeological dig she'd been working on. The planet she's on is a little like Dune and is populated in one area with giant spiders, other than that, there's just the archaeologist's dig and an abandoned scientific research centre, both under plastic domes to protect from the toxic atmosphere. The archaeologists have uncovered something that looks like an alien temple, and a shady religious sect wants to take control of it. They … [Read more...]
A real gem: Dark Night of the Soul by E.M. Havens: metaphysical fiction
Dark Night of the Soul is a real gem. E.M Haven has used magical realism to examine suicide and the issues that surround it, and like all the very best indies, it's a completely unique voice that explores its theme in a brave new way. Seventeen year old Jayden commits suicide and finds herself in a kind of purgatory where teams of people who have committed suicide protect other suicidal souls from the demons that whisper in their ears and incite them to suicide. Life in this purgatory is a series of battles, if they defeat the demons, the person lives, if they lose, the person succeeds in their quest for death and their soul joins the team. When a new member arrives, the Judgement- a kind of sparkly storm cloud- comes for another. If it's you it comes for, you'll meet a statue of yourself and you can either submit to the judgement or fight to keep the demons off your statue/soul. If the judgment takes you, you'll either move on to the next realm, or you'll go back to your life. It's a … [Read more...]
A superb supernatural mystery: Vingede by Krisi Keley
The second of Krisi Keley's Friar Tobias mysteries is even better than the first. Once again the author's background in linguistics and theology provides the unique material for this superb supernatural mystery. A man seeks Tobias's help for his foster son. He thinks the child may have witnessed a crime, but the boy has a speech problem due to either autism or schizophrenia, so no one can understand him. Like Ms Keley, Tobias has a degree in linguistics which is why the man seeks him out. Paolo speaks in poetry and makes obscure references to what Tobias eventually figures out is an old fairy tale about a girl and her eleven brothers that are turned into swans by a wicked witch. He senses that someone is in trouble, but who? Tobias's friend, the psychiatrist priest, wants him to meet a mute and apparently traumatised girl who has turned up in a hospital and, in what appears to be sheer coincidence, her sketches indicate that she fills the role of the girl in the fairy tale. But where … [Read more...]
Eternal Destiny has its first review and it’s 5 stars!
Eternal Destiny has its first review and it's 5 stars. It's by Awesome Indies reviewer, Clive Johnson. A couple of excerpts: "Following on from the previous books in the series, all the characters continue to gain depth and colour, discovering more about themselves. This is particularly true of Ariel and Nick, and their relationship. Nick's long running fears about his ability to defeat Cogin are also resolved, but with a twist I'd best not reveal here, other than to say that it marries well with the overall thrust of the deeper narrative." "The writing is of a high standard, effortlessly bringing the tale alive and making it thoroughly engaging. A fine end to the Diamond Peak Series." You can read the whole review here. … [Read more...]
Excellent YA Dystopian: Deviation by Christine Manzari
The idea of genetically modified teens being used as weapons is not a new idea. Kimberley Kinrade wrote a series on this theme some time ago, and I've read quite a few YA books recently about teens with genetic modifications. It's not surprising since genetic modification for humans is emerging as a very real possibility in our society, and I expect we will see more fiction in this vein. Although it shares many overly common elements of YA fantasy, for example a new school, a supposedly bad boy that is hard to resist, and the resident bully who seems to need little inspiration for their nastiness, Deviation is still an excellent, well-crafted story that keeps you hooked in and has a surprising twist at the end that leaves the story nicely set up for sequels. I think this book will be well enjoyed by YA speculative fiction fans. Cleo lives in a world of the future where terrorism has made huge scars on the American people and cities. She is a sophisticate, someone genetically … [Read more...]
Don’t miss this awesome YA paranormal novel: Incubus by Jennifer Quintez
I read Thrall the first book in the Daughters of Lilith Series some time ago and I remember thinking it was pretty good, so I readily agreed to read the second in the series. I wasn't disappointed, in fact, I was delighted to find a (for me) rare 5 star read. Incubus has everything needed to make a top book - strong, well-drawn characters with real relationships and motivations that tug at our heart-stings; a unique concept; immediate and engaging writing, and a riveting plot with an unexpected twist at the end.Braedyn is a Lilitu, a succubus demon, but she's not evil. Her father is a member of the Guard that protects human kind from the Lilitu, and Braedyn is on their side. She also has a boyfriend, Lucus that she has to keep her distance from because if she lets her Lilitu side take over when they kiss, she will drain his energy, which is, of course, a complete no no. Braedyn wants to become human so she can have a physical relationship with Lucas and eventually marry and have a … [Read more...]
A book fantasy fans shouldn’t miss: Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani
Sunbolt is an exemplary fantasy story about a gutsy young woman with half-trained magical powers who gets caught while helping a family escape from an overlord. The parents are killed and she and the children end up in the cells of the perpetrator, a clearly evil man. The prognosis looks pretty dire when the evil overlord hands her over to a Fang. She ends up being dragged through a portal to a land far away where she is thrown into a tower as food for a Breather, a creature similar to a Fang, except that they feed on life force, not blood. An unusual alliance is formed and the book ends in a place that sets us up for a terrific series. I look forward to it. Khanani is a brilliant writer. Her prose is elegant and evocative, and her characters are real, complex people who leap off the page with vibrancy. The action holds you captive. The pace moves smoothly from gut wrenching action to slower character driven scenes with ease, providing a journey of varying pace. The character of Val … [Read more...]
A highly engaging YA fantasy: Grounded by G.P. Ching
I love a good book and I loved this one. It's wonderful to read something so confident, sleek and delightfully different. YA fantasy became bogged down in vampires, witches and werewolves for some time, then we had a spate of dystopian novels and a bit of steampunk. Stories of the Fae have always been a standard, but I have never read anything like quite like this. Not only is it different, it's seamless. Lydia is an Amish girl in a future where the Amish community lives in a walled off area near a defunct nuclear reactor. When the reactor blew, the land around was abandoned, but the Amish stayed and the ruling party left them to it because no one wanted the land. They're supposed to stay behind the wall, but there is a secret gate and the young Amish can choose to visit the Englisher's world for a time before, if they decide to return, they take their baptism to commit to the Amish way of life. The story begins in the Amish world with Lydia and her best friend Jeremiah. He wants … [Read more...]
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