Title: The Execution
Series: The Wintergrave Chronicles
Author: Sharon Cramer
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: B & F Publishing
Release Date: February 14, 2012
Format: Paperback
Pages: 356

 

The Execution was sent to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of The Execution is pretty interesting; twin brothers separated at childhood reunited under strange circumstances. Ravan, sold into the life of a mercenary, is set to be executed the next morning for murder. D’ata, raised in the priesthood and sent to give last confession to the convicted. Separated by the Black Death in 14^th century France, the brothers learn of each other’s life stories.

Having the story told from two different perspectives, over two different lifetimes, made The Execution a unique story. It jumps back and forth between the two, so we see each brother’s story at the same point in time. Ravan’s story follows his start as a boy with a penchant for survival to life as a slave mercenary. These portions of the book are filled with action and adventure. Some parts feel more like a fantasy novel with Ravan’s unnatural skills, being almost superhuman in the feats he performs. Ravan’s story is both exciting and sad, showing how even demons will run when a good man goes to war.

D’ata’s portion of The Execution is a story of romance. Left on the steps of a church, he is raised into the priesthood by a rich family. His new family caring more for prestige than love, D’ata’s suffering is more emotional where Ravan’s was primarily physical. Falling head over heels for a young farmgirl, D’ata finds his faith tested between familial bonds and true love. These portions of the story were not as action-packed, but still exciting in their own way. There was not as much physical danger so much as the sense of loss D’ata and his love will feel. Of the two brothers, D’ata’s ending also felt more satisfying (though that could change in the rest of the trilogy).

Despite the lives of Ravan and D’ata being very different, there are common themes between the two. Both brothers are forced into lives they neither chose nor wanted. Both will find true families in people they trust, not necessarily those who raise them. Both will experience love and loss on their life paths. And both will end up in the dungeon the morning before the execution, telling their stories and pondering their fates. The dynamic woven between two different genres makes The Execution a fantastic read and shows how different lives can intertwine.

Title: Exit Strategy
Series: Nick Mason
Author: Steve Hamilton
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Release Date: May 16, 2017
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 289

 

This review will contain spoilers for the first Nick Mason book, The Second Life of Nick Mason.

Exit Strategy is the second book in the Nick Mason series, picking up shortly where the first book left off. The previous title, the Second Life of Nick Mason, was a fantastic thriller novel. I read the whole thing in one sitting because it just blew me away. The sequel, not so much. The dynamic of the story and characters shifts a lot over the course of Exit Strategy. It felt like Steve Hamilton decided he wanted to change a bunch of things about this series. And then decided the best way to do that was with piles of bodies and other character write-offs.

Any thriller story, be it a book or a movie, is going to have a main character who is a one-man army. Jason Bourne, John Wick, and others like them all leave literal scores of dead men in their wake. Usually characters are given a backstory that explains this, like being former black ops or raised by a paramilitary family. Nick Mason is set up as a small-time criminal with a code of honor, yet his body count rivals Rambo’s. Mason being able to outfox a federal organization, even with the help of a crime boss, is just too much. But if you want detailed descriptions of people being broken, beaten, and otherwise injured, Exit Strategy will not disappoint.

The characterization in the first book was one of its strongest points. In Exit Strategy, it was just too rushed. Everything that happens in this book felt like it could have been spread over three or so novels. That way the story would have had more meat on its bones. Imagine if the first two or three Jason Bourne films had all been crammed into one movie. Exit Strategy was like that. Events just escalated too quickly to be believable and the big reveal at the end felt too soon.

There will be a sequel to Exit Strategy with the way the book ends. Whether book #3 gets the series back to where it was in book #1 is up in the air. If you keep the first book in mind, this book could potentially warrant itself as 4-stars. Standalone, it is 3-stars hands-down. By no means is it a bad book, but it is a bland book. We will see how the next Nick Mason installment pans out.

Title: Blue Gold
Author: David Barker
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Urbane Publications
Release Date: May 11, 2017
Format: Paperback
Pages: 360

 

Blue Gold is an entertaining thriller for readers who like spy stories with a splash of sci-fi. It does not necessarily fit into any one genre. The story is a little sci-fi but no more than an old school James Bond film would be. The MI6 agent characters have gadgets and with it being set in the near-future, technology is a bit more advanced. This is a pretty fast paced adventure and jumps around (geographically) quite a bit. Plus the story, by the end, is a classic tale of espionage.

David Barker did an exceptional job with the world-building. In the near future, humanity is running short on fresh water. We are not talking a Mad Max level drought, but it is enough to where governments are starting to ration. Smaller, more impoverished countries (especially those in desert/dry areas) are starting to war with each other over water sources. Simultaneously, solar flares have knocked out a lot of satellites and seriously altered global communications. Both of these factors result in a war for information among first world countries. Protagonists Sim and Freda start by chasing a terrorist plot that soon evolves into a much greater adventure.

Sim and Freda’s chase of suspects and criminals leads them all over the world. They go from Europe to America to the futuristic “ocean cities”. In a nutshell, rich people built floating cities to get out of paying taxes. This seems like something ridiculous enough to be in this kind of story, but also believable enough for some rich people to actually try. Our MI6 agents go to great lengths for the sake of stealth (in-between getting noticed and captured). They are not the only ones, however; Blue Gold does feature a few more storylines. Other plot-centric characters are relevant to the story and their purpose becomes clearer later on. Also, still in the style of classic Bond, the ending features a large battle at the bad guy’s evil lair.

There are little bits of information at the beginning of each chapter, taken from Sim and Freda’s training manuals. These seemed like a mixed bag. On one hand, they provided crucial background information in each chapter. On the other hand, that presentation made the information feel forced. If that information had been worked into the story more naturally it would have felt smoother. Overall, Blue Gold is a good story but just did not seem to really pull you in as a reader.

Title: Project Legion
Series: Nemesis Saga
Author: Jeremy Robinson
Genre: Sci-fi
Publisher: Breakneck Media
Release Date: October 25, 2016
Format: Paperback
Pages: 394

 

Project Legion really is a unique book. Jeremy Robinson has established that his works are a multiverse and brings them all together in this last, epic adventure. Personally, I have not read any of his non-Nemesis books but I did not feel lost. It seemed like I would have gotten a lot more out of the characters from his other books if I had, but it was not completely necessary to do so. While Project Legion feels complete in and of itself, readers will walk away wanting to know more about those characters. These are supposed to be the greatest heroes in all the multiverse and they pull off incredible feats. It would be like watching Avengers but having only seen the first Captain America film beforehand.

Because of the “Robinverse”, some things in Project Legion do not 100% make sense. Some of the other heroes that pop up are just kind of there to help fight. You do not really need to know too much about them. Others are as key to the plot as the Nemesis characters have been since Project Nemesis. Not just characters either; concepts from the other books (presumably better fleshed out in those other works) are also crucial. Robinson has said that Project Legion was meant to more or less wrap up his currently works as a whole so that he can start fresh on new series, so for folks who have read his other books finishing up those plots was probably pretty satisfying. If anything, Project Legion makes readers want to go back and look up Robinson’s older works.

For the characters from the Nemesis Saga, Project Legion is very satisfying. Without real spoilers, it does end how you would expect. Good triumphs over evil and the characters finally get the peace they have fought for. The narrative throughout is similar to the other books, humorously told by Jon Hudson. There are still plenty of pop culture references throughout, both directly and indirectly, but that was toned down a bit. By far, the Nemesis Saga is the best kaiju series for your bookshelf. While some parts of the series have been weaker than others, overall it is very solid. Any fan of fantastical sci-fi and giant monsters will love this series. Here is to hoping that Robinson’s next kaiju book, Unity, can live up to Nemesis, the Queen of the Monsters.

Title: Revenants: The Odyssey Home
Author: Scott Kauffman
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC
Release Date: December 23, 2015
Format: Paperback
Pages: 275

 

Revenants deals with a topic that has always been popular for storytelling: war. Specifically, it deals with the Vietnam War. Most war stories focus on people directly involved in the conflict, namely soldiers. While soldiers do play an important part in this story, they are not the focus. Protagonist Betsy’s brother is KIA (killed in action) in Vietnam and grief begins to consume her. As her sorrow drags her down a sad path, what seems like a chance at self-redemption falls into her lap. Seeing a war story told from the eyes of a civilian, the family affected by soldiers lost, is rare. Even rarer is a story so artfully told as Revenants.

While Revenants seems to mainly fit as historical fiction, it is hard to peg it to a certain genre. It does not directly deal with history so in that regard it feels a bit like plain fiction. On the other hand, Betsy and her friends are trying to piece together clues like in a mystery story. Not truly fitting into any one genre is largely what makes this story work. You do not read Revenants and expect to see the standard tropes fitting any one specific genre. It feels very real.

For a large portion of the book, the story feels more like 3 out of 5 stars. But, without giving anything away, the ending bumps it up to 4 stars. This is not a story where everything is all right in the end. The characters suffer pain and grow because of it, yes, but not always positively. The experiences we have throughout life change us, shape us into who we are, and not always for the better. Betsy, and the other characters, go through this pain and do what they can to improve themselves. But the scars are still there and sometimes improving yourself has to take a back seat to just surviving.

We see veterans in the VA hospital in this book and these people are damaged. Anyone who knows even a little about veteran care knows that it is not great. Soldiers who come back from war can be as injured mentally as they were physically. And so too can the families and other loved ones of the soldiers who did not come back. Wars are not won in so much as they simply stop. People at the top make decisions, good ones and bad, and individuals at all levels get hurt. Revenants is very real and shows the terror of war for what it is. That is what made it so hard to put down.

Title: You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost)
Author: Felicia Day (Author), Joss Whedon (Foreword)
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Touchstone
Release Date: August 11, 2015
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272

 

Felicia Day is a fairly well-known name within the nerd/geek community. A lot of attention came to her for her role as Penny in Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog in 2008. Around the same time, her own series The Guild was going strong which garnered even more attention. From there she has been in a slew of projects such as playing a popular supporting character in the video game Dragon Age II and portraying the main villain in the reboot of the cult classic Mystery Science Theater 3000. She has excelled as an actress, singer, writer, and producer in a largely self-made career. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) shows her roots and just how she got to be the celebrity she is today.

Being a fan of Felicia Day does make this book a better read. But even for people who are not familiar with her work, it is still pretty interesting. More and more in the Information Age, we see celebrities who manage to push themselves forward. Instead of being picked up and made famous, they get there on their own. Prior to reading the memoir, I was already a Felicia Day fan but there was so much in here that I did not know. Her ability to play the violin, for one, as well as how close The Guild got to never being made. She went through a lot of hardship to get where she is today and really struggled to make it work. Some of those hardships were professional and some were personal. But even in the darker moments, she managed to keep moving forward with her hopes and dreams.

One of the best things about You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) is how real it feels. Some people obtain fame and feel like they are very disconnected from the rest of the world. The way Felicia Day writes and speaks feels very normal. She is not deliberately trying to be down to Earth, she is just a normal woman. Her career and wit have endeared her to the nerd/geek community but at the core, she does not seem that different from anyone else. By no means does she view herself as the golden goose; she knows she is a person like everyone else and it shows. This memoir largely reminds me of Lindsey Stirling’s (another self-made celebrity) biography. Someone who has been through hardship and made it work is empathetic and relatable, which is a large part of what makes Felicia Day such an appealing entertainer.

Title: The Happy Chip
Author: Dennis Meredith
Genre: Sci-fi
Publisher: Glyphus
Release Date: March 10, 2017
Format: Paperback
Pages: 283

 

The Happy Chip was sent to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

The premise of The Happy Chip is a not uncommon type of sci-fi story. New technology is introduced into society, seems great, then something goes horribly wrong. This is one of those sci-fi stories that seems like it could actually happen sometime in the near future. It is just enough of a stretch to be purely fictional, but still believable. Think more along the lines of Jurassic Park than Star Wars when viewing this book as sci-fi. That being said, it was a pretty good read.

First off we have the technology that fuels the story, the Happy Chips. These are injected into people’s bodies and, through a phone app, allow you to monitor your hormone levels. This lets you essentially measure your happiness to find more interesting hobbies, try foods you will probably like better, etc. And that is where it starts to go horribly wrong. With the 2.0 chips, the villain of our story plans not only to monitor hormones but to control them. While this premise is not too crazy, it shows how much power a person with leverage can wield over others.

So next we have our characters, starting with protagonist Brad Davis. He is a freelance writer hired to write the biography of the Happy Chips’ inventor, Marty Fallon. As he begins his research, he discovers the evil plot and his family is put in danger. Brad was almost too much of a good guy, as was his wife. At first they are fighting to protect themselves and their children but once we are past that they keep going. They do this because it is the right thing to do, but it feels like normal people in their situation would have said, “Ok, we’ve done enough,” by that point.

Then we have the villain of the story, who I will not expressly reveal for spoiler reasons. When first introduced, this character just seems like a jerk. Not necessarily a bad person but not a very nice one. That completely flips around once the threat is revealed and this person goes from “scumbag” to “irredeemably evil”. Politician-level evil, if you will. And then there is the “sidekick” Gregor Kalinsky. It almost felt like Gregor could have been the main character. Brad got the ball rolling on this adventure but Gregor was largely the person who got things done by the end of it.

Overall, The Happy Chip was a fun read. While the rating system only gives me whole numbers, I really think of this book as 3.5-stars. It is a good little summer read for folks who like a quick but entertaining sci-fi story.