Shadow Spinner: Collection 1: Tiberius (Parts 1-5)

Shadow Spinner: Collection 1: Tiberius (Parts 1-5)
By Andrew Leon & Bryan Peddas
(3/5)

I'm not big into serials but this was free so what the heck. When something is free I suppose you can say you got your money's worth no matter what. Really all this does is introduce Tiberius and his superpower of controlling shadows. It's much too short to really get into it, which is the problem of serials. Then there's another story by another author that's set in the "House on the Corner" universe. It would be OK except it goes on and on and on until it's many times longer than what's supposed to be the main attraction, eclipsing it. If you're going to have the story be that long, why not serialize it with the other serial?

Cloak of the Shrouded Man

Cloak of the Shrouded Man
by Tony Laplume
(3/5 stars)

Since I'm familiar with the author's love of comics from his blogs, I was really expecting more from this book.  This is as they say a "hot mess."  After about 35%, the Eidolon, Cotton Colinaude pretty much disappears from the book.  Wasn't he supposed to be the main character?  That last 65% is largely a bunch of philosophical dialogues that cause the story to grind to a halt.

It's hard to do a plot summary because so much of the plot is murky.  When it starts off there's a Batman-type hero named Cotton Colinaude who goes by the hard-to-pronounce handle Eidolon.  (I was glad to be listening to this on the Kindle so I would know how to actually say it.)  There's another hero called Godsend who's a Superman-type.  Godsend does not approve of the Eidolon's methods, especially as he goes after someone referred to as "the Cad."

And then...I have no idea.  The middle section seems similar to Grant Morrison's "Batman R.I.P." though I think this book predates that.  Then it turns into the Iliad.  Throughout it there's a lot less action than you would expect and far more philosophical rambling.

To say something positive, it's obvious the author spent a lot of time assembling the world's mythology.  There's a lot of background information on the characters and the city of Traverse, Alabama.  There just needed to be less background and less philosophy.

That is all.

Monorama

Monorama
by Tony Laplume
(3/5 Stars)

A wide variety of sci-fi stories come together in this short story collection. The first "story" called "Lost Books of Tomorrow" is a series of 32 vignettes I suppose you could say. Each of those could be a longer story in its own right. The one after that about someone whose parachute doesn't open after a skydiving accident is sort of dull and in my opinion the weakest of the collection. a couple of other stories don't have what I'd consider a satisfying conclusion, but overall this is a very good read, a whirlwind of imagination as I called it once.

That is all

Wool

Wool
by Hugh Howey
(3/5 Stars)

This felt really long at times. It probably could have been chopped down about 150 pages or more without losing much. The end is a bit deus-ex-machina as a character who until that point had been relatively unimportant all the sudden saves the day for the main characters. It's the kind of thing where I think, "Gee if you'd done that 200 pages ago this story would have been over." Anyway the point for any of you indie writers out there is don't have some outside character save the day because it's lame.

That is all.

Blackbeard's Treasure

Blackbeard's Treasure
by Lizzy Stevens
(3/5 Stars)

This probably would have been many times better if the author had simply slowed down and let the reader catch his/her breath a little. The way it plays out, I felt as if I were watching a movie with the fast forward button on.

Here's how it goes: Cassie drives from San Diego to her grandpa's house in Branson, Missouri because he's dead. (Did she love him? Did she know him? Who knows?!) She's cleaning when a big strong guy named Levi comes over to give her some papers and stuff. She cleans up the attic and finds a journal about the daughter of Edward Teach. Though apparently she's a diver, Cassie knows nothing of pirates, so she doesn't know Edward Teach was the infamous pirate Blackbeard. But Levi knows and tells her that.

Then for no good reason they drive back to San Diego, where Cassie teaches Levi to dive in the ocean. They drive back to Missouri. They track down where Teach was buried. For no good reason Cassie falls and hits her head on a board.

As I said, it's all told in such a rush that there's just no time to get involved with the characters or story.

That is all.

American Goddesses

American Goddesses
by Gary Henry
(3/5 stars)

I remember when I pitched my superhero novel (A Hero's Journey) to an agent and she expressed concern the book was "too far out there." I wish I'd had a copy of this to show her and say, "Now THIS is 'out there!'" I mean a central part of the plot is a Russian psychic possessing a superhero in order to rape the superhero's husband. Yuck.

Even with the rape scene I would have liked the book better if the heroes had at least the intellect of Forrest Gump. Instead they both come off like morons. And there's something misogynist about how the one is a naive fool and the other uses her powers mostly to nag her husband about his drinking. A husband, who incidentally cheats on her the first time we see him and yet the rest of the book we're supposed to believe how much in love they are.

Then the plot is resolved by introducing a bunch of new characters at around the 80% mark so it has a real deus ex machina feel. And then at the end it turns into "The Day the Earth Stood Still."

It's just a mess of a story, but at least the writing isn't littered with as much terrible grammar and typos as you might expect from a self-published book.

That is all.

The House on the Corner

The House on the Corner
by Andrew Leon
(3/5 stars)

This starts off like the stereotypical haunted house story.  The Howard family (Air Force master sergeant Will, his wife Claire, 12-year-old Tom, 10-year-old Sam, and 6-year-old Ruth) move from Denver to Shreveport, Louisiana.  The house they move into is old and spooky-looking with a lot of flaking paint, dusty, and overly large rooms.  Some of those rooms have strange things in them.  Oh, and the house's last inhabitants disappeared.

So through 40% of the book I kept waiting for there to be the bumps in the night and such that you would expect in a haunted house story.  But then the book does a 180 from that and becomes more like "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe."  There becomes a lot of talk about fairies, Guardians, Towers, wizards, and a magic sword.  Which is a little surprising because there are so many Star Wars references.

The book gets much more interesting once that stuff comes into play.  Unfortunately at that point there's only 60% off.  I think the author bit off more than he could chew at that point.  It made for a rushed ending that wasn't extremely satisfying to me.

Also, the book is in dire need of a real editor.  A lot of typos.  Also, I'm not fond of authors who use the word "suddenly" a lot.

There are still a lot of good things about this book.  The first-person narration between Tom, Sam, and Ruth is a little confusing at first but gets easier as it goes on.  I liked the kids, especially Sam and Ruth.  The relationship between the kids was well-drawn.  And once the book really gets going it's hard to put down--or shut off the Kindle.

That is all.