Cliff Hanger Endings, a Fan’s opinion
I just finished a book, the 2nd in a trilogy, that ended in a nasty cliff hanger so have to vent now .. I honestly feel that cliff hangers for any books are unnecessary and show either poor planning on the author’s part or an indifference to their fan’s feelings.
Some authors use cliff hangers as a way to hook a reader into buying their next book, but if the book isn’t good enough to warrant the purchase of a sequel, then a cliff hanger isn’t going to help. If a fan is on the fence about a book and unsure if they want to read the next one when it comes out, most of the time I image, a cliff hanger pushes them into deciding against getting the next one, or maybe that is just me? Because cliff hangers are just annoying and the annoyance usu…
The Empress’ Spy series (Review)
A sub-series in the Kurtherian Gambit Universe that was originally created by Michael Anderle.
The Empress’ Spy series is written by new comer, author S.E. Weir and consists of 4 books.
For those of you that haven’t read any of the Kurtherian books before this, it can be read as a stand-alone series. An enjoyable science fiction, coming of age story of a young human girl born and raised on a space station finding her path in life. You’ll meet aliens and visit alien planets, you will learn how humanity has moved out into the wider galaxy and how they live, love and handle adversity.
For those of you that have read at least the Kurtherian Gambit series all four books take place during part of the same time period as #18, Might Makes Right of …
A Sharpened Axe by Jill M. Beene (Review)
This is a stand-alone retailing of Beauty and the Beast, but it’s not really, a retelling…..
What it is, is a unique fantasy world and characters that is a must read for any fantasy reader. It is a clean YA fantasy but with much better character development then most YA’s. The world building is a bit lite but deep enough to satisfy most adult readers.
The setting for the book is a Medieval type of world which a Fairy Princess cursed a long time ago. Every year girls are required to attend the “Choosing” where one girl will probably die, the one that falls in love with the Prince and the Prince with her, but it must be true love and the curse will know if it is true love and if it isn’t, she will die.
There are many problems caused by the cu…
A Deadly Education (Scholomance 1) by Naomi Novik (Review)
A Deadly Education is the first book in a new series by Naomi Novik, the second book is already scheduled for July 2021.
I highly recommend this book to YA’s, teens and adults that like magic and magical school stories, just don’t expect this book to be like what everyone else is writing.
There is no lingering looks and sighs or thoughts about Hot boys and girls, the students at the Scholomance are too busy trying to stay alive. This school is unlike any of the other schools that I’ve read, too. There are no teachers, no administrators, no adults period. The students have to do the cleaning and maintenance work themselves.
“We’re not meant to all survive, anyway. The school has to be fed somehow.” – from A Deadly Education
El the Heroine and…
Spells for the Dead by Faith Hunter (Review)
Spells for the Dead is the 5th book in Faith Hunter's Soulwood series and is a great addition to the series. The protagonist, Nell Ingram, a rookie PsyLED agent, continues to grow and to shake off the polygamy cult she was born into. She matures as both a PsyLED agent and as an adult woman coming to terms with both the wider world, her powers with the land and herself as a woman. She continues to help her sisters that share the same power as she does both in adapting to the world outside of the cult and in coming to terms with their abilities.
This series is dark fantasy and deals with mature themes but yet no gratuitous violence or sex, just a well written and enthralling tale with both good world building, character development and an…
The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal (Review)
The Relentless Moon: A Lady Astronaut Novel by Mary Robinette Kowal is a new release as of July 14th and the third complete novel in the Lady Astronaut series. The Relentless Moon is told from the POV of a different Lady Astronaut, Nicole Wargin the wife of Kansas Governor Wargin. Through this book Nicole's character is fleshed out beyond the socialite politician's wife that she was presented as in the previous books.
The Relentless Moon takes place mostly with the Moon Colony and the people that are building the Lunar habitats for Earth refugees and is set during the same time as the previous novel The Fated Sky (Lady Astronaut 2) (2018) but starts after the Mars mission has launched. The main theme of this novel is how the Lunar colonists…
“Sunshine” by Robin McKinley (Review)
I’ve looked at Sunshine off and on for a few years, but I always let myself be put off by some of the negative reviews. I had absolutely nothing of interest to read the other day so was perusing the library’s ebook selection and saw “Sunshine” listed, so I checked it out, downloaded it and immediately started to read it.
I was hooked, it really is a terrific book, but I can see why it has such mixed reviews as it won’t appeal to everyone that likes supernatural / paranormal / urban fantasy books. It is very much a character driven novel, not an action-packed light read, most of the plot takes place inside of Rae aka Sunshine’s head. There isn’t non stop action, there isn’t a sensual sexy vampire, there isn’t hot and heavy romance or lust, t…
Major Milestone completed
Ahh, finally completed all of the current author pages to the new format! Feel like I've achieved a major step. It will be sooo much easier now to keep to the new format as I post new Author pages.
One thing I've been trying to decide if I should add the sort key magic words to each of the authors pages so they will sort by Last name? they will still display the same though, which is why I haven't been able to make up my mind.
If you have an opinion, please post it and I will take that into consideration. :)
Urban Fantasy
When I first discovered Urban Fantasy as a Young Adult (read teenager) I thought it was just the greatest Genre ever devised (read clueless). As a New Adult I soon realized that they were just about all the same, ok don't be a troll, I know there are vast differences but still the plots are pretty thin and predicable.
There are a few Urban Fantasy series that I still read the latest, long established series, too. A couple of them it is obvious that the author painted themselves into a corner and didn't know where to go, so they went off the rails! Seriously, off the rails as in Train wreck.
Unlike a lot of fans I really don't mind "more of the same" types of books in series that are well written and that I get enjoyment out. There is usua…
Genres and Categories
As I am assigning Genre categories to Authors, Series and Books many are leaving me stumped as how to define them. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing but it made me realize that many of the new authors, especially the Indy Authors aren't forcing their stories into a pre-defined scenario or making them fit into an established "official" genre. Who decided that Fantasy had certain sub-genre's and Science Fiction had those sub-genre's?
I could play it safe and assign everything to either Science Fiction or Fantasy but then that would defeat the purpose of what we are trying to achieve. Of course there are now many cross overs that are a combination of both Science Fiction and Fantasy with Witches and Mages in outerspace or human's …
Crown of Shards series (Review)
I just finished reading the first two books in the Crown of Shards series a trilogy by Jennifer Estep. The publisher describes the series as "Gladiator meets Game of Thrones:" So not true! Jennifer Estep's writing strengths are in the Young Adult arena and that is where she needs to stay. Oh I don't have a problem with her wanting to stretch her skills and try to write more adult books, but she needs to learn more about how to write adult fantasy and not just throw out the F bomb all over the place and then call it adult.
I'm not sure if the author or the publisher came up with the idea of making a few changes to a YA story and then promote it as the Next Game of Thrones just to capitalize on that franchise. There is a throne at stake a…
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