Book Review: Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko

Ascend Online

Author: Luke Chmilenko
Series: Ascend Online, book 1
Publisher: Podium Publishing (July 18, 2017)
Narrator: Luke Daniels
Audiobook, 17h 55m
Goodreads  Amazon

Summary
Diving into a revolutionary new video game, Marcus and his friends escape a stagnant society, entering into a world that defies their wildest imaginations. But from the moment that he logs in, Marcus finds himself separated from his friends and thrown into remote village under attack by a horde of goblins.

Forced into battle, Marcus rallies the beleaguered villagers and with their help, manages to drive off the invading creatures. With the village in ruins and their supplies spoiled, the survivors desperately turn to Marcus for help in rebuilding the village.

Realizing that this game is nothing like he's ever played before, Marcus is swept up into a whirlwind of adventure as he struggles to defend his new home, quickly finding that marauding goblins are the least of his problems.

Book Review: Shoot the Messenger (Messenger Chronicles #1) by Pippa DaCosta

Shoot the Messenger

Author: Pippa DaCosta
Series: Messenger Chronicles, Book 1
Publisher: Crazy Ace Publishing
Published: February 22, 2018
Kindle Edition, 285 pages
Rating: 5 Stars
★★★★★
Goodreads  Amazon

Summary: "Lies aren't her only weapons against the fae..."

In the Halow system, one of Earth’s three sister star systems, tek and magic—humans and the fae—are at war.

Kesh Lasota is a ghost in the machine. Invisible to tek, she’s hired by the criminal underworld to carry illegal messages through the Halow system. But when one of those messages kills its recipient, Kesh finds herself on the run with a bounty on her head and a quick-witted marshal on her tail.

Proving her innocence should be straightforward—until a warfae steals the evidence she needs. The fae haven’t been seen in Halow in over a thousand years. And this one—a brutally efficient killer able to wield tek—should not exist. But neither should Kesh.

As Kesh’s carefully crafted lie of a life crumbles around her, she knows remaining invisible is no longer an option. To hunt the fae, to stop him from destroying a thousand-year-long fragile peace, she must resurrect the horrors of her past.

Kesh Lasota was a ghost. Now she’s back, and there’s only one thing she knows for certain. Nobody shoots the messenger and gets away with it.

A new space fantasy reverse harem series where the guys are hot, the perils are many, and one rebel messenger holds the key to the survival of the human race.

REVERSE HAREM INFO: The Messenger Series is a slow burn reverse harem space-fantasy adventure. This series contains sexual encounters with multiple partners. The harem develops during the series.

Review: Upon finishing a book, I like to rate and shelve it on Goodreads, and my usual placeholder review is something alone the lines of "Review coming soon." I think it says a lot about this book that my placeholder review was "My heart. I can’t... words... Review to come later... once I can see again through this sheen of tears. Ack."

I'm still not even sure how to begin reviewing this book. I can't even peg the genre. The blurb touts it as being "a slow-burn reverse harem space fantasy adventure" romance. Apparently the reverse harem develops over the course of the series, as there isn't actually much romance in the book. It's set in this future society where we've advanced our society to space, but also has a sort of alternate reality where the fae are a part of the human history, so it's sci-fi, but it's also fantasy? But also romance. Oh, and with a sort of mystery element too. And adventure. But also paranormal/paranormal romance? But with a sort of steampunk, sort of western feel, sort of urban fantasy. ...Genre party! ALL THE GENRES!

This was my first book by Pippa DaCosta, but now I need to go check out her back catalog. And I also need the next book in this series, preferably injected directly into my veins RIGHT NOW. There is so much to recommend this book. The world building is amazing, the dialogue is witty and sharp, and Kesh is bad ass who doesn't take crap from anybody while walking around in a sweet pocket-filled techno duster that can disguise her and carrying a chain whip charged with magic. Add to that the bad ass warfae out to frame her for murder who has kidnapped her best-friend-slash-droid, a hot marshal (read: old west cop but in space, also with a sexy duster) who is more than he appears, and a caged and exiled (also sexy) fae, and you can see the beginnings of this reverse harem starting to build up. Oh, also, holy plot twists, Batman. I got so emotionally invested in this book and in Kesh and the other characters, and then right at the end it was like Pippa DaCosta reached her hand inside my chest and ripped out my cracked and broken heart. (...Which is fitting, actually). I felt like I needed to go find some tape and try to put my heart back together after finishing this book. That's after resisting the mighty urge to fling my kindle across the room and sob broken heartedly into a pillow.

So yes! Read this book and be forever ruined, like me! I make it sound kind of awful, but it's that really good kind of pain, where you're like "Oh God, I can't take it! ...Give me the next book right now so you can continue sticking pins into my heart, Pippa DaCosta!"

Book Review: Under a Graveyard Sky (Black Tide Rising #1) by John Ringo

Rating: 5 Stars

Published June 24th 2014 by Baen (first published August 15th 2013)            
Summary: A family of survivors who fight back against a zombie plague that has brought down civilization. Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few Marines.

When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family, Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith, take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope.

For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived beneath a graveyard sky.
(from Goodreads)

 

Review: Some people choose to read books because of the cover. I picked this one up because at first glance I thought she's an elf on the cover (she's not). I ended up buying it because the pages felt nice. Yup, that's me. Bought a book because I liked the way the pages felt. ...I am such a weird booknerd.

You know in Disney's Aladdin when he's trying to describe how amazing Jasmine Is? That's me with this book.

Where do I even start? OK, so this is a zombie apocalypse novel. I am NOT a gore kinda gal, so I don't partake in much zombie media, though I'm super intrigued by the concept. I love that the focus of this book is more on the science behind and progression of the "Pacific Flu" (as they call it) rather than being all horror/gore/gross-I-can't-read-this. The science was believable (to my little unscientific brain, anyway) without being too confusing - I felt I could actually follow it and it made sense. (Maybe it's totally bogus to someone who actually knows anything about epidemiology and microbiology and all that jazz, but it sounded good to me.) The book starts out with Steve Smith getting a text from his highly-placed security task force brother that there is an apocalyptic event happening. Steve is a total survivalist weirdo and his family has trained for this, which is lucky for humanity because without the Smith family there would likely be a lot less chance for mankind. I'm just sayin'. I also really enjoyed the socio-political aspect of this book. Who is in charge when all our previous structures have gone to pot (or "in the dunny," as our Aussie-born friend Steve would say)? On whose authority? It's interesting to see Steve figure out how to lead with his mix of expert and eventually referent power, and to watch the different types of leaders and types of power at play.

The characters in this book are amazing. The central focus is pretty much the Smith family, Steve and his wife Stacey and their two daughters, Sophie (15) and Faith (13). Sophie is the more science-minded daughter, and Faith is SUPER pumped at the prospect of kicking some zombie ass in the impending zombie apocalypse. Oh man, Faith. Here are some of the quotes about Faith:

“The United States started to go downhill when it changed from a round designed to kill the enemies of our glorious republic to one designed to piss them off," Faith said, shooting a zombie five times, then walking up and shooting the still-thrashing infected in the head. “Seriously, just die, okay?”
“Seriously, it’s legal to marry at fourteen in Arkansas.”
“Fine,” Faith said, double tapping a zombie that had reared up out of the darkness. “If we clear Arkansas by the time I’m fourteen we’ll talk.”

-- 

Bradburn waved a finger at the periscope repeater.
"COB."
"Sir?"
"Remind me never to piss that young lady off."
"Yes, sir."

-- 

"She's more worried about losing a sub than her own life," Galloway said. "I am going to cover that girl in medals. So help me God."

I was a little weirded out about all the talk about Sophie (15) and Faith (13) in a quasi-sexual light. Like, at one point Steve talks about trusting his daughters around all these grown-ass men. I know Faith is a total bad-ass, but she is 13! Ew. That being said, I can see why all these Marine bad-ass dudes are quasi in love with her - she is BAMF. I was going to post some of my favorite quotes here, but realized in short order than I was basically just typing out the whole book. So yes, just go read this. It was a little confusing at first with the shifting focus all over the place, but solidifies within a few chapters.

This is the first book in the Black Tide Rising series. There are a total of 4 books, all of which are published. I immediately went and bought the second book, To Sail a Darkling Sea, and I probably should have just caved and bought the rest of the series at the same time. If it were possible to rate a book more than 5 stars, this would get it.

Book Review: Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse #1) by James S.A. Corey

Rating: 4 Stars

Published June 2nd 2011 by Orbit
Summary: Humanity has colonized the solar system - Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid Belt and beyond - but the stars are still out of our reach.

Jim Holden is XO of an ice miner making runs from the rings of Saturn to the mining stations of the Belt. When he and his crew stumble upon a derelict ship, the Scopuli, they find themselves in possession of a secret they never wanted. A secret that someone is willing to kill for - and kill on a scale unfathomable to Jim and his crew. War is brewing in the system unless he can find out who left the ship and why.

Detective Miller is looking for a girl. One girl in a system of billions, but her parents have money and money talks. When the trail leads him to the Scopuli and rebel sympathizer Holden, he realizes that this girl may be the key to everything.

Holden and Miller must thread the needle between the Earth government, the Outer Planet revolutionaries, and secretive corporations - and the odds are against them. But out in the Belt, the rules are different, and one small ship can change the fate of the universe.
(from Goodreads)

 

Review: When I started this book I could NOT stop listening. The prologue opens with a hook and I HAD to find out whatever happened to Julie. I appreciated that the story bounced back and forth from following Detective Miller for a space of time and then switching to following Holden and his crew. You got to see into their heads and their different points of view coming from very different backgrounds, which was cool. It was also interesting to see the different pieces of the puzzle fitting together, and exciting once their separate storylines finally converge.

While starting out with a bang, for some reason about 3/4 of the way through I just got tired of this book. And then I'm looking at how many books are left in the series (5 more already published, and 3 more slated to be published in the next couple of years, not counting the 1.5 type inbetweener novellas) and I was left going "Eghhhhh... Do I HAVE to finish this?" I'm glad I plugged through, because the last hour or so picked back up again. I don't feel any need to read the rest of the series, though, and feel like this first book of the series can stand alone with the way it ends and not FORCE you to read the rest of the series - specifically, no cliff-hanger ending but instead wrapped up nicely enough that it can be left alone with enough open-endedness to segway into the rest of the series should you so choose.

I listened to the Audible version narrated by Jefferson Mays, who did a great job narrating. I could tell which character was talking, and he managed to do a credible female sounding/feeling voice for the female characters that wasn't high/squeaky/awful like I've found a lot of men do.

Book Review: Red Rising (Red Rising #1) by Pierce Brown

Rating: 5 Stars

Published January 28th 2014 by Del Rey (Random House)
Summary: "I live for the dream that my children will be born free," she says. "That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them."

"I live for you," I say sadly.

Eo kisses my cheek. "Then you must live for more."

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.

Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.

But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.

Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies... even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.
(from Goodreads)

Review: I hesitate to tag this book YA because it doesn't have the same feel to me as most of the other YA dystopian fiction that seems to be hyped a lot lately. Even though the main character, Darrow, is 16 at the start of the novel, I don't know that he was ever really allowed to be a child. This book is a little but The Hunger Games meets capture the flag. I love the world building and the color-coded caste system, and how the different colors have basically been bred as well as genetically modified to excel at the jobs their color does. Reds like Darrow are basically slaves that work the mines of Mars, Pinks are for pleasure, Golds are the ruling class...

The character development for Darrow is just... mind-blowing. He has an emotional journey dealing with the loss of his wife, then his family and basically his life, then a whole new life with new friendships, deaths, loves, betrayals... On top of that there is his physical transformation, and having to reconcile his past with his present and figure out his own identity. On top of all this depth there is also a lot of action, political intrigue, and crazy awesome world-building. I can't even with this book.

I listened to the audiobook of Red Rising narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds. The narration totally made this book. Reynolds' Scottish burr for the Reds of Mars was great, and his singing the Reaper Comes song was positively chilling. He managed to do distinctive voices for the various characters without doing that annoying squeaky fakey voice for the female characters, which I always appreciate from a male narrator. If I continue this series, it will definitely be with the audiobooks as narrated by Mr. Reynolds. Definitely a 5 star rating on the performance!

This is the first book in a series that looks like it's currently slated to have 6 books so far. Book 5, Dark Age has an expected publication date of Sept 18, 2018, and the 6th book is as yet untitled with a respected release of sometime in 2019. I'm not seeing anything that says if the 6th book will be the final in the series or if there will be more. Just so you're forewarned of what you might be getting yourself into! I think this first book can really be read as a stand alone, as the major and immediate plotlines are resolved, with lots of deeper plotlines and foreshadowing for the future left unresolved. It does not end of a cliff-hanger, and while I will probably eventually read the other books in the series, I'm not like "AHHH, what happens next?!" Red Rising has a very defined beginning/middle/end that leaves me satisfied with reading just this one book. Long story short, you don't have to be sucked into a series if you just want to enjoy a single stand-alone book, but the series is there if you want more of the world and the story.

Book Review: Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep #1) by Mira Grant

Book Review: Into the Drowning Deep (Rolling in the Deep #1) by Mira Grant

Rating: 5 Stars

 

Published November 14th 2017 by Orbit

Summary: Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a “mockumentary” bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a maritime tragedy.

Now, a new crew has been assembled. But this time they’re not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life’s work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost.

Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves.

But the secrets of the deep come with a price.
(from Goodreads)

Review:

"It was beautiful, in its own terrible way. So many monsters are."

Yeah sure, mermaids are all well and good until they come and EAT YOUR DING-DANG FACE OFF. OK, I completely loved this book. I love all things mermaids (or sirens, as the case may be) and so many mermaid-ish things I read are teenage girls discovering they're a mermaid princess, or teenage mermaids just wanting to be part of your world, and blah-dee-freakin'-blah. These are not those type of mermaids. These mermaids want to EAT your world.

"The Atargatis hadn’t found the mermaids through a free and open exchange of ideas. The Atargatis had found the mermaids because the people on the ship were made of meat, and the mermaids had empty stomachs that they wanted to fill. That was how you found things, in the sea. Be delicious. That was all you ever had to do."

I did not read the prequel novella, Rolling in the Deep, before reading Into the Drowning Deep, and I can assure you that you can read this for full effect without reading the prequel. There are a lot of characters in what is essentially an ensemble piece, and they all had their own unique little quirks and foibles for there being so many of them. A lot of times upon finishing a book I couldn't tell you the names of the hero and heroine, let alone all the supporting cast. But let me give you the run down.

Dr. Jillian Toth is a total badass and by far and away my favorite character. Actually she reminds me of someone…

"Do I think they found mermaids? Yes. Of course I do. And I think the mermaids ate them all."

-Dr. Jillian Toth

Her (estranged) husband, Theo, is a suit for Imagine who is also badass in his own, quieter and more bespectacled way. He reminds me of Kyoya Ootori from Ouran High School Host Club in some ways.

Michi and Jacques are (badass) big game hunters, Michi being a hot Aussie of Japanese descent and Jacques being a somewhat deranged French-Canadian. Olivia is a hot blonde reporter for Imagine that's a cosplay queen that always dresses in Emma Frost closet cosplay, and is followed around by her burly cameraman/bodyguard Ray. Tory is a hot bi scientist who lost her sister on the first mermaid mission (the Atargatis) and is accompanied by her too much money friend Luis who is essentially a cryptozoologist that plays with sonar. Hallie is the hot hearing older sister scientist to hot twin redheads Holly (another scientist, biology maybe?) and Heather (who drives something called a Minnow that's like a super fancy diving bell submersible thing) - all three of whom are hot, did I mention that? Daniel the hot tattooed cetologist (I may have misspelled that, but it's some sort of scientist that involves dolphins. I dunno, don't ask me). Daryl and Gregory are two quasi-bumbling engineers who remind me a little bit of some cartoon character duo or other that I can't quite place.

So essentially, you have a whole bunch of hot scientist ladies, and some guys who may or may not be hot. That's about the only thing that bugged me about the entire book, that all these nerds in one place and either somehow we just happen to randomly focus on the ones that are hot, or they're ALL hot science nerds (at least the ladies, anyway). I don't know about you, but my experience science nerds tend to not be so hot. I'm not saying they're NOT hot, but there shouldn't be a 100% hit rate on attractive ladies in a pool of, like, half a dozen women. Oh, but there's lots of diversity because Michi is Japanese/Australian, and Heather and Holly are deaf, and Tory and Olivia are bi/lesbian (Tolivia 4eva, btw), and Jillian is older. …Anyway, I digress.

There is mighty gore, and coming together and a coming apart of peoples, crazy stuff and plot twists about mermaids and their biology and their motives. There are plenty of other things I want to say, but almost all of them would be spoilers of some sort, so I'll just settle on HOLY CRAP, this book is amazing.

If you can survive long enough (translation: if I mermaid doesn’t split its face in half to chomp you with the billions of needle teeth jutting out of its gaping maw…) you might just get to stick around for Book #2 (which I assume is coming, since this one is titled as being Rolling in the Deep #1).

Book Review: Warcross by Marie Lu

Book Review: Warcross (Warcross #1) by Marie Lu

Rating: 5 Stars

 

Published September 12th 2017 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Summary: For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as a bounty hunter, tracking down players who bet on the game illegally. But the bounty hunting world is a competitive one, and survival has not been easy. Needing to make some quick cash, Emika takes a risk and hacks into the opening game of the international Warcross Championships—only to accidentally glitch herself into the action and become an overnight sensation.

Convinced she’s going to be arrested, Emika is shocked when instead she gets a call from the game’s creator, the elusive young billionaire Hideo Tanaka, with an irresistible offer. He needs a spy on the inside of this year’s tournament in order to uncover a security problem . . . and he wants Emika for the job. With no time to lose, Emika’s whisked off to Tokyo and thrust into a world of fame and fortune that she’s only dreamed of. But soon her investigation uncovers a sinister plot, with major consequences for the entire Warcross empire.
(from Goodreads)


Review: This book is so fun! It's like Sword Art Online meets Quidditch meets Hunger Games. Emika is a great character with a past and motivation that make sense, and a fair amount of personal growth throughout the story. I found myself cheering for her and thinking fiercely at this book "GO EMIKA, GO!!" There are a lot of supporting characters, but Lu does a good job of giving them each a distinct, unique presence so I didn't get them all jumbled up in my head. I loved the Warcross games competition, the spectacle of it all reminded me of Hunger Games, while the game itself reminded me more of Quidditch from the Potterverse. The digital technology of the neurolink reminds me of Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale. It's almost speculative fiction more than sci-fi because it's like it could be the next step for Google Glass, or something Apple will come out with soon.

There was a point in the book where I felt extreme anxiety, fluttery lovey/lust excitement, and then extreme frustration in the span of about half an hour. You know it's a great book when it takes you on an emotional roller coaster and makes you grumpy at anyone who interrupts you because you just HAVE TO know what happens next!

Also - HOLY PLOT TWIST, BATMAN! I thought about 3/4 of the way through I had the ending figured out, and then BAM. Think you're so smart, do you? Nope. You know nothing, Jon Snow.

I listened to an audiobook version of this book as narrated by Nancy Wu. Let me tell you something - Nancy Wu is an amazing narrator. There are characters who are from all over the world and she gives them each their unique voice, making a good attempt at mimicking various different accents. She reads with great feeling and inflection that really made the characters feel real.