Ornery ramblings of a former political science professor turned author
Bowl of Red is the fourth book in Sarah A. Hoyt’s shifter series. Kyrie Smith and Tom Ormson are about to be parents and about to get married. Since Tom is worried that the new fryer will explode if it’s not monitored constantly, they’re getting married in The George, the diner they own, and their friends and employees are giving them a twelve-hour honeymoon break.
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Tales Yet Unsung is a collection of short stories and almost novella length stories that provide history or backstory and fill in some gaps in Denton Salle’s Avatar Wizard series. Some of the stories take place before the first book in the series, Sworn to the Light. In Tales Yet Unsung, we are gifted with ten stories. Two take place before Book 1, one tells us what happened in Book 3 while Jeremy and his friends were in Krali Marko’s black mountain, one takes place immediately after the events in Book 4, and the remaining six are set after Book 5… which has yet to be published.
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Stand Against the Dark is the fourth book in Denton Salle’s Avatar Wizard series where the myths and magic of Eastern Europe come to life. Jeremy, the panda-shifting volkh wizard has passed his Third Level tests and is becoming more powerful. He is powerful enough to attempt the ritual to call the Lord of Winds and Winter to ask a favor – a ritual that others have died attempting.
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Odd Magics, by Sarah A. Hoyt, is a collection of classic fairy tales reimagined as short stories set in the modern world. They don’t quite follow the original story, but those who know their fairy tales will quickly figure them out. Sarah Hoyt has given us a collection of stories that are quirky and fun and take you out of your head for a short while. The entire book is a quick read that will give you a lift and inspire you to look for the magic in everyday life.
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Jack Dalish is a private investigator in San Antonio, Texas. His cases include the usual cheating spouses, or someone trying to find hidden or embezzled funds; cases that are not exciting or exotic but pay the bills. Jack is also one of the few humans who knows that monsters are real and are living among us, disguised as humans. He has a talisman that allows him to sense when one of the Filii Nox is, or has been, nearby. Because of that, his cases include those with supernatural victims and perpetrators.
Continue reading “Book Review: “Lost Souls” by Tim Rangnow”
Michelle Lauden always wanted to be a pilot and go to space, but that didn’t happen. Piloting sub-orbital planes, known as ballistics, got her closer to space than most people. Then on a routine flight leg she, her plane, and her passengers became pawns in the life-threatening political games playing out between two planet-spanning governments.
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Taking the Night mixes the mafia and magic and comes up with an adventure in the underworld, both criminal and magical. Selia Lascari is the daughter and employee of a well-heeled mafia boss. And she has a secret. But it’s not the kind of secret you might expect. Selia is highly trained in a number of ancient fighting techniques, and she controls magic. One evening on an errand, which she presumes is for her father and boss, she walks into a trap set by a rejected suitor. Between what she hopes is a subtle use of her magic, and New Campania’s mysterious vigilante crime stopper, the Sandman, Selia escapes the trap, but now faces a more deadly foe from her past as well as family members who will kill her for associating with the Sandman, their sworn enemy.
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Other Rhodes is a far-future, deep space noir detective story and another fun genre mash-up from Sarah A. Hoyt. Our heroine, Lily, finds a cyborg in her airlock when she expected her husband. Now she has no option except to team up with the completely illegal creation to locate her missing husband. Additionally, with no other allies, she has to trust that her husband’s long-time friend is also her friend and will give her the help she needs. The book combines elements of classic noir detective stories (Rex Stout, Nero Wolfe) within a space-faring and high-tech universe.
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This week’s book review is Alma T.C. Boykin’s Knowingly Familiar. It is Book 16 in the Familiar Tales series. And, until this week, was the latest in that series of stories about the magical community in Riverton. I like to think that the Riverton of the familiars is the Riverton my grandparents lived in and I visited frequently as a small child. The weather and some of the town features are similar…hmmm….but, back to the book.
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I’ve always liked anthologies because I can get a taste of multiple authors at one time. Anthologies also introduce me to authors I haven’t yet read and finding new authors is always fun. This week’s book review subject is Divided We Fall: One Possible Future edited by Tiffany Reynolds and Patty McIntosh-Mize. The authors include Sarah A. Hoyt, Brad Torgerson, Mack Henkel, Jon Del Arroz, and more. There are twelve stories in all. All twelve are good to great, but I’m only going to go into detail about a few of them here.
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