Details

Written by Emma Engel

This the first of weekly “reviews” of favorite authors. These are people I highly recommend and someday hope to publish reviews of all their books. However, logistically, that’s going to take a while since they’ve been writing since before I’ve been blogging.
In my college Shakespeare class the professor summed up the Complete Works by saying she liked her least favorite Shakespeare play a lot more than most of the other plays out there. That’s how I feel about books by Timothy Zahn. My least favorite of his novels ranks higher on my list than most other science fiction novels. And to be honest, if it were another author’s book, I’d probably put them on my favorite authors list immediately. In the myriad of books Mr. Zahn has written though, a few are bound to get lost in the brilliance of the collective whole.
I’ve read through all but five of Mr. Zahn’s books and with the exception of language content in a few that would raise the rating to PG-13, I can recommend them without reservation. And for anyone over eighteen who enjoys science fiction, I do whole heartedly recommend grabbing whatever your library has on the shelves.

Details

Written by Emma Engel

Publisher’s blurb:
Why did Robin Laughlin (aka. Failstate) think being a superhero on a reality show would be a good idea again? Things seemed so simple: win the show, become an official, licensed hero. But with his brother, Ben (aka. Gauntlet) stealing America’s heart and his own powers proving too unwieldy even for the monitored studio challenges, Robin begins to wonder if his calling isn’t to save the world after all.
Until one of his competitors is murdered.
Vowing to find the killer, Robin sets out on a very real quest to unmask the hidden villain. Can Robin find justice? Or will his lunk of a big brother ruin everything?
I’m starting to think of Marcher Lord Press the same way I think of Pixar Studios. I remind myself each time I pick up their newest book that sometime some book has to fall short of the high standards of its predecessors. And then I walk away stunned that somehow the new book has knocked expectations out of the park. Failstate has definitely raised the bar for future releases.

Details

Written by Emma Engel

After having gone out of my way to acquire the Casual Vacancy on release day and then reading it in 24 hours just to be able to have a review up within a timely fashion, I find myself at a loss for what to say. I think a reread and some serious thought might enable me to write a thorough review of it, but for the moment, I merely wanted to give some first thoughts and basic impressions.

Details

Written by Emma Engel

I am not a zombie person. I’ve watched no more than half an hour of a zombie movie. I skimmed Pride  and Prejudice and Zombies. And it’s not completely because I find the subject disturbing. (The previews for I am Legend , which I’m assuming was zombie based, did make me a bit queasy.) Mostly, I’ve never gotten why zombies have such a…well, fan following. I can grasp how the mystique of Dracula drew people in. I can understand the fascination of shape shifting. But zombie stories have always seemed rather flat and one-dimensional. Dead people tend not to have much in the way of emotional conflict or personal growth, and the living peoples’ jobs seemed to be run and die.
Then I read Feed.

Details

Written by Emma Engel

Once every few hundred books or so, you find a book you love to recommend because you absolutely hated it.  Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis fits that bill. When I read the back blurb, I found myself expecting a cross between Carrie Vaughn’s After the Golden Age and the new Captain America movie. Nazi supermen against English warlocks sounds like the sort of smack down we discussed over the cafeteria table in college.  But this book lacked the light hearted tone and uplifting principles of both those stories and instead it draws the reader ever more steadily into a tale of sweat, blood, evil, and death.
So why would I recommend this book?