Earlier today I received an email from a visitor to this site, explaining he couldn’t review my Generation Mars series of books because he found the first one, Blood Red Dust, too distressing. His comments prompted a response from me to explain why I’d written the books in the way I did. It occurred to …
Continue reading Why Did I Write Generation Mars This Way?
274 pages Fantasy? This book is promoted as a collection of stories in the fantasy mode. That collection is preceded by a wordy, lengthy, introduction dealing with the nature of fantasy in literature. That’s a tortuous read in itself and, after the first few dry pages, I skipped the rest, since I’d bought the book …
Continue reading 13 After Midnight, by Jaime Martinez Tolentino: #BookReview.
Science Fiction 6,000 words This free short story is a taster for what is currently a four-book series. In that role, it works well, drawing the reader into a world that begs to be explored further. The writing style is tight, with little or no waste of words. The central theme, which appears to be …
Continue reading Independence: Two Democracies: Revolution, by Alasdair Shaw: #BookReview.
I'm taking part in the Smashwords Read an Ebook Week by discounting all my books on the site to make them free! The deal lasts from 3rd to 9th March, so you'll need to visit and download quickly to take advantage. Much better to get them here, legitimately, rather than from some seedy pirate site, …
Continue reading #Free #Ebooks from 3rd to 9th March
Fiction/Transgressional Fiction 97,610 words It appears I downloaded this book, through Smashwords, in 2014 and then completely forgot about it. I discovered it whilst tidying files in my ‘Digital Editions’ folder a few weeks ago. As this is a book about female eroticism, I’ve no idea how I came to it, except that the title …
Continue reading Halfway to the Stars, by Marcy Sheiner: #BookReview.
368 pages Genre Fiction/Holidays Intending to visit Italy, I bought a copy of Lonely Planet’s ‘Italy’. Along with other recommendations resulting from that purchase, Sue Moorcroft’s ‘One Summer in Italy’ came up. I thought it might be fun to read this as I lay sunbathing by the pool at the latter end of our visit. …
Continue reading One Summer in Italy, by Sue Moorcroft: #BookReview.
Do you read? Love books? I love readers; you’re my raison d’etre as a writer, the reason I write stories. So, I want more. One of the best ways of helping other readers is through reviews. So, here’s the deal: I’ll send you a copy of any of my books in exchange for an honest …
Continue reading #Readers, #BookReviews, #Bookbloggers.
106 pages Poetry This is a mix of the intensely personal, regarding love and its outcomes; the general as it relates to writers a group; and life in many of its guises. Poetry, and the reader’s response to it, is always personal. So, my review here can reflect only my experience of reading the collection …
Continue reading Cocktails with a Dead Man, by Joe Albanese: #BookReview.
242 Pages Thriller/Mystery I picked up a copy of this book, as I’d enjoyed Lauren B. Grossman’s first in the series, The Golden Peacock. That dealt with a mystery surrounding the holocaust. This book deals with a kidnapping by the Italian Red Brigade. Although this is essentially a thriller, great attention has been given to …
Continue reading The Verona Exchange, by Lauren B. Grossman and Bernard Jaroslow: #BookReview.
Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic Horror 299 pages As far as I can recall, I’ve never read a book in the post-apocalypse genre before, so it’s probable there are recognisable conventions of which I’m unaware. That said, any book should generally be accessible to all readers if possible. This one took some getting into for me. Once I …
Continue reading Game Changers of the Apocalypse, by Mark Kirkbride: #BookReview.
This brilliant trailer was produced by Ramon Marrett for Adiq, via my fabulous publisher, Fantastic Books Publishing. Enjoy. BLOOD RED DUST: As Earth plunges into total climate chaos, will new bases on Mars rescue humanity from extinction when religious extremists threaten to destroy them? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1909163635/?tag=stuartaken-21 WAR OVER DUST: Who will win on Mars when violence …
Continue reading Generation Mars: Video Trailer.
Fantasy serial It’s difficult to know whether this book is experimental or just badly written. The sentence structure sometimes seems borrowed from the 19th century and there are many errors that should have been spotted in editing. The opening is a strange mix of intriguing detail and oddly expressed action. We’re given no clues as …
Continue reading The Darkness Abides, by L. Harcroft: #BookReview.
109 pages Science Fiction When science fiction is written by an established physicist the reader can expect the science at least to be plausible. That’s the case here, even though we’re in the world of quantum physics, which is an area full of speculation and dispute, and much misunderstood by so many. The story here …
Continue reading Where Did the Hills Go?, by Lali Gupta Chatterjee : #BookReview.
Science fiction is a broad genre, as is fantasy. Sometimes the two are mixed, as in this piece of imaginative narrative. The book deals with a scenario only too likely should we continue to abuse nature and the environment in the ways we have for the past couple of centuries. However, I have some concerns …
Continue reading Water Entanglement, by Claudiu Murgan: #BookReview.
388 Pages Horror/Action Adventure. Imagination is a crucial element in any work of fiction, and here it reaches new heights, especially in terms of human ambition and the lengths some will travel to fulfil it. This novel is a mix of horror, fantasy, science fiction, adventure and thriller. But, in merging the genres and developing …
Continue reading Pandora, by Joshua Grant: #BookReview.
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Antidote to the Novel
Stuart Aken 