Tag Archive: sci-fi


Review: The White Dragon


The White Dragon
The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wish I would have written this review when I finished reading/listening this book. I have already started another in the Pern series (Dragonsdawn/Dragonriders’s Dawn).

Okay, let’s see. I remember loving The White Dragon more than the others the first time I read it. Maybe that was because I read it after the Menolly stories last time around. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums. As a music major at the time I was thrilled by the music of Pern. But White Dragon was more mature with a wider vocabulary. It also helped titrated me up to the rest of the books of Pern. This time I was more interested in the trials of the way Pern, herself, demands that traditions be challenged.

The name Ruth, in my life, has been a female name, so it still throws me that the white dragon is Ruth. He named himself. Who would argue with a dragon? Still, I loved the book. Can’t say if it is my favorite this round. We’ll see!

This time I am listening to the Audible versions while reading the paper book (hard back). I love Dick Hall’s voice, especially when he does his rendition of Masterharper Robinton. He keeps the characters individualized. And the voices for the females are not silly. It is a pleasure to listen to his voice.

Oh, the book form for this was Dragonriders of Pern which had the three books: Dragonflight, Dragonquest and The White Dragon.

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Review: Dragonquest


Dragonquest
Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a continuation of The Dragonriders of Pern. I didn’t have the money for the Kindle version so I managed to listen to this Audible version while attempting to decypher the book with its tiny font. Because of the narrator’s wonderful voice and character depictions I was able to keep track of where I was in the story even when my eyes refused to read any more.

I loved this book the first time I read it nearly two decades ago and found it equally exciting this time. Other books in this series are about the dragons and their riders and the fight against thread. This books challenged us to look at traditions and even break them to see if there might be a better way to do things. New sciences were discovered or recovered in this book. These kept me involved wondering if our own descendants may run into similar discoveries should we let go of our tightly held concepts. Who know, maybe gravity will cease to be so grave!

Anyway, I am lucky to have the next of the Dragonrider books in Audible form and have already cheated ahead. I remember White Dragon as one of my favorites, so I’m getting back to my ‘reading’ um, listening. πŸ˜‰

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Review: Dragonflight


Dragonflight
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a second reading for this series. I loved these books so long ago, and find I am excited to be back in Pern. I didn’t change my star rating as they are just as wonderful now as when I read them the first time.

The difference, this time, is I had the Audible version to listen to while keeping track on the Kindle version, and in the huge book version, Dragonriders of Pern, that contains Dragonflight, Dragonquest and White Dragon. My eyes couldn’t stay with the book version at all. The font was too small.

This Audible version had Dick Hill as narrator. His deep voice resonated within me, especially when he did the voice for Robinton. Oh, how I had missed that Masterharper! Mr. Hill was able to keep the characters different while not making the females sound silly. In fact, I think his strength was in drawing out Lessa’s personality.

My soul misses Anne McCaffrey and her wit and imagination. At least we still have all her books to immerse ourselves in.

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Review: Proximity


Proximity
Proximity by M.A. George
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked up this book on an author-giveaway-day on Smashwords. Somehow I forgot that I already had it. Then Kindle had a freebie day and I pick it up there, too. Does that ever happen to you? I look at the cover, it does play into how I feel about a book. Then I read the blurb and about the author. This book must have passed those criteria with flying colors!

After a slow start, getting to know the characters, Proximity took off. I was hooked. From about 60% of the book, I couldn’t stop reading. In fact, I was still reading at 5 this morning. Thank goodness for an ending that didn’t leave me hanging. Sure there was a few threads that need to be taken care of, but I was left elated which, of course, made me wakeful, wondering how the next bits will be taken care of. (Non-spoiler enough?)

I can’t wait for payday so I can get the next book. Thank you M.A. George for writing such a different, kind of story. Oh, and I need to mention how I loved that the characters were very well educated with goals and talents, along with a little romance. Very good!

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Review: Made to Forget…


Made to Forget...
Made to Forget… by Samantha LaFantasie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was given this book, free for honest review, from the author.

I want to give this book 3 1/2 stars. Though it had a good story and fairly good editing, it took me a while to get into it. I couldn’t decide if I liked the main character, Elsabetha Ellery, or if in fact she could have as much spunk as she had for the condition she was in. Female MC’s do best, in my opinion, if they have spunk. Later, when she feels better, her personality rocks!

It had been a while since I read the blurb about the book. So imagine my surprise when I realized I was reading a sci-fi! No longer was it just a book about amnesia which might be interesting enough, there was much more involved here. This surprise alone would’ve gotten the book 5 stars.

The problem I had with this book was the ending. I finally like the character. I finally like the plot. I like what was going on and I’m scared to death –and – there’s the cliff. I hate cliffhangers! If it wasn’t for the author giving me the book and she was so nice… I would’ve given the book 2 stars. Good editing and plot and character can’t rescue the bad feeling I feel when I’m left hanging like that.

All that aside, I’m hoping there’s a book two. I do want to know what happens next in the story.

Thank you, Samantha LaFantasie, for letting me read your book.

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Review: The Apocalypse Gene


The Apocalypse Gene
The Apocalypse Gene by Suki Michelle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: This was a free Kindle book from BookRooster from quite a while ago, for an honest review.

So here goes. Um… I am so torn. There were parts I liked and others had me yawning. And I don’t think it’s the parts meant to be boring. I loved getting to know Olyvia and her mother and live with them through the dark and depressing life. I thought it adorable to get the little romance going. I could even get into the little computer icons, even though it seemed to take away from the problem at hand. Even still, I managed to shift gears and enjoy the cuteness.

War! What is it good for? I suppose in this case it is to cure cancer. Not a bad goal, I suppose, but really! During all the Micah parts and the war parts I got so bored that I had to let my text-to-speech yammer on while I read emails. I tuned in to learn how the story concluded. It was a nice ending.

Another thing I had a hard time with was the philosophy of the author thrown in quite obviously. The gods and demons and all that left me … meh?

Look, maybe it was just me. A lot of people have given high ranks to this book, so read it yourself and let me know what you think.

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Review: Man Made Man


Man Made Man
Man Made Man by Marjorie F. Baldwin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Disclosure: This was a copy given to me by the author for honest review. Thank you for the opportunity!

This was supposed to be my year of reading strictly strong fem main characters written by strong fem authors. As my constant attempts to re-read A Song of Ice and Fire prove, that goal is merely a guideline. My decision came about when I realized that most of my formative years I read mainly works by males. And teachers only recommended (required) books by and about males. I’ll admit to being a latebloomer. Now that I am retired, I realize I should catch up on fem reading.

This book only hits one of my goals. Friday (Marjorie F. Baldwin) is a strong fem writer. Even though the females in this story are not the main characters, I do find they are interesting. In fact, my favorite person in this series is Shayla. But, she isn’t even human. On the other hand, the main character, Raif is interesting, and human.

Another thing about this author is her ability to throw in subject matter that might cause discomfort, but isn’t that what true science fiction should do? For that, I am happy to know her and have the chance to read her books.

Even for an ARC as such, the errors got lost in the story. I think my biggest problem was I felt I have read this series inside out and backwards. The timeline in my head was making me dizzy. I feel jealous of those who will be able to read the series in order. Someday I will try to re-read these in order. I do look forward to more books by Friday. I’d especially love to see more about Shayla and her people.

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Review: Gateway to Reality


Gateway to Reality
Gateway to Reality by Becca J. Campbell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Disclaimer: I was given this Kindle version of the book for an honest review.

Let’s start off with what I loved. The worlds, especially Sea Clearly, And the Freefall (I can’t remember the name for it right now) world. I loved the way the characters could make their own worlds and move from one to the other. All great ideas. I would have loved even more world creating processes, seen into other characters points of view as they built and had their own relationships.

What I didn’t like, and nearly quit reading because of: ANGST. If this wasn’t from and author I like, looking for a review, I wouldn’t have read past the first chapter. A sentence could have summed it up. Wes screwed up and now he missed his girlfriend. The rest of the chapter reiterating the same thing drove it into the ground. By the end of the first chapter I hated Wes. I never quite got to the point of liking him. I kept saying to him: GET A LIFE! Here he was in a really cool dream? world? Why not just enjoy it?

Let me just say, I am in pain almost constantly. I read fantasy and sci-fi to escape. When a book spends so much time on the negative emotions, I get overwhelmed. By the way, that seems to be how the YA books go. It is the one reason I would never want to be an adolescent ever again. But Wes wasn’t an adolescent. He is older, working new adult. He has a wonderful family, good friends. Get on with life. When the life hits that could be even more fun, he is obsessing, stalking his ex. Didn’t like the ending or the bad guy either.

My advice to other readers: read only a bit of chapter one. It is worth getting to the rest of the book. I would love to see a book two with these worlds.

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Review: Under the Dome


Under the Dome
Under the Dome by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Being an Under the Dome TV series addict, I knew I had to read the book.

 

 

I have only read one other Stephen King book and that was On Writing,Β which I loved.

Cover of "On Writing:  A Memoir of the Cr...

Cover of On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

 

 

 

I have avoided SK because I don’t do horror. I get nightmares. But since I loved this so much I may have to read his other, less scary books. I already have The StandΒ in my personal library, but I would rather have Large Print or Kindle version and theΒ AudibleΒ version to help me along.

Cover of "The Stand"

Cover of The Stand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The narrator, Raul Esparza, was amazing! He is the first male narrator that did believable women and children voices without sounding fake in my experience. He had many accents to throw in for good measure. What I felt the most unreal was there were few Maine accents and many southern types. But it didn’t make the story less interesting, it did help keep the population of Chester’s Mill individualized.

A warning, outside of the same main characters and a couple incidences, this book is not like the television series. Still, I can’t wait to see what gets thrown into the mix.

It is nice to know that the man who wrote a book on writing writes a heck of a book!

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Review: Unmasked Alloy


Unmasked Alloy
Unmasked Alloy by Becca J. Campbell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Was this part of the same series as Not the Norm (A Sub-Normal short story by Becca J. Campbell?

I fell into like, um, I really cared about the characters, in the first book. It was that caring that drove me to read book two. That’s a good thing! This part of the story hit the ground running. If there were mistakes in the grammar or spelling I didn’t notice for trying to keep up with the action.

In a world of super-humans, being either sub-norm or just human can be down-right dangerous. Hence the name of the name of the series (Sub-normal). Though you see this in the first book, this second book throws it in your face.

My only problem with this book was that I was left LONGING for part three. I have tried to think through, as a writer, how I would handle this. Would it be better as one larger book broken into sections? Then I had to think about the author. Would her larger book make as much as three (or more) short stories? I, for one, was looking for something fast when I picked up book one, and then book two. But the waiting for the next installment, then trying to remember where we left off… I guess this is why a lot of people wait until they’ve gathered all the parts before reading it as a whole. I am sure this is a quandary for serial writers everywhere. Point is, I can’t wait to read the next in this series!

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