Shadow Warrior (Mechanica Wars #2)

Shadow Warrior (Mechanica Wars #2)
by Jay Noel
(5/5 stars)

This was a good continuation of the series.  I really enjoyed the first book, so I was glad when I was able to buy the second.  This steampunk series follows a budding world war between the Iberian Empire and Nuhan of the Orient.  In the first book, Nuhan prince Zen went on a quest to find the "Sky Sword" to help his people, but that proved to be a fool's errand.  Now yearning to get retribution on his father, Zen teams up with a group of Shadow Warriors, who help teach him the ways of the Force, or whatever the mystical psychic force is called.  But in the end Zen ends up in a lot worse shape than Luke Skywalker after The Empire Strikes Back, more like his father at the end of Revenge of the Sith.  Since I don't read steampunk I do like to compare the story to Star Wars; I mean there's an evil empire and a band of heroes standing against them, so come on.

Anyway, the narration is taut and well-written and the characters from the first book continue to evolve while some interesting new characters are added.  As I said with the first one, even if you don't read steampunk, this is still a good read.

That is all.

Overpowered

Overpowered
by Cheyanne Young
(4/5 stars)

This is the second book of the "Powered Trilogy."  I really liked the first one in that it presented, to my mind anyway, a unique superhero universe.  I mean most superhero stories just rip off the familiar DC and Marvel heroes, only changing costumes and powers a little.  (Even I'm guilty of that, though intentionally so.)  Basically the genetically superior "Supers" have their own nation inside the Grand Canyon where they live and use as a base to defend the world from Villains.  In the first book, Maci Might, daughter of the president, came into her powers only to realize she has an identical twin and that she (Maci) is probably the evil twin.

So in book two Maci finds her sister Nova and tries to hide her from the heroes who want to capture her for being a villain.  At the same time a new drug called Strike is giving humans the power of superheroes, which they mostly use for underground fight clubs.  Who's behind the drug and can anyone stop it?

For the most part I enjoyed this book, though maybe a little less than the first one.  Maci is a fun character, especially now that she has a goody-goody twin to play off of.  The writing is sharp and as with the first one, I like the uniqueness of the superhero world.

The thing I didn't like is that the plot is too obvious.  It's so clear where Strike is coming from that I sat there for much of the book waiting for the heroes to figure it out.  But maybe that's just me; maybe the younger people who make up the target audience will be more surprised.

Anyway, it's still a very enjoyable book and I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy when it sounds as if the [stuff] will really hit the fan.

That is all.

Dragonfly Warrior

Dragonfly Warrior
by Jay Noel
(5/5 stars)

A caveat here:  this is the first steampunk book I've read.  I'm not a fan of the genre by any stretch.  I guess my main problem is it relies so much on hindsight, people taking stuff we have now and reverse engineering it to 19th Century technology.  I tend to think if they could have made a giant walking spider back then someone probably would have.

My point then is I was prepared not to like this book, but I did.  Since I haven't read any steampunk before what it actually reminded me of is Star Wars.  Zen is like a Jedi in that he has a sword and a mystical ability that helps him fight.  When he goes in search of the "Sky Sword" he meets a scoundrel who also happens to own a very fast ship--sound familiar?  And then they meet a a woman who's very tough and capable--but does not turn out to be Zen's sister.

Thinking of it that way probably helped and also I don't think it took the steampunk to ridiculous extremes.  Not like for instance "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" where they had a fleet of SHIELD helicarriers in the mid-30s.  Say whaaaat?  Although there was (briefly) a mechanical spider thing most of the technology like airships and cars were plausible in the late 19th Century as there were already hot air balloons, rudimentary cars, and even at least one crude submarine in the Civil War.

Besides Star Wars I suppose it plays out like one of those fantasy books where there's a party on a quest.  It just so happens instead of fighting dragons and wizards they're after the "Machine Boy" who to use another Star Wars reference reminded me of young Anakin Skywalker, though less annoying because he didn't go around asking teenage girls if they were angels.

Anyway, it's a fast-paced, action-packed read that's written very well.  There's nothing to dislike, even for someone who doesn't like steampunk.  I'm looking forward to the next book.

That is all.

Hunting Elvis Presley for Fun & Profit

Hunting Elvis Presley for Fun & Profit
by Nigel Mitchell
(5/5 stars)

This isn't very long as it's intended to be a pamphlet not a novel or anything like that. As the title suggests it provides a lot of wacky tips on how to find and kill Elvis Presley in all his various incarnations. The author does a great job of writing it to make it really seem like something someone in the tinfoil hat brigade would write.

Recommended for fans of Weekly World News or "Bubba Ho-tep." I promise you'll never look at the world the same way after you read this.

That is all.

Powered

Powered
by Cheyanne Young
(5/5 stars)

As someone who wrote a series of superhero novels and another standalone superhero novel, I'm always interested in reading the competition. So I eagerly volunteered to read an advanced copy of this book. On the whole I really enjoyed it.

The biggest strength I think is that the author creates a unique world for the characters. In this world there are a bunch of "supers" (ie superhumans) most of whom live in "Central" in the Grand Canyon. The supers have a sort of caste system. There are the Heroes who do all the superheroic stuff like fighting villains and then there are the Retrievers. I didn't fully understand the Retrievers but I take it they pretty much clean up the mess afterwards.

Maci Might is 16 years old, which means her powers have finally reached their full potential. She then undergoes the test to determine if she'll be a Hero or a Retriever. This doesn't go quite as well as she hoped. From there Maci's life continues to unravel as she alienates her friends and family and has to take refuge in South Africa with a cute researcher named Evan. Probably too much time was spent on Maci and Evan hanging out before we get to the final showdown with the villain.

My main criticism is that I think the villain could have been stronger. Almost half the book goes by before we even find out who the villain is and then another quarter of the book goes by before the villain really becomes any kind of threat. Superhero stories are defined as much by the villain as the hero, like Batman vs. the Joker or Superman vs. Lex Luthor or the Scarlet Knight vs. the Black Dragoon.

The only other criticism would be that for what I presume is a YA book there's some gore in there that even made me cringe. The part where Maci suffers a severe head injury had me literally yelling, "Ewwwww, Gross!!!!" So it's probably not best suited for the younger end of the YA spectrum.

(One other technical note is people don't ride donkeys in the Grand Canyon. They ride mules, which are only half-donkey and half-horse. The stuffed mule I bought from the Grand Canyon gift shop wanted me to note that.)

Still, on the whole it's a brisk, fun read. And of course there's plenty of room for Maci's adventures to continue.

That is all.

Vampire Pond

Vampire Pond
by Peter Joseph Swanson
(4/5 Stars)

Despite that it's called "Vampire" Pond, the vampire involved isn't really how we traditionally think of vampires, especially for the "Twilight" set. This isn't some suave guy in a cape or pasty teenager. The vampire is a monster without much of a personality or even a name. Instead most of the action focuses on the bumbling village nearby, which is dominated by a crumbling abbey seeking legitimacy. When a pair of gypsies arrive in the village, they begin to help the villagers rid their town of the vampire and other monsters.

Overall it's a fun read, albeit a little bit too talky. As the King said, a little less conversation, a little more action please.

That is all.

Alliance

Alliance
by Jessica Stank
(4/5 stars)

Although this is book 2 of the series, I'd say most readers might as well just start reading it here. The weakness of the first book was that half of it was devoted to a teenage romance that in the end wasn't overly important. What was important is that Alexander Quinn was cured from cancer with an experimental treatment that gave him super strength and the ability to see people's auras, something I facetiously called mood ring vision. In the process, this brought Alexander to the attention of a billionaire criminal named Marcus who wanted to develop his own army of superpeople.

Now in Book 2 is when Alex actually starts to become a superhero, along with his new pal Jordan. Jordan develops ice powers after receiving some of the formula used on Alex. They decide to be a superhero team, but they're really lousy at it. They could actually use to read my "Practical Superheroism" series on my blog. They do employ some of it to develop costumes--or "uniforms" as they prefer--but they could use a lot of help in other areas like finding criminals.

Anyway, the evil Marcus is still around and worse than ever now that he's developed psychic powers and has a few superfriends of his own. Alex and Jordan manage to bumble and stumble their way into a confrontation with Marcus and his people.

Since there's less focus on romance this was a much more fun ride for me than the last one. The only problem is the end is flat. The confrontation with Marcus ends with about 15% left in the book. The good thing is there's still plenty of room left for future sequels. Hopefully in those Alex and Jordan will start to get their stuff together and be a little more Avengers and a little less Greatest American Hero.

BTW, in the book Alex's family faces money problems that threaten their farm. Something that occurred to me is: why doesn't Alex just enter one of those MMA tournaments where you can win a bunch of money for beating people up? Obviously he'd win since he can bench-press more than a ton and lift cows over his head and such. There seem to be thousands of those events per year so there's got to be one near Grand Rapids, right?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next book and meanwhile you should get in on the ground floor here. And while you wait for Book 3, you can read my superhero series! A Hero's Journey

That is all.

Small Town Hero

Small Town Hero
by Jessica Stank
(4/5 Stars)

Basically if you like Smallville on the WB/CW then you'd like this book. Alex Quinn is like a young Clark Kent in Smallville in that he's a farmboy in a small town, only rural Michigan instead of Kansas. Also, he's not an alien. In the old Stan Lee tradition his powers come from radiation when he's diagnosed with cancer. Well there's also an experimental drug that helps him to gain super strength and something that could be described as mood ring vision.

What holds the book back from being 5 stars to me is that the first half of the book is the teen romance between Alex and his next door neighbor Natalie. It uses rotating first-person to go from Natalie to Alex. And in the end Natalie doesn't do much except serve as bait for the villain, who is introduced through a little backstory in the hospital. Not focusing so much on the romance and also not using the rotating first-person would have allowed the antagonist to be developed properly. Or have just cut from Alex to the antagonist.

Then again I'm male so I don't appreciate romance as much as those of the female persuasion. Anyway, once it gets going it's a fun book. I'd recommend it for teens/tweens into superheroes.

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.

Merlin's Charge

Merlin's Charge
by Peter Joseph Swanson
(4/5 stars)

The Arthurian legend is a subject that's been around so long that there are all sorts of adaptations of it from realistic takes like Bernard Cornwell's "Warlord Trilogy" to musicals like Camelot to cartoons like Disney's "Sword in the Stone."  "Merlin's Charge" falls on the "Sword in the Stone" end of the spectrum.  It's a lot of whimsical, lighthearted fun, though not quite as campy as the Disney movie.

The story takes place in the 5th Century when he Roman Empire is fallen.  A terrible drought has taken hold of Britain.  Mother Hubbard is looking after a group of children, using her magic to lay eggs for them after their magic cauldron was stolen.  Meanwhile, teenage Arthur is under the tutelage of the grumpy old wizard Merlin, learning what it's going to take to become king after he pulled the sword from the stone.

Eventually Mother Hubbard is arrested by the Church for being a witch and set to be burned at the stake.  Arthur pleads with Merlin to save her, which he does, though he has another purpose in mind--making Mother Hubbard his wife because even wizards need some company in bed.

When they compare notes, Mother Hubbard and Merlin decide they should try to find the cauldron, otherwise known as the grail.  Joining them in the quest are Parsifal, son of a Roman general, and a corrupt abbot of the Church, whose primarily function is to go around declaring everything evil.

The book isn't very long; it only took me a few hours to read it on my Kindle.  A lot of it is spent talking, which is good in some ways because it means no windy passages of description, although a few more descriptions might have been helpful sometimes.  I think what surprised me the most was that despite being called MERLIN'S Charge, Merlin is largely absent from the grand finale.

Still, if you're a fan of Arthurian legend, especially "The Sword in the Stone" then you'll enjoy this hilarious new take on the subject.

That is all.