This short (10,000 words) teaser is an introduction to a new character. However, the story does have a beginning, middle and end, which makes it more satisfying than many such introductory pieces. The future envisaged in this science fiction world is, as the eponymous title suggests; bleak. The character, described as a shape shifter, is …
Continue reading Bleak: The First Mission, by Ian Martyn: #BookReview.
Subtitled ’53 Dos & Don’ts Nobody is Telling You’, this short book, in common with all the author’s work, is direct and to the point. You’ll find no waffle here, no filling or puffing. It’s all simple advice, gleaned from personal experience and a research ethic that would make most of us tired just to …
Continue reading The Little Blue Book for Authors, by Gisela Hausmann: #BookReview.
https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/card?asin=B01KOSVE3Y&preview=inline&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_VevnAb9AQT40C&tag=stuartaken-21 Sub-titled ‘A Dottie Manderson Mystery’, this is the first in a series, and introduces the eponymous heroin through a fascinating tale set in England in the 1930s. This ‘cosy crime’ novel, with its measure of burgeoning romance, is a good read; something to entertain and satisfy in front of a burning log fire in …
Continue reading Night and Day, by Caron Allan: #BookReview.
https://read.amazon.co.uk/kp/card?asin=B075R4VPNB&preview=inline&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_0NalAb4XD8Z81&tag=stuartaken-21 Subtitled ‘How to Find Readers’, this is another of Hausmann’s writing books crammed with common sense and down-to-earth advice. First, I must pose a question: ‘If you’re a writer, do you belong to Goodreads?’ And, if you don’t, a supplementary question: ‘Why not?’ Goodreads may boast a membership of ‘only’ 65 million, but …
Continue reading Naked Good Reads, by Gisela Hausmann: #BookReview.
This book, listed as science fiction/fantasy, is an odd mix of parable, analogy, political comment and adventure. The style of writing falls mostly under the ‘tell’ rather than ‘show’ label, which makes for a strangely disconnected read for much of the time. There’s a transition from the beginning, set on terra ferma in Australia, and …
Continue reading Sink: Old Man’s Tale, by Perrin Briar: #BookReview.
From the start, this science fiction novel, located on a future Earth, sets the scene for the society in which the action takes place. And it isn’t a society many of us would wish to inhabit. Fortunately, the characters are drawn with such a fine pen that the reader can quickly empathise with the main …
Continue reading Labor Day, by Joseph Farley: #BookReview.
A truly remarkable piece of work by a truly remarkable young woman. Malala Yousafzai has produced a memoir that’s so much more than mere autobiography. Anyone ignorant of this brave girl has clearly been living in a shelter on Mars, so I won’t insult readers of this review with an overview. There’s great optimism in …
Continue reading I Am Malala, by Malala Yousafzai: #BookReview.
This thriller, set in a steel city in the UK, treats fire almost as one of its characters. After the opening, in which we meet the main protagonist, a fireman, we are plunged into a world of burning, where the fire officer arrives at his next conflagration only to discover it’s his own home. He …
Continue reading Fires, by Tom Ward: #BookReview.
Inside Moves is a thriller with elements that occasionally lift it above the usual formulaic presentation of such books. Starting with a climatic event, the book moves back into the period prior to this to set the scene and explain how the climax came about. The general background to the story, its locations, mood and …
Continue reading Inside Moves, by Walter Danley: #BookReview.
Shadeward: Exoneration, by imaginative science fiction writer, Drew Wagar, is a continuation of the story begun in ‘Shadeward: Emanation’. If you haven’t read that book, I advise you to do so first, as it sets the scene and introduces the characters and the location whilst telling an engaging and compelling story. Continuing the saga, set …
Continue reading Shadeward: Exoneration, by Drew Wagar: #BookReview.
Set on an almost unrecognisable Earth in a distant future, this novel deals with the perils of unregulated capitalism as it is allowed run rampant through a society in which consumers are entirely secondary to profit (ring any bells?). Peopled by charismatic, strong, female characters and complex antagonists, the tale quickly engages the reader. Written …
Continue reading Sons of the Crystal Mind, by Andrew Wallace: #BookReview.
Storm of Attraction is a romantic thriller with an understandable bias in favour of female readers. After all, most romance readers are women. As a mature man, and the author of a romantic thriller, I’m able to enjoy the genre in a way a lot of men can’t imagine. Told very much from the woman’s …
Continue reading Storm of Attraction, by Lily Black: #BookReview.
Subtitled ‘180 Bizarre True Stories of How Dumb Humans Have Met Their Maker’, The Darwin Awards is not a book to read in one sitting, unless you wish to join award nominees by dying from laughing too loud and too long. There are some wonderful tales here; a few are apocryphal but most have been …
Continue reading The Darwin Awards, by Wendy Northcutt: #BookReview.
Joan Barbara Simon’s ‘Long Time Walk on Water’, is a phenomenon. There’s nothing ordinary, pedestrian, or conventional in this story of love, lust, prejudice, violence and parental brutality. An adherent of secular, as opposed to faith-based, philosophy, I’m already biased against the cruel, arbitrary, and unjust interpretation of so-called sacred myths that spread brutality and …
Continue reading Long Time Walk on Water, by Joan Barbara Simon: #BookReview.
This thriller is much more than that. Generally, thrillers are notorious for their concentration on story at the expense of character. In An American Cage, however, Galdi has broken that mould. He’s devised a tale that threads character throughout the story without adversely affecting pace and engagement. Written in present tense, and from an omniscient …
Continue reading An American Cage, by Ted Galdi: #BookReview.
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Antidote to the Novel
Stuart Aken 