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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

More Questions for Jay Posey

Today's guest is the newest member of the elite Two-Timers club, Jay Posey, author of Three and Morningside Fall.

Welcome back, Jay.  How much of Morningside Fall was in your head by the time Three was finished?
Hi Dan, thanks for inviting me back!

Well, I’d originally written Three as a standalone novel, so when I finished it I hadn’t really spent too much time thinking where I’d take it from there.  I guess if you’re asking about the exact moment I finished Three, then I’d have to say virtually none of Morningside Fall existed in my head yet.

But in the few months between having finished the manuscript for Three and signing on with the Robot Overlords at Angry Robot Books, I started thinking through where I’d take those characters next just in case I decided I wanted to continue writing in that world.  The funny thing was that once I started thinking about a second book my brain kind of exploded and I knew I’d have to write a third book too to cover everything I wanted to include.


The Blindfolded Man was my favorite new character.  Where did that come from?
That’s actually a really strange story.  In the early days of planning Morningside Fall, this character just sort of forced himself into the process.  Like, literally, I was sitting there minding my own business and all of a sudden this character appears in my mind and pretty much says “I’m in this book.”  I had no idea who he was or what he wanted exactly, I just knew he was extremely dangerous and at least a little scary.  It was almost like he had his own mission and I was just going to have to make room for him.

It was really over the course of writing his scenes that I discovered who he was, and in this case it was truly like a discovery.  Especially early on in the book, I never really felt like I was driving his creation … it was more like he existed before I’d ever met him, and I was just giving him a place to do his thing.

I know it sounds weird; it was weird.  I hope I’m not the only author that’s ever had that happen.

The Awakened struggling to fit in at Morningside was well done.  Any real world inspiration for this?
I wouldn’t say I had any single group in mind when writing about the Awakened, but at the same time, yes absolutely, the real world is full of this sort of thing.  We people tend to have a hard time dealing with others that are too different than we are, and history (and our present day) is full of examples of segments of people being ostracized, marginalized, and persecuted.

The tricky thing with the Awakened is that the citizens of Morningside do have some legitimate reasons to fear and mistrust them.  It was an interesting challenge for me to try to capture some of the complexity to the social dynamics that exist in that environment.

How far along is the next book in the Duskwalker series?
Not nearly as far along as I wish!  As with the other two books, I have the beginning, the ending, and some key milestones along the way, as well as some early chapters.  I have a solid grasp on what I want to do with this one, but the pressure to bring everything together in a really satisfying way is pretty high, so I’m having to wrestle with myself a lot on it.

Is there a title for the third book?
It has a working title but I’m the only one that will be using it.  Once the Robot Overlords get their hands on it, they’ll give it a proper name.  One day I might tell people what the working titles were for each of the three books, but not until they’re all out there in the real world.

What are you reading these days?
Oh, so many things. I’m one of those weird people who reads like five books at a time, depending on what I feel like at any given moment.  I just finished Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, and I’m currently reading Myke Cole’s Control Point, R. C. Sproul’s The Consequences of Ideas, Ben Carson’s America the Beautiful, and Chris Anderson’s Makers.  And I’m listening to Gulliver’s Travels on my daily commute.

What else do you have coming down the pipeline?
Book Three in the Duskwalker series is the big thing on my mind right now, but I also have a more military sci-fi themed project spinning up.  A short story I wrote as a first exploration in that world will be showing up in a couple of months in Apex Publishing’s War Stories anthology.  I’ve got a more Young Adult thing on the (very) back burner, though I’m still trying to figure out how to manage my time and mental energy effectively, so progress on anything outside of Book Three is somewhere between slow and non-existent.

Thanks again for having me by, Dan!

Monday, April 28, 2014

The Blasted Lands

The Blasted Lands (Seven Forges, #2)The Blasted Lands by James A. Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While Merros Dulver prepares the Empire of Fellein for the possibility of war with the Sa'ba Taalor, Desh Krohan sends an expedition to the Blasted Lands to find The Mounds, the one place the gods of the Taalor forbid them to go...

I got this from Angry Robot via Netgalley

The Blasted Lands picks up where Seven Forges left off. Andover is learning the ways of the Sa'ba Taalor. Merros is in charge of the Imperial Army. And a new empress is crowned. When Tusk invites the Empire to parley, what does he have in mind?

I struggled with how to rate this book. On one hand, a lot more of the lore behind the Sa'ba Taalor is revealed: customs, religion, magic, etc. More worldbuilding is done, not quite as seamless as the first book but still very good. The characters introduced in the first book are fleshed out and do a lot to make Moore's world seemed lived in. And we finally know why the Taalor are masked a lot of the time.

There are still plenty of mysteries, however. We still don't know what's beneath the mounds but the bigger mystery is how the Empire can stand up against an enemy that's been training for a thousand years for just such a war.

All that being said, not a whole lot actually happens beyond the expedition to the Mounds, Andover's trials with the Sa'ba Taalor, and a lot of maneuvering. It did a lot to build my interest in the next book, though.

When all is said and done, it's the middle book in a trilogy and does a great job setting up the next book. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first so I'm giving it a 3.5 out of 5.

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Saturday, April 26, 2014

Devoured

Devoured (The Hunger #1)Devoured by Jason Brant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After yet another unsuccessful job interview, Lance York shoves a strangely-acting woman out of the path of a speeding car and is struck himself. When he awakes in the hospital, he is shocked to find a plague has struck Pittsburgh, a plague that mutates its victims and turns them into eyeless, savage, flesh-eating horrors! Even with help from some new friends, can Lance escape the abattoir Pittsburgh has become?

After reading his West of Hell trilogy, Jason Brant invited me to give his Hunger series a shot. It took me a while to take the bait but Brant soon had me hooked once again.

Before even opening the book, or whatever the equivalent of opening an e-book is, I kept thinking "Zombies? Aren't we all getting tired of that shit?" Brant puts his spin on the survival horror tale and I Devoured it in two sittings. Besides, his plague victims aren't zombies. They have some virus that makes their eyes fall out and their brain functions go haywire, mutating them into cannibal feral things with fangs and caveman brows.

The protagonist of the tale, Lance York, was a guy I could really get behind. He wasn't a hyper-prepared militant or a survivalist super hero. He's kind of a screw up, he's going through a divorce, and is unemployed. Oh, and he's also infertile. Lance spends the first part of the book escaping the hospital and dealing with his soon to be ex-wife and her boyfriend.

The book kicks into high gear once Lance finally escapes the hospital, deals with militants, and hooks up with Cassandra, an ax-wielding failed artist. The scope ratchets up with every revelation. By the time Lance gets his legs under him, it's pretty apparent that civilization is going down the toilet pretty quickly.

The gore and carnage are the stars of the show here and they spend a lot of time on stage. The Vladdies, as Cassandra calls them, are pretty terrifying. However, the militia assholes were much bigger villains considering they're human and the Vladdies are practically forces of nature.

While this is the first book in a trilogy, it's pretty satisfying on its own with no cliffhanger ending or anything else that might leave a reader feeling cheated.

I can't find anything bad to say about this book. Like Edward Lorn, Jason Brant is self-publishing done right. Four out of five stars.

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Friday, April 25, 2014

A Swollen Red Sun

A Swollen Red SunA Swollen Red Sun by Matthew McBride
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Deputy Sheriff Dale Banks finds $52,000 hidden in a catbox, he does the wrong thing for the right reasons. The missing money touches off a blaze of meth, murder, and mayhem!

I got this from Netgalley.

If there is a golden rule in crime fiction, it's that if you find a hidden pile of money, do not take it or the shit will hit the fan! In this case, the shit is a group of lowlife meth heads and the fan is Deputy Sheriff Dale Banks.

A Swollen Red Sun takes place in Gasconade County, Missouri, one of the Midwest's meth hotbeds. Banks soon finds himself up against meth heads (and dealers) like Jerry Dean Skaggs, Jackson Brandt, and the inbred preacher The Reverend, as well as a dirty cop pulling the strings.

Matthew McBride paints a bleak picture of rural Missouri, reminiscent of books like No Country for Old Men, Knockemstiff, and Winter's Bone. The locations in the book are both hellish and all too realistic. However, the world he create isn't without hope. Bo Hastings is dying to clear the Hastings name. Banks wants to be a family man first and a lawman second. Olen just misses his wife and kids and his only companion is his dog.

The book had quite a few twists, some quite surprising. By the time I hit the 75% mark, I couldn't put it down and had no idea who the survivors would be by the end.

Kids, don't do meth! Four out of five stars.

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Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Half a King

Half a King (Shattered Sea, #1)Half a King by Joe Abercrombie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When his father and brother are killed, half-handed Yavri finds himself king. His reign is woefully short as he is betrayed and left for dead. After being rescued and sold into slavery, he plots his revenge...

I got this from Netgalley.

After the unbridled awesomeness of The First Law and its spinoffs, I was curious to see if Joe Abercrombie could tell a story set in another world. Turns out he can.

While Half a King is marketed as Young Adult (or Adults That Don't Enjoy Reading About Sex and/or Violence as Much as I Do, as I think of it these days), it's pretty grim at times. Yavri's life isn't easy and at no point did I feel like Yavri was working with a net, unlike a lot of YA protagonists. The story is low magic fantasy, possibly in our own world's far future. Descriptions are vague but I thought I caught references to radiation poisoning and concrete.

Half a King is a coming of age/hero's journey tale featuring Yavri, a prince with a withered hand. He's betrayed, swears vengeance, and goes about getting that vengeance he lusts for. The crew of misfits he assembles along the way help mold him into the man he needs to be to confront his uncle and take back the Black Chair. I loved those damn misfits, particularly Sumael and The Man Called Nothing, whom I hoped against hope was Logen Ninefingers despite this book not taking place in the First Law world. As with a lot of Abercrombie's supporting villains, Shadikshirram, wasn't all that vile and could have been a lead character under other circumstances.

The ending was full of surprises. There were revelations, deaths, and some surprising turns events. Abercrombie definitely proved to me that he wasn't a one trick pony with this one. Four out of five stars.

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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Relic of Death

Relic of DeathRelic of Death by David Bernstein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When their car breaks down, two hitmen find a safe in a cabin in the woods. Inside the safe is a briefcase full of diamonds and soon the hitmen are at odds. But is the briefcase more than a briefcase?

I got this from DarkFuse via Netgalley.

The DarkFuse novella series keeps barreling forward, mowing down all other novella series in its path. This entry, Relic of Death, is more crime than horror, centering around a tried and true crime fiction MacGuffin, the mysterious briefcase.

This particular briefcase, however, drives people to madness and death, appearing to contain what the possessor wants the most. I have to think that it may have been inspired by the mysterious briefcase from pulp fiction.

The Relic of Death travels from owner to owner, leaving blood and insanity in its wake. What more can you ask for in a mysterious briefcase? Four out of five stars.

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Big Maria

Big MariaBig Maria by Johnny Shaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When three men with nothing left to lose go looking for a lost gold mine in the Yuma Proving Grounds, they have no idea the forces they will be up against...

Johnny Shaw is quickly blazing his way up my list of favorite authors. Big Maria is the tale of three losers looking for their big score. Frank is an old man with cancer. Harry Schmittberger (guess what his nickname is) is a prison guard. And Ricky was a bus driver until he wrecked his bus and became the defendent in a couple dozen lawsuits. When the legend of the Big Maria Mine reaches Harry's ears, the three men join forces, forming a unit almost as capable as one regular man.

The supporting cast is also pretty good. Bernardo and Ramon, Frank's nephews, are hilarious and even I was afraid of Frank's domineering daughter Mercedes. Cooker, aka Worky, was as close to a villain to be found in the book but I eventually felt sorry for him. Poor Worky. The obstacles the trio encountered were well done and seemed fairly accurate since they were venturing into an inhospitable desert that was also a firing range.

Big Maria is one hilarious book. From the opening with Harry puking into his own pants while passed out on the toilet, I was hooked. As with Shaw's other books, Dove Season and Plaster City, the prose is peppered with hilarious lines. Unlike a lot of humorous crime books, this one doesn't lose its luster after fifty pages or so and the humor doesn't descend to a ridiculous level. It's a lot like a Joe Lansdale books and like Lansdale, I think it would be a blast to go to a barbeque at Johnny Shaw's house.

The ending was great. It wasn't all blowjobs and rainbows and I liked how things were resolved.

Like Shaw's other two books, Big Maria would make a great movie. Four out of five stars.


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Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Plaster City

Plaster CityPlaster City by Johnny Shaw
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Jimmy Veeder is living the straight life with Angie and Juan, apart from the occasional Mavescapade, when Bobby's sixteen year old daughter goes missing. Together, Jimmy and Bobby navigate a cesspool of gang members and underground girl fights. But is Julie still alive? Or does she even want saving?

Plaster City was part of the Kindle First program in April. And it is spectacular! There aren't many sequels that don't diminish the original but I'd say Plaster City is even better than Dove Season, the first Jimmy Veeder fiasco.

Plaster City sees Jimmy and Bobby go on another of their alcohol and testosterone fueld adventures, this time looking for Bobby's sixteen year old daughter, a girl he barely knows. There's plenty of action, humor, and general mayhem, much like the first book. Buck Buck and Snout come back, as do Gris, Angie, and both the elder Morales and his criminal grandson Tomas. In addition to that, we get to meet Bobby's ex Becky and his father. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree there.

Even more than in Dove Season, I can't help but notice the resemblance of Shaw's tales to those of Joe Lansdale, both in humor and violence. The interplay between Jimmy and Bobby had me chuckling out loud quite a few times. I can't emphasize enough how funny these Jimmy Veeder books are. Hilarious but never degenerating into outright nonsense.

As in the first book, the dynamic duo took a world class ass kicking, especially Bobby. The ending surprised me a bit since there was a character I suspected was introduced to do some kind of heroic sacrifice but I'm glad Shaw went his way with it.

If you're looking for action, laughs, and outright enjoyment, you'll be hard pressed to find another book this awesome. Five out of five stars. It's a contender for the best book I've read in 2014 so far.

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Dove Season

Dove SeasonDove Season by Johnny Shaw
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When he finds out his father has terminal cancer, Jimmy Veeder returns home for the first time in over a decade. His father has one last request: one last visit with a bar girl named Yolanda. Little does Jimmy know the shitstorm his is about to unleash...

Since Plaster City was part of the Kindle First program this month, I thought it was high time I read Johnny Shaw's first Jimmy Veeder novel, Dove Season, and I'm very glad I did.

Dove Season is a crime tale that feels like something Joe Lansdale would cook up after a night of bad Mexican food. It takes place in the poor communities on the California/Mexico border. Jimmy Veeder is a conflicted Slacker who returns home to spend what remaining time his father has left with the old man. Who knew crossing the border to track down a hooker would stir up so much trouble?

Shaw's dialogue reminds me of Joe Lansdale's; full of black humor and sounding authentically rural. I lost count of all the quotable lines. Jimmy and his best friend Bobby Maves drink and wisecrack their way through the Mexican underworld, getting their asses handed to them repeatedly.

The humor is tempered with some brutality and surprising plot twists. I'm not going to spoil anything but this is certainly a book where the main character doesn't leave the story in a mass of unicorns and rainbows.

The relationships between Jimmy and his friends and the depiction of small town rural life were what separated this story from other crime books for me. The way Bobby and the Buckley's helped Jimmy blunder through everything was awesome.

I guess it's harder than I thought to articulate all the things I liked about this book. Here's a line that I found particularly hilarious: "I feel like I just walked into a tampon ad. I love the shit out of her but it's time we put on our man pants."

4.5 out of 5 stars. Bring on Plaster City!



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Thursday, April 10, 2014

Deceiver

DeceiverDeceiver by Kelli Owen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A man's wife is murdered and he's understandably wrecked. When he finds a notebook in her luggage, he finds that his wife may not have been the person he thought she was...

I got this from Darkfuse via Netgalley.

Imagine you find evidence that your recently deceased spouse was a serial killer. That's the boat Matt Newman is in in Deceiver. He gradually slides from being the grieving husband to brimming with anger as he reads the entries in his deceased wife's notebook.

I've never read a Kelli Owen book before but she knows about building tension and conveying feelings of loss and anger like nobody's business. I sympathized with Matt at the various stages of his emotional journey.

The payoff at the end is pretty damn sweet. I don't have a bad thing to say about this book. It's an easy four star read.

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Savage

SavageSavage by Gary Fry
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A stodgy academic runs out of gas in a secluded English town, a town devoid of joy and dedicated to discipline. When the townsfolk ask him to treat an undisciplined man whom they say murdered four men, Daryl's life takes a dark turn...

I got this from Darkfuse via Netgalley.

I didn't really know what to think about this DarkFuse novella. It seems to be a story about the dangers of conformity and discipline gone wrong. Daryl lives a rational, disciplined lifestyle and ends up in a secluded village where the people make him look like John Belushi by comparison. But then reality seems to be breaking down at the village and things get really strange.

It was a creepy story but I'm not exactly sure what happened. I've had a great experience with DarkFuse so far but they can't all be home runs, I guess. Two out of five stars.

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Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Damoren

Damoren (Valducan, #1)Damoren by Seth Skorkowsky
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

*** in progress ***
When Matt Hollis, a lone demon hunter with a magical pistol, is approached to join the ancient order of Valducan knights, he warily accepts. Can the Valducans put aside their suspicions and accept Matt before they are overwhelmed by a demonic force bent on ridding the world of holy weapons?

I got this ARC from Ragnarok Publications, the fine folks responsible for the Dead West series.

Firstly, Damoren, a magical pistol with an equally magical bayonet attacked, was forged from a shattered magical sword, also called Damoren. Damoren's current wielder, Matt Hollis, is tainted by demon blood after a bullet fired by Damoren passed through a demon into him, giving him some cool abilities.

I really liked the mythology Skorkowsky established around the demons. Pretty much any monster you can think of was actually a human infected by a demon. Even dragons and vampires.

The story was pretty good. Matt has to overcome the mistrust of the rest of the Valducans and help them deal with a shit ton of demons. There's a lot of action and gore. Unfortunately, there's also a lot gun porn in this; long descriptions of weapons and lots of technical details.

Another thing I liked was the inclusion of excerpts from the Valducan's history interspersed with the regular chapters. Funny how I'm reading Carrie at the same time and it uses a similar technique.

It was a fun read and things got really tense in the last 20%. Since it's the first book in a series, I knew some people would live but if the first book is any indication, the story of the Valducan knights is going to be a bloody one with lots of casualties. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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Sunday, April 6, 2014

Wanna Cook?

Wanna Cook?: The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking BadWanna Cook?: The Complete, Unofficial Companion to Breaking Bad by Ensley F. Guffey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wanna Cook? is an episode guide for the exquisite television program, Breaking Bad.

I got this from Netgalley.

Wanna Cook is an episode by episode analysis of the rise and fall of one Walter White, cancer sufferer and meth cook. Each episode is picked apart, highlighting the milestones on Walt's rise and fall, as well as commentary on the actors and camera work. Some of the symbolism is also picked apart.

The writing is pretty good and I liked learning about the underlying philosophy of the show. I thought they may have read a little too much into some of the symbolism, however. The book made me want to watch Breaking Bad in its entirety once again. There were some clever insights and I enjoyed the trip down memory lane immensely but I'm not sure how necessary the book actually is in this day and age since there are probably thousands of websites out there dissecting Breaking Bad in great detail.

The only thing I thought may have been lacking in the book was that there were no "what might have been" sections. No mention was made that Jesse PInkman wasn't originally intended to survive the first season, for instance.

Wanna Cook is a good look back at a great TV show. I am on the one who knocks! Three out of five stars.

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Saturday, April 5, 2014

Night Terrors

Night Terrors (Shadow Watch, #1)Night Terrors by Tim Waggoner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Shadow Watch officers Audra Hawthorne and Mr. Jinx botch an arrest, they're taken off the case. But how can a psychotic nightmare clown and his creator stay away from a case that has both Earth and Nod hanging in the balance?

I got this from Netgalley and the chaps at Angry Robot.

The thing I've always disliked about the fantasy genre, both urban and epic, is that very few books attempt to break new ground. This one leaves the ground behind and heads into the Twilight Zone.

Night Terrors is the same old story about a burned out cop and her partner working on a case that they've been booted off of. Only the cop works for an organization called the Shadow Watch that keeps rogue nightmares from escaping Nod to the real world. And Jinx is a psychotic nightmare clown she created that is now her partner.

The concept reminds me of the Jack Kirby version of the Sandman, the red and yellow superhero who operated primarily in dreams, the precursor to Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Maybe you've heard of it?

There's very little infodumping so I had to piece things together as I went. I liked the idea of Ideators, people capable of making dreams real, and the Maelstrom and the people and gadgets that used it's power, like the M-gineers and M-blades and things.

The book reminded me of Simon Green's Nightside book at first, although with much less annoying lead characters. Audra is burned out from not being able to sleep due to being an Ideator, someone capable of bringing nightmares to life, and Jinx is a combination of Beetlejuice, The Mask, the Joker, and a great white shark.

The relationship between Audra and Jinx is one of my favorite parts of the book. Night Jinx is her loose cannon partner. Day Jinx is like a mother hen and makes Audra look like the loose cannon. It makes Night Terrors one of the most dysfunctional buddy cop stories in history.

Lots of crazy stuff happens in this one. When one of the protagonists is a demonic clown, you know the bad guys have to be pretty formidable, which they are. The ending is satisfying and also leaves the door open for further adventures of the Shadow Watch.

Four out of five stars.


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Thursday, April 3, 2014

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry AugustThe First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Harry August is a kalachakra, a man who is reborn at the same point in time over and over with his memories intact. When a little girl warns Harry on his eleventh death bed that the end of the world is coming sooner with each cycle, Harry goes on the offensive. Can he stop the end of the world, even with the help of the Cronus Club?

I got this from Netgalley.

I love a bit of timey-wimey and this book has it in spades. Remember the movie Groundhog Day where Bill Murray experiences the same day over and over? Now, imagine the day is a lifetime and there are other people experiencing it as well. That's pretty much the plot.

I'm going to get my gripe out of the way first. The book moves at a glacial pace, mostly due to the constant digressions. The publisher's blurb makes it sound like the world is in jeopardy immediately. Not so. I was 30% of the way through the book by the time the little girl showed up.

That being said, this is a very compelling book. It deals with classic time travel themes like not messing with the past and weighty topics like how our experiences make us who we are. Harry's not the most interesting character I've ever read about but he lives some interesting lives.

Once the little girl finally shows up to warn Harry during his eleventh life, everything is kicked up a notch and Harry's lives finally have a greater purpose. Harry being reborn as himself in the same point in history every time reminds me of reading the same Choose Your Own Adventure book over and over without being able to keep your thumb at the previous choice so you can go back. "Maybe if I run away at age six, everything will turn out okay..."

Kalachakras at the beginning of their life cycles handing off info to kalachakras at the end of theirs was a novel way of passing info back in time, even though the information could taint the timeline.

At the end of the day, I'm not really sure how to go about rating this. I loved the concepts and the writing was very good but Harry wasn't a very compelling lead. The endless digressions were a little annoying. I guess I'll give it the traditional safety rating of three stars.




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Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Doctor Who: A Handful of Stardust

Doctor Who: A Handful of Stardust (Time Trips)Doctor Who: A Handful of Stardust by Jake Arnott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The sixth Doctor and Peri get yanked back to the 16th century by John Dee. After a clash of egos, The Doctor discovers The Master is pulling Dee's strings. But what does The Master have planned involving a super nova in the constellation Cassiopeia? Can the Doctor stop his schemes? Of course he can! He's the Doctor!

I got this from Netgalley.

I must admit, this is the first Doctor Who story I've read that features a Doctor I'm unfamiliar with, in this case, the Sixth Doctor. Still, that did little to impede my enjoyment.

A Handful of Stardust features such diverse elements as witchcraft, incubii, John Dee, super novas, and The Master. It feels very much like a standalone episode of Doctor Who, complete with uncertainty and a little running away. Just when The Master appears to get the upper hand, The Doctor works that old magic and things are resolved before the closing credits roll.

The Time Trips continue to be entertaining bits of Whoviana. Three out of five stars.

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