Review: Dead Life #1

This review originally appeared at Geek-O-Rama.

 

Writer: Jean-CharlesGaudin
Artist: Joan Urgell
Colors: Folny
Publisher: Titan Comics

Ground Zero. Stephen did not know that getting into his grandfather’s treasures in the attic so he could play Indiana Jones with the neighbor down the trail would lead to an outbreak. He was just having fun. How would he know?

Dead Life is an English reprint of the French comic, Dead Life: Crépuscule.

The story starts with scenes of life. Normal conversations and disagreements between husband and wife, the casual meal with extended family as Curtis and Kate return to his parents’ home to pick up their son, Stephen. When Curtis’s dad returns to the attic to retrieve some books he notices that one of his boxes has been opened and the contents are missing.

Review: Euthanauts #1

Originally Posted on Geek-O-Rama.

Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Nick Robles
Letters: Aditya Bidikar
Publisher: IDW

There was something special about the woman at the restaurant. Thalia did not know what it was, other than that she was obviously terminally ill, but that wasn’t it. No, there was something more to it, but Thalia could not put her finger on it. When Mercy Wolfe followed her into the restaurant bathroom, Thalia had no idea her whole world was about to change.

Black Crown’s inaugural issue of Euthanauts is a visual masterpiece right from the beginning. Nick Robles’s art is sharp and on point, delivering a tone of brilliant contrast from the start.

Review: She Could Fly #1

Originally Posted on Geek-O-Rama.

 

Writer:          Cristopher Cantwell

Artist:            Martin Morazzo

Colorist:        Miroslav Mrva

Letterer:        Clem Robins

Publisher:     Dark Horse Comics

 

A woman is seen flying about the city. No one knows who she is, or how she is able to fly, but high school sophomore Luna Brewster is fascinated.  Who is she? Where does she come from? How does she fly? What does she want?

Luna has some issues, but what teenager doesn’t? Her new school counselor  seems nice enough, and the appearance of a flying woman is unusual, definitely not crazy, right?

Bella At The Bar: Book One

Originally Posted on Geek-O-Rama.

Writer:          Jenny McDade

Artist:            John Armstrong

Publisher:     Rebellion

 

Bella Barlow is an orphan with a dream. She wants to escape her life as a window washer working for her cruel aunt and uncle so that she can learn to be a gymnast and compete on the national team. The road is long, hard, and filled with challenges she could not imagine while balancing on her uncle’s ladder with a rag and a bucket.

Review: Tart #1

I recently started working with Geek-O-Rama to do comic book reviews and last week my first review was published here. I encourage you to go and check out the site for reviews of all sorts of Geek oriented things. My latest review will drop today for the comic Bella at the Bar. I’ve been given permission to re-post my reviews here a week after the original post, so here is my review of Tart #1

Writer: Kevin Joseph
Artist: Ludovic Sallé
Publisher: Kechal Comics

Tart Acid wakes up in a new city with no idea why she’s there until she discovers someone in need, a little boy that disappeared from the park and is still missing. If the kid needs her help, it means the supernatural is involved, and things are bad.

Book Review: First Epiphany of the Time Vandal

Rollins finished lighting his cigar.  He shook out the match and laid it in the ashtray.  “Harald Bluetooth?” he queried, looking down at the book lying on the edge of Elijah’s desk.

“Danish king, around 980 A.D.,” Elijah answered as he sat down behind his desk.  “At the height of his power he ruled over most of Scandinavia.  He converted all his subjects to Christianity.”  He shot the director a glance.

“Peacefully, I’m sure,” retorted the Director, smiling ear-to-ear.  He loved tweaking Elijah about things like this.

Elijah shrugged, unapologetically. “He’s just a hobby of mine,” he said.  “Guys like that, the ones that were able to unite a bunch of tribes against all odds, they always interested me the most.  I don’t know why.”  He started typing something on his laptop.  Rollins ignored him for the next few moments, puffing on his cigar to really get it going.  After a few moments more, the dark clouds filling the small office, he looked back up across the desk at Elijah and chose his words carefully.  “You know, Kim would have been really proud today.”  Elijah’s head snapped up, a barely concealed look of pain on his face.  Rollins continued, “It’s been over a year, man.” He shook his head slightly back and forth twice and paused for a moment.  “I mean … I guess I just want to say that I’m proud of you too, buddy.”

Elijah glared at him evenly, his gaze showing no emotion at all.  “I appreciate that, Jack.  I really do.”

After a few more seconds of silence, Rollins stood up and walked around the desk to where Elijah was sitting.  He reached out and put his hand on Elijah’s shoulder.  “I know that you wish, more than the whole world, that she was here today to share this with you, to share this day.  She believed in this project almost as much as you did.” 

M.E. Bowling. First Epiphany of the Time Vandal (Kindle Locations 295-309). Kindle Edition.

The Observer Effect is this strange physics principle that says the act of observation alters the outcome when observing phenomenon. The same principle can be applied to people and animals to an extent. So what happens when a brilliant scientist discovers a way to travel through time so that history can be observed and recorded? Dr. Elijah Snow learns that time travel is far more complicated than the science that made it possible as he starts his journey toward becoming the Time Vandal.

Book Review: Galerie

Welcome to the Galerie Tour with

Author Steven Greenburg

Book Review by Eric Swett

Survival is an instinct all animals share. Fight or flight. When humans are put into a position where survival is on the line, there is no telling what they might do. Fight or flight can turn to surrender or barbarism in the blink of an eye. Vanessa Neuman is haunted by survival. How did her parents, grandfather and uncle survive when so many others died during the holocaust? When her father dies, he leaves her his leather bound diary filled with the stories of other Jews, and Vanessa heads to Prague to see what she can learn, but will she regrets uncovering a past other left behind?

THE GOOD

Galerie is Steven Greenberg’s second novel, and it is a real page turner, but not because it is simple reading. The author’s prose is magnificent and engaging. The words draw you through the story with an urgency that can old be achieved through good storytelling. Vanessa pops as the lead while the supporting cast of family members and diary memories bring to life a story that could have been relegated to  mere window dressing. Vanessa’s husband, the anxious narrator, provides the backdrop for the story that goes beyond the highly detailed locales explored by the author.

THE BAD

The story jumps from time to time to time and from location to location. If the author were any less skilled it might be an issues, but he weaves the story through the changes in such a way that the suspense builds faster and more intently than if the story followed a more traditional, linear trajectory. So is this bad? No, not really.

THE TAKEAWAY

this is a tremendous addition to the genre. It is dark and gritty at times, but the story and writing lift it up to the point of being nearly sublime. buy this book and say goodbye to your family for the weekend, because you will not want to put it down once you get started.

About the Book

Every family holds to secrets, but some are far darker, reach deeper, and touch a rawer nerve than others.

Vanesa Neuman is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, and her childhood in the cramped intimacy of south Tel Aviv is shadowed by her parents’ unspoken wartime experiences. The past for her was a closed book… until her father passes away and that book falls literally open. Vanesa must now unravel the mystery of the diary she has received—and the strange symbol within—at all costs.

Set against the backdrop of the Nazi occupation and the Jewish Museum of Prague—Adolf Eichmann’s “Museum of an Extinct Race”—Galerie is fast-paced historical fiction in the tradition of Tatiana De Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key. From Jerusalem’s Yad V’Shem Holocaust research center, to the backstreets of Prague, and into the former “paradise ghetto” of Theresienstadt, Vanesa’s journey of understanding will reveal a darker family past than she ever imagined—a secret kept alive for over half a century.

About the Author

Steven Greenburg is a professional writer, as well as a full-time cook, cleaner, chauffeur, and work-at-home Dad for three amazing young children, and the lucky husband of a loving and very supportive wife. Born in Texas and raised in Fort Wayne, Indiana, he emigrated to Israel only months before the first Gulf War, following graduation from Indiana University in 1990. In 1996, Steven was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, where he served for 12 years as a Reserves Combat Medic. Since 2002, Steven has worked as an independent marketing writer, copywriter and consultant. To find out more about Steven Greenburg, find him on Facebook, Goodreads and his website.

About the Prizes

Don’t forget to check out the rafflecopter for this tour here! This tour will 3 $10 gift cards & the more you share, the more you’re entered!

Book Review: The Author Mindset

Ask any dedicated author and they will tell you that coming up with the idea for a story is probably the easiest part of the writing process. Sitting down and writing the book is certainly time consuming, while editing and rewriting is probably the hardest part of the process. One thing most of us fail to think about is the selling. How do we market our books? How do we get our name known by the masses?

The Author Mindset, by Falcon Storm, takes a look at what it means to be an author and offers advice on the writing process and the steps to take once the story is set to paper. I listened to the Audio Book version of the book and checked it against an e-copy, but this review will include my input on the audio version as well as the content.

Book Review: Alt.Histroy 101

What if? It is a simple question. What if I hadn’t gone to work this morning? Would I still have gotten in a car wreck in the afternoon? What if I had taken Mary to prom instead of Nancy? Would I still be a teenage father? What if?

Alt.History 101 asks, “What if?” on a much larger scale, considering the implications of small changes on a world scale. The collection of short stories is a fun, and often terrifying, glimpse at what might have been if the events of the past had changed. Each author is talented in their own right, but as a collective this work takes, “What if?” to a whole new level.

THE GOOD

The story telling collected in this book is incredible. Personally I am unfamiliar with most of the authors, but there is one I have read and reviewed before (Pavarti K. Tyler), but I think that is a situation I plan on remedying soon. Each story was well done with varying degrees of the fantastic. The personal perspective of the stories is part of what makes them so enjoyable. The dialogue and action feels real and makes the mind bending alternate histories feel like they are possible.

THE BAD

There is very little to complain about in this book or in the individual stories. A few of the stories are less straight forward in what caused the change in history, and without reading the synopses in the front of the book, the reader is left to guess what event might have caused the change. The history tackled is primarily Euro-centric, but this is a minor thing. A more global telling would be welcome, but the history is less familiar to English speakers than the history approached here.

THE TAKEAWAY

This is an excellent piece of speculative fiction. Any fan of the genre would do well to buy this anthology and read it as soon as possible. Since the intent is for this to be the first book in a series, I look forward to the next offering.

 

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Book Review: Song of Secrets

Shifting was weird.

Transformation always felt like being hit in the forehead so suddenly that her consciousness fell backwards out of her body.

There was a dizzying minute while she got her bearings. She’d learned not to move during that time. Theo thought the shift ought to make a vibration like a bell being struck, but without sound. It didn’t, but the tingle of ionization, like the sensation and smell that preceded lightning, followed her through from whatever magic space her body travelled. That was that: Theo was human again.

She blinked, feeling overwhelmingly thirsty and itchy. She rubbed her face with her hands and then brushed her palms over her shoulders and down her arms, already chilly. Clothing didn’t change with her body, so she was bare as the day she was born.

Above, in the house, an alarm clanged.

Oh shit! Motion triggered? She should’ve known better. She’d been in houses where the alarm wouldn’t register the cat but would pick up a human.

Cold adrenaline shot through her blood and she grinned. Time to grab and run.

Against one wall was a long walking stick with a cloth wrap on a peg. She grabbed the stick and swung it at the nearest cases, shattering the glass. Taking the cloth wrap, she doubled it up and made a pouch of it, then walked carefully amid the shattered cases, trying to avoid the broken glass and grab what she could.

The door swung open and the older man stared at her in shock. Theo returned the favor because his pupils were no longer a cloudy gray but red and slit like a cat’s.

Wait, what?

What was he? A demon?

He opened his mouth and said a few words in a language Theo didn’t recognize. Magic?

If magic was going down, the time to book it was long passed.

Theo darted across the room, shouldered him out of the way, and sprinted up the stairs.

Over the last few days, she’d cased the place well so she knew her exit: through the garden to the place where broken bricks made the wall easy to scale. It was early spring and the ground felt spongy under Theo’s bare feet. The cool air brought goose pimples to her skin. She had tiny wave of guilt as her feet trampled the newly planted garden, but that feeling evaporated when she saw how quickly the old man moved. She figured he’d be spry and fit, but something about his movements were… unnatural. Theo didn’t have the luxury to really examine him, but it was almost as if, instead of a natural run, the old guy leaped forward in too-long bounds, almost like an animal, but even then, unnaturally so as it was more jerky than graceful.

Shit. That was creepy.

Theo made for the wall as fast as she could. The bricks were rough on her hands and feet, but she’d done this sort of thing enough—even in the dead of winter—that she had hard callouses for palms and soles.

Yep, demon or magic of some kind.

Unknown (2015-03-11T05:00:00+00:00). Song of Secrets-eBook (Kindle Locations 88-116). Level Up Press. Kindle Edition.

Everyone has their problems, but when those problems are multiplied by the sudden revelation that magic is real, the three young women and the young man brought to a special school where their particular talents will be explored and enhanced, they find out their not alone in their misery and that they may just need each other if they’re going to survive the challenges ahead. A cabal of humans who want to dissect those they do not understand is hunting them while they are forced to come to grips with their own tragedies and the reality of their new existence.

THE GOOD

The characters in this book are fabulous. Their flaws and talents are doled out with a pace that does not overwhelm the reader, but makes the characters feel so very human and familiar despite their supernatural gifts. The tension between them, both sexual and emotional, is perfect and enhances the story without becoming a dramatic focus that takes away from the adventure. The villains are despicable and the supporting characters are unique without overwhelming the story. The pace and telling of the story is well done and does not come off as herky-jerky despite the constant changes in point of view. The sex scenes are erotic without being erotica. There is a definite sense of the passion without taking it down a road where titillation is the end result.

THE BAD

There’s not much to complain about with this book. I wish it were a little longer, but it is obviously the first book in a series and I suppose it would be too much to ask for a complete resolution of issues in the introductory novel.

THE TAKEAWAY

This is a very good book. If you like urban fantasy or paranormal romance novels then you should definitely enjoy this book. I would definitely recommend giving it a read, but be warned, you’ll be stuck waiting for the sequel and that seems almost cruel.

About the Book – About the Author – Prizes!!!

Welcome to another exciting publishing house spotlight tour from Novel Publicity. Join us as two new titles from Rachel Calish–we’re calling them the Calish Couple—tour the blogosphere in a way that just can’t be ignored. And, hey, we’ve got prizes!

About the prizes: Who doesn’t love prizes? You could win either a $50 Amazon gift card, an autographed copy of Song of Secrets by Tate Hallaway and Rachel Calish, or an autographed copy of its tour mate, The Demon Gabriella by Rachel Calish. Here’s what you need to do…

1. Enter the Rafflecopter contest
2. Leave a comment on my blog

That’s it! One random commenter during this tour will win a $25 gift card. Visit more blogs for more chances to win–the full list of participating bloggers can be found HERE. The other $25 gift card and the 3 autographed books will be given out via Rafflecopter. You can find the contest entry form linked below or on the official Calish Couple tour page via Novel Publicity. Good luck!

About the book: Sing a song of secrets …
A shape-shifter with a penchant for breaking and entering …
A homeless boy struggling with hallucinations that could turn out to be all too real …
A monster in need of a rescue …
And a mathematical genius with a real demon of a mother …
Fate draws Theo, Gabe, Erin and Kitty to a place they jokingly call “The School for Wayward Demons.” There they learn that sinister forces threaten to invate the city of San Francisco and plot to overthrow the powers that be. Now they must choose whom to trust: the witches, the demon, or the Shaitans. Or each other.Get Song of Secrets through Amazon.

About the authors: Tate Hallaway leads a double life. By day, she’s Lyda Morehouse, a mild-mannered science fiction author of the Shamus and Philip K. Dick award-winning AngeLINK series. By night, she’s the bestselling para- normal romance and urban fantasy writer, Tate Hallaway. She’s written and published over a dozen novels (five as Lyda and nine as Tate), and together her two identities have over a decade of professional publishing experience.
Connect with Tate on her website, Twitter,or GoodReads..
Rachel Calish lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota because it’s so cold you just have to sit inside and write novels. She obtained her Master of Fine Arts in Writing degree by writing stories about sexy demons. A fan of games of all kinds, you can find her playing anything from the lat- est video game releases to Checkers with half the pieces missing. Under the name Rachel Gold, she writes LBGTQ Young Adult fiction.
Connect with Rachel on her website, Facebook, Twitter,or GoodReads..

Learn more about Song of Secrets‘s tour mate HERE.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
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