Tag Archive: science-speculative


Review: World After


World After
World After by Susan Ee
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was another book to keep me up until 3 in the morning. This series is so exciting! It involves so much action that from the beginning, in book one, until now the end of book two, one is caught up in the story. Susan Ee’s writing keeps you captured in her world.

It was so long ago that I read the first book that I was a little worried that I would have to go back and read book one again to remember all that had happened but Ms. Ee does a marvelous job reacquainting the reader with ‘World Before’and ‘World During’ that it all flows quite well as we step into ‘World After’.

Book one had us meeting Penryn, her little crippled sister, and their mentally ill mother. The world was hard enough for poor Penryn to live in then the Angels and Demons decided to cause the apocalypse. Survival was the theme in both of these books. But there is a minor (?) romance between Penryn and an angel.

This book continues the survival, fighting, and romance. Penryn is quite the character and struggles to help her family and the other humans to survive. She learns to use the angel’s sword and tries to save everyone. She is quite spunky and able to hold her own no matter what.

I was about a third of the way in the Kindle version of the book when I realized that I had the Audible version of the book that I had purchased a while back. I must admit that the narrator, Caitlin Davies, was able to read the story exactly how I had been hearing it in my head. What is nice about having the audio version is you get to hear how the names should be pronounced. In this case I had been calling Raffe ‘RAF’ with a long ‘A’ sound and silent ‘e’. Apparently it is ‘Rawffa’. Sounds a lot better the right way, I must admit!

Though almost all threads have been tied up, and the ending is sweet, there is enough to let me know there will be more. Yay! I do really enjoy this series. Oh, and those who don’t believe in angels demons or the bible will still enjoy this series as a fantasy. I recommend it to all for a fun adventure.

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Review: Dragonsdawn


Cover of "Dragonsdawn (Dragonriders of Pe...

Cover via Amazon

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

This is my third reading of this book. I still love it. This time I was able to purchase the Audible version to go along with my own hardback book. This particular book includes Chronicles of Pern: The First Fall. But since I am trying to read these in order I didn’t want to read that part yet. Yes, I realized that Moreta should have been the read, but I didn’t have that Audible version yet. So I jumped ahead. I do have Moreta now, so I’ll start it soon.

I loved discovering, again, how humans landed and learned to survive on Pern. I was fascinated by the amount of research that Ms. McCaffrey put into the writing of this book. Not only is this pointed out in her preface, but it is obvious in how the humans proceed in inhabiting this new land. Her characters are so realistic.

Dick Hill’s narration further developed each character. All voices done so well that you know who is talking without the identifying tags in the sentences.

I have mentioned in previous Pern reviews how I love the way Dick Hill reads. He keeps the reader/listener engaged. Even his dragon voices sound convincing.

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The Dragonriders of Pern
The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If it weren’t for Audible I wouldn’t have been able to read this book. The font is so small that I can’t stay with it for long. Having the story narrated to me helped. When I didn’t understand a passage I could check it out in the book for understanding.

I love this series. I read them all a long time ago. It is so fun to get back into Pern and enjoy the dragons and fire lizards. Anne McCaffrey wrote so beautifully. I loved her vocabulary and the extent that she researched the sciences of these books. Her characters are well developed and fallible. In this part of the series the traditions of a male dominated system are challenged. The dragons make those changes happen. A new more equality-base system is about to emerge. I look forward to more in the series.

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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. 😉

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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: 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: 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, 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 Stand in my personal library, but I would rather have Large Print or Kindle version and the Audible 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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What an exciting conclusion to a great trilogy. Read my review here:

<a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15827257-emergence&#8221; style=”float: left; padding-right: 20px”><img alt=”Emergence (Eden’s Root Trilogy #3)” border=”0″ src=”http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1365267098m/15827257.jpg&#8221; /></a><a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15827257-emergence”>Emergence</a&gt; by <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/719277.Rachel_Fisher”>Rachel Fisher</a><br/>
My rating: <a href=”http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/605511766″>5 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Wow! What a ride! Look if I’m dingy today, I blame Rachel Fisher. This book started out rolling and didn’t stop. Real life got in my way, or I would’ve finished this in a day or so. Somewhere around 60%, it felt slower but that was the calm before the storm. I figured last night. I’d start reading it midnight and I would fall asleep. The sun was well up in the sky for two hours before I fell asleep. I could not put the book down. I wanted to know what was going to happen to Fi and her friends.<br /><br />I gave this five stars because, as usual, Ms. Fisher told a wonderful tale. But I noticed that somewhere around 60% of the book, there were a few mistakes words left out or tiny misspellings. The other thing that really bothered me and I know this is just me, how did Fi deal with dirty diapers? I’ve had four kids. I could not have fought a war with any one of them hanging from me. I know Fi is a really strong woman. But somehow I have a hard time grasping a woman who just gave birth and running 3 miles with her baby in the backpack. It just seems rather impossible to me. But that doesn’t stop the story. And it is an amazing one. Maybe I missed something in reading it.<br /><br />I love the ending! I will have to reread the trilogy again as I miss this great bunch of characters!
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