January
Aloha from Hell
Ocean at the End of the Lane
Specter: A Zoe Martinique Investigation
Double Dead
Jack and Jill
February
Hero
Night Film
March
The Devil Said Bang
The Shinning
Doctor Sleep
Spellwright
Kill City Blues
April
Two Steps from Hell
Emperor's Edge
Blackbirds
Brain Eater Jones
Shadow Ops:Breach Zone
The Goblin Market
UGLY AS SIN, by James Newman, easily takes the spot of my favorite February read. Second place goes to CRAWLSPACE, by Evans Light, and then Richard Kadrey's KILL THE DEAD.
Honorable mentions: Isaac Marion's WARM BODIES, Charles Martin's WHEN CRICKETS CRY, and new-to-me author Gregory Xane's SIX DEAD SPOTS.
Unfortunately, February also saw to it that I added three DNFs to 2014. SAVANT, by Chris Martinez pissed me off because the author lied to me, saying his book had horror elements just so I would add it to my TBR. Brandon Sanderson's STEELHEART severely disappointed me, to the point I wanted to thug-punch an infant. And finally, the waste of paper that is COFFIN COUNTY.
I read 17 books last month (well, 12 novels and 5 novellas), far surpassing my previous record of 9 books in a single month.
Starting this month (March) I will be tackling longer novels, Come April, I won't be reading anything under 500 pages. If I can keep up this pace, I should be on track to destroy my goal of 52 books in 52 weeks. Wish me luck.
Oh, sweet baby Tom Cruise, this was a good a book. I’m not going to give you a rundown of what the book was about. The synopsis on the book does a good enough job of that without me messing it up. If you want me to do this for future books, please, feel free to tell me in the comments section.
Let’s start with what I did like about this book. Everything that happens not only serves the story but is interconnected. Everything is then neatly wrapped up at the end with a pretty little bow on top. The characters are well fleshed out. The protagonist comes off as a bit of a dick at first but as I got to know him and understand his motivations I was able to connect with him, and wanted to see him succeed. The story took me in all kinds of different places. It led me by the hand to a bunch of conclusions that may or may not be what happened. I want to go into more depth about this but there would be spoilers. I’m not going to go there. If you have read it, I would love to hear your thoughts on what happened during the book and after the curtain closed.
A fun little side note: The object of the protagonist’s obsession is a director named Cordova. He is a mysterious guy that claims to have a sensitivity to light that requires him to wear dark sunglasses at all times. I know a guy whose name is Cordova, and also claims to need sunglasses due to light sensitivity. Life is indeed stranger than fiction, or, in this case, just as strange.
On to what I didn’t like. Umm… give me a second here. I’m thinking. OK, I got nothing. Chalk it up to my inexperience writing reviews but I couldn’t find anything to complain about. The plot was tight, the writing was amazing, (without being all flowery and pretentious) and I just loved every minute of it.
January
Aloha from Hell
Ocean at the End of the Lane
Specter: A Zoe Martinique Investigation
Double Dead
Jack and Jill
February
Hero
Night Film
March
The Devil Said Bang
The Shinning
Doctor Sleep
Spellwright
April
Two Steps from Hell
Emperor's Edge
Blackbirds
Brain Eater Jones
Shadow Ops:Breach Zone
The Goblin Market
January
Aloha from Hell
Ocean at the End of the Lane
Specter: A Zoe Martinique Investigation
Double Dead
Jack and Jill
February
Hero
Night Film
March
The Devil Said Bang
The Shinning
Doctor Sleep
Spellwright
April
Two Steps from Hell
Emperor's Edge
Blackbirds
Brain Eater Jones
Shadow Ops:Breach Zone
The Goblin Market
I have pledged to read and listen to 52 books this year. I'm off to a great start with three audio books down so far.
Sandman Slim: Aloha from Hell
Ocean at the End of the Lane
Spectre: A Zoe Martinique Investigation
I will post review of these and all the rest as I finish them.
A guy named Ben Coleman, a Navy vet, wrote a short story titled Firing Train. The story is part of a collection called Carry the Colors. I will talk some on the collection after the story review.
Firing Train is a story of a Marine EOD(Explosive Ordinance Disposal) specialist on a distant planet doing his job in the midst of an alien invasion. I'll stop there. It is a short story and anything more would be a spoiler.
I enjoyed this story. The protagonist was well developed considering the short time we spend with him. Ben Coleman's own military experience really help to make this story feel authentic. The lingo and interaction between the military persons make me long for the days when I doned a uniform. Overall a good story in an interesting setting. I recommend you give it a read though and decide for yourself.
Now on to the Carrey the Colors project.
What is it you ask? Well I'm glad you did. So Ben is looking for veteran patrons. These former, active, or reserve service members will become immortalized in fiction. Ben has combined a futuristic off world setting with actual historical battles and a real life war hero or two. The patron will be featured performing the job they did or do in the service. So it's not just about a grunt and his rifle on the battle fied. It could be a cook or a radio operator. How he/she impacts the war and how he/she is in turn affected.
There are books for each branch of service featuring the heroic acts of real life men and women. I think it's a great project worthy of attention. To top it off Ben has decided to donate a book to an injured service member for every book sold. That's awesome. I suggest you go to Ben's site and see what he has to say about it.
http://www.malandanti.net/carry-the-colors-its-an-intro/
This is the first book I've read twice. I never read a book or watch a movie more than once. They always lose the emotional impact that made me like it the first time around. David, the protagonist, is the reason for me liking this book so much. Not only did he grow as a character but he grew on me. I related to him like I have no other fictional character. Even when I knew he was wrong I could help but to root for him.
Not only was there an awesome protagonist, but the supporting characters made for good reading as well. They were well fleshed out and felt like they could walk off the page and into a novel of their own.
As for the antagonists, well, super powered beings that knew they were the top of the food chain. How in the name of all that is good is a normal guy supposed to fight people that can fly, shoot energy bolts, or do any number of crazy magical looking things. And let's not forget that the most powerful bad guys, Epics they are called, are probably going to be invulnerable.
Bottom line, if you like super heroes/villains, and fast paced action, then you need to give this one a chance.