Created by fantasy author Althea Kontis. Used with permission.
Visit her website at: altheakontis.com (on 4/28/2024 the website wasn’t working)
Category: Book Review
Book Review: Athena’s Daughters Vol 2
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Athena’s Daughters Vol. 2, an anthology published by Silence in the Library (presently closed).
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Maze running executioners, menopausal super heroes, psychic scientists, precog nuns, sentient crows . . . These are just a sampling of the diverse ladies that will enthrall, excite, and entertain you in this anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories written by women.
MY REVIEW
A well-balanced, diverse anthology.
Second of the Women-centric anthologies from Silence in the Library and a much faster read at *only* 330 pages of manuscript fiction and 21 stories. The volume still suffers from the unevenness of skill is present in all anthologies, especially since the editors make a point of developing new writers as well as using some amazing “anchor”/mature writers. Also, again, amazes at the DIVERSITY of characters – Hispanic, black, Asian, white, old, young, middle-age, straight, gay, and doesn’t impact the story. These are stories about women, all females, the full-spectrum of the bearers of double-X chromosome. And the stories themselves range from science fiction to fantasy, past to future, sad to joyous, one-shots to a side story in an established series.
Now to the standout stories
“The Killing Garden” by Carrie Ryan – An amazing character/sociological piece the editors put at the very beginning of the book. If you read nothing else in this anthology, read this historical drama.
“Red is the Color of Mother Dirt” by JY Yang – A political sci-fi. A wonderful sociological study (and anyone who has read my reviews knows how much I love great worldbuilding), which is amazing to find in a short story. So little room to create a whole world while also introducing and developing characters and telling a complete story. Ms. Yang did this all with grace.
“The Black Mamba and the Leopard” by Alison J McKenzie – A folk-myth fantasy-thriller. Loved the main character and her problem solving skills. Not quite the must-read of the Killing Garden, but close. A five-star story in my opinion.
“The Miraculous” by Tess Tabak – Written in second person. No, really, second person. I’ve heard about stories like this, but never seen one. And the story is about what happens after the Zombie Apocalypse you just survived. Did you ever think loneliness…monotony… would be the biggest issue? You understand the main character very well by the last sentence.
“Hot Flash” by Antha Ann Adkins – Another excellent superhero origin story (with an amazing illustration). And I thought only teenagers had the hormonal instability to set off a superhero mutation.
“Crow Bait and Switch” by Tish E. Pahl – A cuddly, creepy sci-fi. ‘Nough said.
Now read the book!
Book Review: Blood Cross (Jane Yellowrock #2)
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Jane Yellowrock is back on the prowl against the children of the night…
The vampire council has hired skinwalker Jane Yellowrock to hunt and kill one of their own who has broken sacred ancient rules-but Jane quickly realizes that in a community that is thousands of years old, loyalties run deep…
MY REVIEW
A very densely written book – more short story with never-ending action. Really, really hard to find a stopping point to sleep at night.
Every page has something happen, every sentence is important, every character has a reason for being. Except the limo driver – first and only character so far in the series without anything further than he was there. A “prop” character. Blood Cross is so densely written I notice when a character didn’t get expanded.
A Compelling Read.
Book Review: Southern Bound (Max Porter #1)
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Southern Bound (Max Porter Mysteries #1) by Stuart Jaffe
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When Max Porter discovers his office is haunted by the ghost of a 1940s detective, he does the only sensible thing … he starts a detective agency!
Thrust neck-deep into a world of old mysteries and dangerous enemies, he will face ghosts, witches, and curses. He will discover a world in which survival might be the easiest challenge. And he will do anything necessary to keep his wife and his life from falling away.
Real history meets the paranormal in this thrilling, suspenseful series!
MY REVIEW
Ok – After finishing the story, I re-looked at the title and it took on a dozen new meanings. Rarely have does a title fit a story this well.
The story is a research-mystery genre, with a little paranormal thrown in. I liked the character doing research in actual books, as well as internet, foot work, and face-to-face interviews. Slow in parts, because research is slow. Fast when a breakthrough happens. You feel like you are going step-by-step through the process with the researcher. No magic Google searches or wikipedia entries, the character needed to touch books not scanned onto the internet.
And because the story is research, the paranormal in a detective story works. Often, as the character trudged once again off to the library (which becomes a character in and of itself), you forget this world also has ghosts and witches – or the ghosts and witches feel the same as the employers and thugs, the world has them, not all are pleasant, and you still need to make a living.
I’ve been reading a lot of urban fantasy genre with mystery edges, and so I found the fact the romance was between two married people rediscovering their relationship after a rocky patch very refreshing and relaxing.
I really liked the POW history aspect. A must-read for anyone who likes mysteries and is from North Carolina. At the end of the story you want to visit all the places appearing in the book and also find out what parts were true and what were fiction.
Book Review: This May Go On Your Permanent Record
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This May Go On Your Permanent Record by Kelly Swails
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Sally Clark is curious about how technology works, which would be fine except her experiments tend to be illegal. She’s also a terrible liar, which lands her in court for stealing groceries with nothing but a hacked smart phone. While the judge isn’t impressed that her alcoholic mother had traded the grocery money for booze, she is intrigued by her hacking skills. Given a choice between juvenile detention and something called The School for Extraordinary Youth, she rolls the dice and chooses the latter. She’s barely unpacked her bags when she discovers that SEY is a prep school for world domination.
MY REVIEW
A quick, but full read, which took me about five hours one night, this Young Adult (YA) story follows a fourteen-year-old girl from August to October of her freshman year in high school. Wow that sounds boring, but this book is anything but.
I picked it up thinking it sounded a lot like a superhero academy story, “a school for world domination” is the tag line, and it reads like one too. Only instead of superpowers, the students are all children of world leaders except for a few potentials brought in to shake things up. Sally comes from trailer trash but determined to rise above it – or at least stay out of juvie where the judge says she will go if she flunks out of this school. Thrust into the world of movers and shakers, she proves to be a true shaker. The class president goes after her with blood in her eye; maybe the daughter of leaders should have blinked first to clear the eye so she could see Sally clearly because this girl doesn’t back down from nobody. The two duke it out for class domination in a school teaching them how to take over the world and giving them the tools to do it.
The story follows the present YA formula of two love interests – one helpful and like a buddy – and the other intriguing, strong, and handsome, but not a close friend yet. She doesn’t go for either in this book but knows she has a crush on one and gets flashes of interest in the other.
We don’t see much personal growth of the character in this book as it more concentrates on setting up the world and defining the characters. Plus the overall story arc with the class president. Lots of little things happening keeping the story moving – I didn’t have any interest in taking a break while I read it.
I do enjoy all the name dropping – the leadership of the school also comes from old, powerful families. If you like history, this book makes you want to break out a “who’s who” to see what Easter eggs the author is writing in the series – names like Custard, Curie, and Bush tease the reader.
This manuscript is a very nice read. Plus I think the series will rock – for example book two, now that we know everyone and the world, should blow this one out of the water. The writing is tight and I expect Ms. Swails to only improve in the future.