Category: Fiction Reviews

Book review — Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse by Alex Newton

Posted on by char

Disclaimer: While the author and I are Twitter acquaintances, I did not receive compensation for reviewing this book, nor did I receive a free copy for review.

This review was first published on my blog. The link to the original review is here.

This book is available from Amazon in both ebook and print formats.

Amazon blurb:

Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse is an introductory guide to emergency and disaster planning and preparation.

This book follows Bill Jones and his family as they navigate their way through a series of emergency and disaster events, culminating in the outbreak of a Zombie Apocalypse.

Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse walks the reader through basic planning and preparation techniques and attempts to answer most of the more basic questions before they are asked. Areas that are often overlooked by beginners are explored, and some of the more common misconceptions are discussed.

This book does not claim to be a survival handbook, so if you’re looking for a how-to book about how to become Survivorman(TM), you’re reading the wrong book.

Also, note that Plan and Prep: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse isn’t actually about zombies–not the Hollywood kind, anyway. It does include zombies, but not the undead-eat-your-brains version that are currently prevalent in movies and TV.

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Book Review: Starters, By Lissa Price

Posted on by anninyn

[1. Review copy provided by Random House Childrens Books]

Callie lost her parents when the Spore Wars wiped out everyone between the ages of twenty and sixty. She and her little brother, Tyler, go on the run, living as squatters with their friend Michael and fighting off renegades who would kill them for a cookie. Callie’s only hope is Prime Destinations, a disturbing place in Beverly Hills run by a mysterious figure known as the Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to Enders—seniors who want to be young again. Callie, desperate for the money that will keep her, Tyler, and Michael alive, agrees to be a donor. But the neurochip they place in Callie’s head malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, and going out with a senator’s grandson.

It feels almost like a fairy tale, until Callie discovers that her renter intends to do more than party—and that Prime Destinations’ plans are more evil than Callie could ever have imagined. . . .

Starters is a great YA. The story is complex (though not too complex) the characters believable and likeable, and the dystopia shown in the work is disturbing.

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Book Review: The Last Night, by Nico Rosso

Posted on by anninyn

[1. Review copy provided by Carina Press]

After a chain of earthquakes ravaged the globe, long-dormant viruses were released into the air, turning many humans into creatures with an appetite for human ashes. Erica and a group of survivors are barricaded in a half-destroyed hotel, and every day brings them closer to being devoured by the seemingly unstoppable ashers.

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Even though Erica is a fighter, she’s tired of just surviving…

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When a mysterious stranger rides into town, everything changes. Jake knows how to kill the ashers, and he’s the only man brave enough to leave the safety of the hotel in search of a better life. Erica and Jake make a deadly fighting team, with even hotter sparks flying between them. But Jake has survived this long because he rides alone. He doesn’t trust easily, especially in this harsh new reality. Can Erica convince Jake that living is more than just surviving to the next day?

I’ve tried to write post-apocalyptic erotic romance before. Despite the fact this is the second in the genre I’ve reviewed, there’s a huge gap there. I’d personally like to read more of it, and because I believe in writing what I’d like to read, I made the attempt.

I wasn’t very good at it. It turns out, I am not good at writing desire and sex. I am extraordinarily good at writing people having awkward romantic feelings for each other that sort-of maybe get kinda fulfilled towards the end, but I cannot write erotica. Because of that, I am always pleased to read the good stuff.

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Book review: An A-to-Z Guide to Biblical Prophecy and the End Times

Posted on by char

Publisher’s blurb:[1. Review copy provided by Zondervan]

This dictionary is a comprehensive reference tool designed to assist everyday people in understanding biblical prophecy. Based on solid scholarship, it contains clear and readable entries on a broad sweep of topics relevant to biblical prophecy, providing insight to complicated subjects in a balanced fashion.

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It shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that I like the apocalypse. (Ha.) I research it, I read novels about it, I watch movies about it, I poke fun at conspiracies about it, blah blah blah. So it’s probably not surprising to learn that I’ve long been interested in Christian eschatology. After all, the Bible has some wicked imagery about the end of the world. (Seriously, those four horsemen?

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Awesome.)

Anyway. I came across this book on NetGalley, and being a book entirely about a topic I’m ridiculously interested in, I requested it. (And got it. Yay!)

When they say this book is a guide, they’re misleading you. No, this book isn’t a guide; it’s an encyclopedia. There’s nothing wrong with encyclopedias–I’ve been known to read them for fun.

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My point is, this book is one of the most comprehensive resources on biblical eschatology that I’ve ever come across.

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Book review: Resonance by AJ Scudiere

Posted on by char

Blurb:[1. Review copy provided by Griffyn Ink]

THE SHIFT IS COMING. SOON.

Dr. David Carter knows this. However, he’s a geologist, so ’soon’ means anywhere from tomorrow to a thousand years from now.

PEOPLE ARE DYING. NOW.

Drs. Jordan Abellard and Jillian Brookwood are standing at the edge of SuperAIDS.

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Or are they? They won’t be able to figure it out if they can’t get some authorization signed – and soon. But they’re peons and no one is paying attention. That means no one will notice a little forgery either, right?

WHOLE SPECIES DIED AT THE LAST POLAR SHIFT. 65 MILLION YEARS AGO.

Right now Dr. Becky Sorenson has some seriously mutated frogs in her lab. In L.A. Bees are making abnormal columns on the side of the freeways. In Georgia, birds are migrating out of season. It all makes a sick kind of sense when the doctors consider that the last magnetic shift is strangely coincidental to the dinosaur die-out. And the only similarity among the problems today is that each is occurring in a ‘hotspot’ – a pocket of reversed polarity that tells them all.

THE SHIFT IS ALREADY HERE.

I’ll come right out and say it: I really, really wanted to like this book. Regardless of whether or not a catastrophe of this magnitude could be caused by a pole shift, the concept is intriguing.

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Book Review: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

Posted on by anninyn

[1. Robopocalypse was provided for review by Simon & Schuster]

Twenty years from now, a high-level artificial intelligence known as Archos comes on-line…and murders its creator.

Humanity has no idea when it starts to silently take over our cars, power grids, aircraft guidance systems and computer networks.

In the early months, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of humans, but most of us are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

At a moment known later in history as Zero Hour, every mechanical device in our world rebels against us, setting off the Robot War that both decimates and – for the first time in history – unites humankind.

Something I’ve had to learn with my increasing review schedule is this: Just because a book is good doesn’t mean I’ll like it, and just because I like a book doesn’t mean it’s good.

I like this book a lot. But, objectively speaking, it’s not that good. It’s action-y brain candy, and there is nothing wrong with that.

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Book review: Zia's Path by David W. Small and Debra L. Martin

Posted on by char

Amazon blurb:[1. Review copy provided by authors]

In this novelette featuring crippled teenager, Abraham “Ham” Jones, and his tomboy partner, Zia Slate, the stakes are even higher. They have agreed to accept the memory weapons from their new guardian, Henry Lloyd, but with the power of the weapons comes the responsibility to follow “the right path.” It’s suppose to be simple: help one person at a time, but nothing in this harsh world is ever simple. It’s a dog-eat-dog world where food is scarce and gangs rule the street.

When Ham decides to go into the worst gang-ridden area of the city to save a little girl, Zia doesn’t think it’s a good idea. It’s too dangerous, but eventually she agrees and the two set off in search of the girl. When Zia goes off to scout ahead, Ham’s worst nightmare comes true. Zia is snatched by slavers. Can Ham find out where she has been taken and mount a defense to save her in two days before she is sold as a sex slave?

This was a pretty fun book. Zia’s Path is the third book in the Dark Future series, and while I’ve not read the first two books, I didn’t have much of a problem figuring out what was going on. (I may have to get the other two though, just to complete the story arc.)

The book is short, only about 50 pages or so. The length isn’t much of a detriment (though I’m sure reading the first two would’ve helped), and the story actually moves at a pretty fast clip.

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Comic Review: 30 Days of Night #1

Posted on by tavia.

30 Days of Night #1 (of 3)

Part 1 of 3. The story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon.

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As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town’s husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction

At first I didn’t like the look of 30 days of Night. It was dark and smudgey like it had been drawn in a hurry and someone was trying to hide something.

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Then, like a Monet, I found the ambiguity beautiful. It was a part of the story, the setting, and the feeling imparted by not knowing exactly what that thing might be. Continue reading “Comic Review: 30 Days of Night #1”

Fiction Review: Wormwood, by D.H. Nevins

Posted on by anninyn

[1. Wormwood was provided for review by Black Wraith Books]

In the post-apocalyptic paranormal thriller, Wormwood by D. H. Nevins, the Earth has been decimated by a legion of half-angels. But while most of these creatures are bent on sending all humans to their final resting place, one, Tiamat, is tormented by the tasks he is called upon to do. When he rescues a woman named Kali, both their lives change forever. Kept alive by the grace of Tiamat, Kali defies him by trying to save as many of the human survivors as she can. The attraction between them is irresistible, but can Kali trust one of the half-angels who has sworn to destroy her world and everyone in it? And can Tiamat justify helping one of the very people he is meant to kill? The more he tries to keep Kali safe, the more his own life is in danger. As Kali struggles to find a way to survive in the Earth’s vast, devastated landscape, she finds herself plagued by the half-angels hell bent on her destruction. Forced to trust Tiamat, the one being who could prove to be her greatest enemy, she walks a thin line between life and death.

 

Grade: B-

Wormwood is a curious book. I enjoyed it a great deal, but a few unignorable flaws stopped it from being an A grade for me.

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