A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark

April 5, 2019 By Leave a Comment


A Dead Djinn in Cairo by P. Djèlí Clark
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery, Paranormal, Action/Adventure, Historical
Length: Short Story (46 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Egypt, 1912. In an alternate Cairo infused with the otherworldly, the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities investigate disturbances between the mortal and the (possibly) divine. What starts off as an odd suicide case for Special Investigator Fatma el-Sha’arawi leads her through the city’s underbelly as she encounters rampaging ghouls, saucy assassins, clockwork angels, and plot that could unravel time itself, in P. Djèlí Clark’s Tor.Com Original, A Dead Djinn in Cairo.

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Fatma el-Sha’arawi was an incredible likeable character. Her wry sense of humour made me laugh out loud more than once, and her taste for adventure made me wonder what kind of mischief she’d get into next. She was the sort of person I’d want to have with me on any sort of trip that might have the slightest whiff of danger attached to it. I’d be much more likely to survive such things if Fatma was around!

It would have been helpful to have a bit more world building in general. The narrator made references to certain social customs and other things about the place where Fatma lived without fully explaining them to the audience. Since this doesn’t appear to be a later installment in a series and the narrator did explain the monsters in more detail, I do wish they’d done the same for the setting. It would have lead me to choose a five-star review if this had happened.

All of the dangerous creatures in this book were described in vivid detail. I knew what a djinn was already, but I hadn’t heard of the other monsters that Fatma ran across as she attempted to find out why a djinn had died. It was nice to have such a clear understanding of what kinds of beings this character was dealing with and why most other humans stayed far away from them.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo should be read by anyone who loves a little adventure in their science fiction.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main by Dennis Danvers

April 5, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main by Dennis Danvers
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (35 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

“Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main” by Dennis Danvers is a science-fiction novelette that follows Stan and his brother Ollie, children of alien (or crazy) parents who receive a mysterious postcard from their father, who with their mother, disappeared decades earlier into the “Abyss” in New Mexico.

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The sibling rivalry between Stan and Ollie was written well. They’d been raised in a pretty unusual household. Despite sharing genetics and those same childhood experiences, these characters couldn’t have turned out more differently as adults. Their sometimes-clashing lifestyles led to more than one scene that showed how these two brothers dealt with having a family member who was nothing at all like them. I enjoyed seeing how they reacted to each other, especially when one of them did or said something that the other found totally unfathomable.

It would have helpful if the plot had spent more time on the science fiction elements of it. They were definitely there, but they were written in ways that were a bit vague for my tastes at times. Since the characters spent so much time wondering about whether the adults in their lives had been truthful with them when they were growing up, I would have liked to see them give their audience a little more to go on while we were trying to figure out what was actually happening. Watching them break this pattern would have been quite satisfying, indeed.

The world building made me smile. There were just enough details about how this version of Earth worked that I knew it wasn’t the same universe I lived in. With that being said, I also enjoyed finding the many similarities between Stan and Ollie’s world and my own. It would be easy to live there for a while before realizing that something was off, and I was intrigued by the thought of two universes that could be that close to each other even thought I also wished for more information about the differences between them.

I’d recommend Orphan Pirates of the Spanish Main to anyone who has a complicated relationship with a sibling or other relative.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

King of Flames by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

April 4, 2019 By Leave a Comment


King of Flames by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
The Masks of Under 1
Publisher: Limitless Publishing
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Full length (256 pages)
Rating: 3.5 stars
Reviewed by Orchid

Everything about my life has been pretty normal working as a forensic autopsy technician. Until the day I woke up with a mysterious symbol tattooed on my arm.

Suddenly normal no longer existed. The barrier between Earth and a world called Under, dissolved…

Now I’m trapped with dozens of other people. Held prisoner by the creators of myths and legends, where the realm is ruled by two masked kings who want to turn us into creatures like them.
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But even though I didn’t choose to be here, this new world manages to pull me deeper, affecting me differently than other humans. Unfortunately King Edu, also known as the King of Flames, notices this and I’m now considered a threat.

If I want to survive King Edu and the dangers of Under, I need to escape. The only problem is, there’s another masked king who seems to have an interest in me. Aon, the King of Shadows, wants me here in this world, and he wants me alive.

I just need to figure out why.

Lydia is a forensic autopsy technician who wakes one morning with a tattoo on her arm that she has no recollection of having done. Things then go from bad to worse.

This is a paranormal horror story set in the world of Under. Beings similar to vampires, King Edu who reminded me of a huge troll except that he didn’t speak, shape changers, everything paranormal. The tattoo mysteriously disappears which apparently confuses the beings of Under as they believe it to be a mark that the human with the tattoo has been chosen by the Ancients. Aon visits Lydia in her dreams and he’s really nasty. The problem for Lydia is she believes both Aon and Edu will kill her but their ways are different and she doesn’t know which one will be hardest to endure.

I have to admit I didn’t understand the world-building in this book at all. There didn’t seem to be any thread linking the different scenes together or any point in the reason behind taking the humans. Perhaps a little more background to Under would have helped, but by the end of the book I was as confused as I was at the beginning. I also got confused by the many different characters who didn’t seem to be properly introduced into the story.

There are good points in the story, the scenes with Aon are very descriptive and send shivers down the spine. This book had good potential which didn’t quite come across.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Blood Vigilance by J.P. Bowie

April 4, 2019 By 1 Comment


Blood Vigilance by J.P. Bowie
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal
Length: Full length (150 pages)
Other: M/M, Anal Sex
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Moonflower

In a future Los Angeles, vampires are forced to protect themselves from roving gangs intent on ridding the city of the undead.

In the year 2038, vampires might have civil rights, but that doesn’t mean the population treats them with civility. Master Vampire Marcus Verano wants to put an end to the violence, but the charter they signed states that no human must be harmed in any confrontation.

After a time span of two months, the men were surveyed with regards to their sexual functionality and it was found out that out of 29 generic cialis online men, 8 men were said to have a quite normal sex life and the remaining had their problems reduced to a great extent. Using estrogen/progesterone pill is the most popular method used for birth control purpose are perceived as foreign bodies by your body and doesn’t assimilate them in its internal physiological functions, resulting in dysfunctions of various organs and the reproductive system as well. get viagra According to ayurveda, some herbs such as Tribulus to increase their muscle mass acquisition de viagra and strength. Some people have preference about tablet color, cheapest sildenafil size and other aesthetics. To that end, the Vigilance group is formed to patrol the streets of downtown Los Angeles and take care of trouble from roving street gangs before it escalates.

Ross Delaney, owner of popular downtown bar The Bitter Brew, comes to the aid of vampire Tristan Munro when he is attacked. Ross is intrigued by the vampire and asks him to return the following night—which he does…and many nights thereafter.

As a Vigilance member, Tristan is partnered with Leah, a fiery red-haired female who resents being subjugated by humans—and male vampires. It isn’t long before she rebels against the Vigilance and seeks vengeance on humans, holding Ross hostage and defying Marcus and Tristan.

Can she be stopped, or will her actions destroy the Vigilance…and the growing relationship between Ross and Tristan?

In a world where vampires exist, you would imagine they are at the top of the food chain. In Blood Vigilance though, it is the opposite. Humans know vampires exist, but vampires are under strict conditions and laws to ensure they are ‘harmless’… inasmuch as a vampire can be. This puts them at a serious disadvantage from angry and violent humans who disapprove of their differences!

This is a book in a series (which I was unaware of when I started reading it) and as such, it did have a slight impact upon my enjoyment of the story. It’s not so much the couples who are already together, but the stories and the situations mentioned that failed to have much meaning to me. I would recommend you read this as a series, rather than a standalone.

However, saying that, I thoroughly enjoyed the world-building, and the fantastic set of characters that either starred, or were supporting members, of this story. The pacing was smooth, with tension in all the right places. I noticed no editing or grammatical errors, and found this book to be an intriguing piece of work from beginning to end. Definitely recommended by me.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The Pigeon Summer by Brit Mandelo

April 3, 2019 By Leave a Comment


The Pigeon Summer by Brit Mandelo
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (25 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Talking to ghosts has its dangers — and its rewards.

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I liked the fact that the characters in this tale were only identified by the initials of their first name. For example, the protagonist was J. and hir best friend was called C. Only having that one initial to identify these characters by made me pay close attention to every detail about their lives to see what clues I could discover about who they were and what their personalities were like. Knowing less about them than I normally might was a great incentive to come up with my own theories about all of the things the narrator didn’t say about them, so I’m glad this was written this way.

It would have been helpful to have more dialogue, either internal or external. Since J. was the only living human character, hir was the only one who could keep the plot chugging along when it wanted to slow down. I totally understood why J. didn’t want to speak at all in certain scenes, but it would have been nice for hir to give the audience just a few more clues about what was going on. If not for this, I would have chosen a perfect rating.

The paranormal elements of the plot were handled beautifully. This was no simple haunting, and scaring the audience definitely wasn’t the point of J.’s ghostly encounters. While I can’t say what the purpose of this plot line was without giving away spoilers, I will say that I loved it’s refreshing take on the afterlife and on the many different ways a person can be haunted.

I’d recommend The Pigeon Summer to anyone who is in the mood for a paranormal story that isn’t frightening in the least.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Request for Lambency by Ileso DMC

April 1, 2019 By Leave a Comment


The Request for Lambency by Ileso DMC
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Full length (330 pages)
Age Recommendation: 16+
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

The entire world, set in the near future, has changed since the discovery of these ‘requests.’ New businesses and services are created to capture this significant moment after death. All religions are forced to translate what this peaceful, yet unusual occurrence means with the consensus being that their supreme being is allowing one sentimental object to be taken into their afterlife. Social media erupts with new apps to track these request videos as the global public has an addiction to them. Powa is a teenager who partially uploads a request video that creates a social media frenzy. She successfully leaves summer school to escape her pursuers who happen to be an aggressive corporation that is grossly invested in the well-being of the human body. To make matters worse, a government agency whose assignment is to authenticate all request videos, services, and businesses is demanding to view that video in its entirety. Unable to determine friend from foe, she confides in an unacquainted classmate who convinces her to take a journey from her hometown to San Diego’s Comic-Con as they pick up his slightly unusual friends along the way. Along the way, they learn of other cruel measures companies are willing to invest in having their device be the object of ‘the request.’ They soon discovered that to be more difficult than they had anticipated. Only one corporation was the exception to this rule. They believe the final piece to the puzzle lies with Powa even though she is convinced other celestial forces are at play.

The Request for Lambency is an inventive and unpredictable story focused on a young lady and her “nerdy” acquaintances and their adventures. As they find themselves in a great deal of trouble, it is sometimes difficult to know who to trust.
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Each of these characters is well-written and unique. Readers can clearly hear their individual and quirky voices. There is levity throughout the story—not an easy task, given the seriousness of the situation.

At times the story is silly and youthful, with young humor—as it could have in a YA story—and at other times, the ticking clock makes for a suspenseful mood. Things escalate, and readers will worry about the protagonists, for they are going up against a profound threat.

The setting is detailed, and readers are brought into this fictional world, but they also get a taste of the real Comic-Con world and its not so awesome darker side.

The Sci-Fi aspect was written with a talented hand, and it overlapped with the mystical seamlessly.

This is a good story for those who like YA and the unusual.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss

March 28, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss
Publisher: Tor Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Historical
Length: Short Story (35 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss is a dark fantasy about a kitchen girl obsessed with fairy tales, who upon discovering a ragged woman outside the castle during a storm, takes her in–certain she’s a princess in disguise.

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Klara was such a brave and good girl. She’d lived a hard life, and she hadn’t always been treated kindly by the people who looked after her after her mother died. The fact that she remained so sweet and trusting despite her rough start only made me like her more than I already did.

One part of the plot never quite made sense to me. It involved how a punishment was dealt out at the castle where Klara worked. I expected the baron who lived there would behave one way, so when his reaction was completely different from that I was surprised. It would have been helpful to have more information about why he made that choice and why it didn’t seem to match what the readers knew about him.

There was a twist in the storyline that I thought was well done. Klara didn’t see it coming, and I was so wrapped up in her innocent approach to life that I nearly missed it as well. This only made it more interesting to explore once I realized that she didn’t have the full picture of what was going on at her place of employment. It was exciting to see if my last-minute predictions about this plot point were correct and what would happen to the characters next.

Red as Blood and White as Bone should be read by anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to live in a fairy tale.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , ,

Dark Lands: Requiem by Lyn Kelly

March 25, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Dark Lands: Requiem by Lyn Kelly
Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
Genre: YA, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Length: Full Length (216 pages)
Age Recommendation: 16+
Rating: 4 stars
Reviewed by Lavender

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This is a YA Fantasy story with a setting that has appealed to people for untold ages: the afterlife. It is told through the eyes of a sensitive and brave young man—Webb—and his younger sister—Sundown. These two are engaging characters who steal the heart. Their support team contains a variety of interesting characters, ranging from cranky teachers to loving family members who have passed away, those who would be their friends, and even a giant, purring house cat and mystical horses. The villains are equally interesting and quite a threat. Could some of the nice people actually be up to something though?

The world is well written, with its beauties and terrifying dangers. Even in this world, filled with those who have crossed over, worse things than death could happen and threaten to on a daily basis. The good parts of this realm are magical, and the author has done well completing a multi-faceted place.

Continual suspense and questions yet to be answered wrap themselves around the adventure. Readers get some of those answers in this first part—more is to come! When this part of the story is over, readers are likely to want to pick up the second. What is to become of Webb and Sundown? Where did their Uncle go, and how did the siblings die?

This is an enjoyable, coming of age…of sorts…story. The likable Webb and Sundown discover more about themselves, their weaknesses and their latent talents, giving a dreamlike touch to the whole tale.

Filed Under: Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy, YA/Middle Grade/Children's Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Awakening by Bethany Adams

March 21, 2019 By Leave a Comment


Awakening by Bethany Adams
The Return of the Elves – Book 6
Publisher: AW Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery
Length: Full length (367 pages)
Heat Level: Sensual
Rating: 5 stars
Reviewed by Orchid

An unexpected duty

For three hundred years, Princess Dria has avoided the drama of the royal court by training as a battle mage. When her father summons her back to court just as she begins to rise up the ranks, she’s furious. Even worse, she must work with her estranged brother Ralan on a mission to Earth. But as soon as Dria arrives at Moranaia’s new outpost, her brother drops the leadership of the entire place into her hands. Now she’s in charge of fortifying a new outpost on a planet she’s never even visited.

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Prince Vek of the Unseelie has spent millennia as his father’s enforcer, working in the shadows to eliminate evil, but after sparing his nephew Fen from the king’s judgement, Vek must tread carefully. One false move, and he will lose the king’s trust—and Fen’s life. But when the king gives Vek a new, more sinister task, Fen becomes the least of his worries. The Moranaians have a new colony on Earth, and King Torek wants the energy source that’s contained within. Vek must retrieve that power—even if he has to kill the Moranaian leader to get it.

A threat unknown

From the moment she catches Vek sneaking into the cavern, Dria knows the truth—the dark and mysterious prince is her soulbonded. But she’s certain he’s up to no good, and although she’s drawn to him, there is no way she can trust him. His reputation, and that of the Unseelie in general, precedes him. Unfortunately, more than desire is awakening. As they dance around their budding attraction, Dria and Vek uncover a deathly illness lurking among the fae—and a sinister plot that will damage both their worlds.

The Fae have opened a new portal to Earth and it must be protected by mages and warriors. Princess Dria is given the task of being in charge of the portal and those protecting it. This brings problems, both personal and work wise, but the discovery of her soulbonded upsets her emotions, especially as she’s an elf and he’s an Unseelie blood elf.

This book and the rest of the series takes the Fae realms to another level. Even royalty in these realms are expected to use their magic for the good of their people. The different realms each have their own agenda, but various individuals unwittingly bring the Fae closer together.

The characters of this book tugged at the emotions in various ways. Like, dislike, pity, annoyance. Depends on the individual. For instance Vex, Dria’s soulbonded, has a reputation for being nasty and he definitely appears that way, but deep down he’s only doing what’s best for his people and his love for Dria also softens him. Add to this the different magic of each person and you have a book where you never know what’s going to happen next.

This is definitely a ‘can’t put it down’ type of book with plot twists at every chapter. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

Filed Under: Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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