Novelnaut

Exploring the Depths of Novels and Writing

Hal Junior: The Secret Signal

By: Simon Haynes

Hal Junior: The Secret Signal is the newest book by the author of the Hal Spacejock series of comedic science fiction novels.  It’s aimed at school age children as an introduction to the Spacejock world and is the first of many in a planned series.  Disclaimer: I was given a pre-release copy of the kindle book for reviewing purposes.

I’ve been following along as Simon Haynes wrote the book, and jumped at the opportunity to give it a read and review.  It’s a pleasant book, that reminds me a bit of some of the early books that I read in grade school.  The main character, Hal Junior, really, really wants to be a space hero like his hero Hal Spacejock.  The problem is that he’s always getting himself into a bit of trouble.  When the space station that he lives on with his parents is subject to a hijacking of sorts, and he’s challenged to be the one to save the station.

The book is a pleasant book, that will appeal to many younger school age kids.  Despite the differences in surroundings, I think they will be able to associate with Hal Junior and will be itching to have their own space suit.  I think that often times, this particular age group gets a bit ignored in favor of the middle school and high school YA group that has a bit more disposable income at the ready for movies and such, but the younger kids need heroes too!

The Secret Signal is a very promising start to a series that will give them the heroes they need, and a tickle to their imaginations as well.

Spell Bound

By: Kelley Armstrong

I first read a Kelly Armstrong book last summer when I was sent a copy of Waking the Witch by the PR agency.  (Disclaimer: I was sent Spell Bound to review as well.)  I started Waking the Witch and finished it in the same day.  So, I wasn’t all that hesitant to take a stab at Spell Bound as I was pretty sure I would like it.

Spell Bound picks up almost immediately after the end of Waking the Witch with Savannah Levine recovering from the events at the end of Waking the Witch.  I again found myself immediately pulled into the story and the world that Armstrong creates in her Otherworld series.  The paranormal world never seems like something that was roughly overlain on our world, but merely something that existed all along and is merely being revealed.  The characters aren’t as fully fleshed out as I would like, but I think that’s a risk that you take when you jump into a series of books.  You miss out on a lot of backstory on the characters, so they feel a little bit less “full” than they would had you read the entire series first.  It’s not necessarily a fault of the author, but more of the medium.  Long series’ (this is book 12 in the Otherworld series) tend to have some very long drawn out plot lines that can be somewhat confusing when you haven’t read the whole thing.

The writing, throughout, is good.  It’s easy to read and flows nicely.  I can’t imagine there are too many of you who are really into paranormal fantasy that haven’t read at least a little of Armstrong’s work, but if you haven’t, you really should pick up a few of her novels.  You won’t find much better done paranormal, with more readable stories.

Ready Player One

By Ernest Cline

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review. As is my standing policy, if I don’t like a book that I get for review, I just don’t write a review.  That being said, I still try to keep my reviews honest, so I attempt to keep the fact that the book was sent to me for free out of the review as much as possible.

I was pretty sure, just from reading the cover blurb on this book, that it was one that I would enjoy.  I wasn’t wrong.  This is an immensely fun book to read.  The geek in me was constantly finding some new thing to like about it.  The concept is pretty cool.  A billionaire gaming software maker builds an immersive virtual reality world that everyone gets addicted to.  He dies, leaving the company and control of the the VR world to whomever finds the “easter egg” that he’s left in the game.   This, of course, spawns a whole subculture of people who dedicate their lives to finding this prize.  The story is told from the first person view of one such “gunter” as he chases down the clues and tries to find the egg.  The story is littered with 80′s pop culture references.  It’s fun to read if only because of all the things that Cline finds to throw in there.

This is one of those books that, despite it’s length (374 pages), reads really quick.  I read it in about a week, which is a heck of a lot quicker than some that I read of the same length.

If you’re into 80′s geek pop culture, you’ll want to pick this up.  It’s a little bit of all the fun stuff I remember from that era thrown together to make a super fun read.

The Last Four Things

By: Paul Hoffman

Let’s get the disclaimer out of the way right off.  I was sent a review copy of this book by a publicist.  My standing policy on this is that if I don’t like the book, I don’t review it.  Since I didn’t pay for the book, I can’t complain too much if I didn’t like it, so I don’t complain at all.  If I had paid for the book, then I have every right to complain about my wasted money.  Since you’re reading this disclaimer, you’ve probably already discerned that I liked the book.  So, let’s get on with the review, shall we?

This is the second book in an expected trilogy.  I really dislike reading books out of order.  I always feel like I’m missing something of the plot, world, and/or characters.  This wasn’t much of an exception to that rule.  I will say, however, that Hoffman did a splendid job of getting me up to speed on the highlights of the backstory.  That helped, and it was done in such a way that it didn’t feel like it was just a recap for the reader.  I still found myself feeling that I’d missed out on some of the character building, and plenty of the world building.  Hoffman has built this world that feels very much like a parallel world to ours, with many of our locations and religions built right in.  I found myself wondering more and more, as the story went on, where some of this came from, and how it all tied in.  Perhaps that was stuff that would have been answered in the first book.  I can’t know until I read it.

The book read quickly, despite the fact that it’s full of information at every turn.  Much of the dialogue reminded me of the dialogue from a Kevin Smith movie, or a Tarantino movie; deep and thoughtful without being too complex.  The characters are well rounded, and I found myself being drawn to them while, at the same time, being repulsed by some of what they did.  That sounds funny, but given the circumstances they found themselves in, it’s not so bad.  In fact, if you ask me, it’s the sign of some really well written characters.  The plot was well twisted, and very little of it was given away.  In fact, I think that Hoffman may have gone a bit too far in a few places in keeping the plot hidden.  The actions made sense, but they weren’t ever really given any clear justification.

All around, a really well written fantasy with some really fun/interesting elements that make it highly readable.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for the third book when it comes out, as well as add the first to my list.

Let’s Get Digital: How to Self-Publish, and Why You Should

By: David Gaughran

I think it’s important, regardless of what stage you are in on you publishing journey, to try and understand as much about the options available to you as you can before making any major decisions.  There is quite obviously a rather large discussion going on about publishing right now.  There are those who say that you should self-publish, and there are those who say that you should publish traditionally through the publishing houses.  I’ve discussed a bit about both sides here before.  I still am not entirely sure where I sit, but think that, at the moment, I am leaning more towards the self-publishing side.  Why?  Partially, because I read this book.

Gaughran makes a very strong argument for the self-publishing route.  None of which are anecdotal.  He backs up his thoughts with some very solid logic and even stronger facts, and really makes a good case for doing it yourself.  He doesn’t just tell you to wade in and get your feet wet, either, but makes the argument for still having your manuscript edited at least once by someone other than your mother or yourself.  He makes an argument for professional cover designers as well.  This isn’t just a book that says that self-publishing is great, now jump in.  The steps are outlined and ready for you to discover the path you will take with your creation.

If there’s any one thing that the book is thin on, it’s extreme detail.  For instance, Gaughran writes about using professional cover artists and editors, but doesn’t go into a whole lot of detail about who, where, when.  He also writes about the process of getting your work loaded into the various publishing services, but again doesn’t go into the exact detail on how to do that.  Which, I think, is good.  He actually expects you to learn how to do those things.  The information is freely available in several locations, and is really just a search away, so why waste the readers time hand-holding them down the path.

The book is an excellent primer on self-publishing, and is by far the best book on digital self-publishing that I’ve read to date.  This will sound a bit strange, but with some non-fiction books, you come away with the desire to read other books on the exact same subject so that you can learn more on the subject.  I didn’t with this book.  In part, I think that is because there is plenty of information there, and what detail is missing, Gaughran points the reader in the right direction to find that detail.

The book is currently available digitally only.  You can pick up a copy of Let’s Get Digital for the Kindle at Amazon (and support this site while you’re doing it).  Also, I’ve added Gaughran’s blog to the blogroll in the sidebar if you’re interested.  He posts regularly, and continues the conversation on self-publishing. He’s also listed the other ways you can get pick up a copy of the book (including a free pdf version) on his blog: Let’s get Digital.

Goblin War

By: Jim C. Hines

Goblin War is the final chapter in the Jig the Dragonslayer trilogy.  It’s an interesting end to his story, too.  Not quite what I expected, but not terrible either.  Without giving too much of it away, the ending just didn’t feel very “goblin”-like to me.  Throughout the trilogy, we’ve gotten this view of goblins as being cowardly and mostly stupid.  Jig, of course, has always been a bit different from the rest, so that helps make the ending more palatable.  The little excerpts from a previous time with Shadowstar also help in the explanation, but could have maybe been done more with.

Reading all of that over, it makes it sound like it’s a terrible ending.  It’s not.  Just not exactly what I expected.  That’s probably a good thing.  It means that Hines did a great job in keeping the plot lines turning and away from giving the ending away.

Once again, Hines’ writing is good.  He keeps very true to the characters, and they remained uniform throughout the novel and the series.  (at least, those that were in the entire series)  Much like each of the other books in the series, he introduces some new characters that are just as well written.  My favorite of the new ones was Gratz.  He’s a goblin, like Jig, but where Jig is the weakling that always seems to get it right, Gratz is the average goblin with a penchant for regulation and order.  He added a lot of light comedy to the story, and was a solid plot device in several places.

Overall, Goblin War is a fitting end to Jig’s story.  If you’ve read the first two, you need to read this one and get some closure.   If you haven’t read the first two, go pick up Goblin Quest and get started.

The Sunrise Lands

By: S.M. Sterling

This is book 4 in the Emberverse series.  The first three are the original trilogy that begins with Dies the Fire.  Sunrise Lands picks up many years later, and centers itself on the children of the change, mainly Rudi, son of Mike “Lord Bear” Havel and Juniper “Herself herself” Mackenzie.  I wasn’t truly sure what to expect when I picked this book up.  I loved the original trilogy of books.  (I’m coming to realize that I love just about any apocalypse/end of world as we know it story)  But, this story picked up well after the change, so I wasn’t sure if it would still hold my interest without that urgency factor.  Within pages, I was relieve of that worry.  It was much like coming home to your old friends and family.  Many of them have aged a bit, but are still the same old folks you know and love.  Comforting.

One small nitpick that I had with the original trilogy was that Sterling couldn’t help but throw a bit of the fantastical into the story.  I suppose it was somewhat necessary to explain the change itself, but it always seemed a bit extraneous.  Unfortunately, it’s become much more pronounced in this new series.  One interesting thing that happens as a result of that, however, is that we get a pretty interesting look at how a society might evolve over 20 years after a significant change in the way of life.  So much so, that by the end of the novel, the fantastical elements weren’t nearly as pronounced to me.  Still there, yes, but they don’t stick out like sore thumbs like they did near the beginning.  You grow to accept them.  That’s a bonus point for Sterling’s world building, I think.

The writing, like the original series is conversational.  It isn’t text book difficulty, which, to me, makes it easy to read and understand.  There’s a few terms and names that are a bit higher on the difficulty scale, but not so bad as to cause anything more than a slight bump in the reading pace.  The extent of Sterling’s research into many of the battle weapons and the way of life without electricity shows in the amount of detail that he melds into the world and the story.  I think you could pick up this book without having read the previous three books and still end up with a satisfying read.  I would suggest your read the other three first however.

The Black God’s War

By: Moses Siregar III

This is a review of the Kindle novella version of The Black God’s War, which I read on my smart phone, so I won’t be discussing the typesetting, or formatting of the book at all.  (Not that I usually do that for paper books, either.)

It used to be that if you read a self-published bit of fiction, you got something that was unpolished, likely unedited, and just all around not worth reading.  Now, with the advances that have been made in self-publishing and it’s growing popularity among new and established authors, you’re more likely to stumble upon something worth reading.  That’s exactly what happened with this novella.

It’s meant as an introduction/teaser for the full length novel that is to be released sometime later this year, and you can tell that.  The plot carries along just fine, but the ending makes it very obvious that there is something more to it.  Knowing that it was a part of something larger to begin with made this a bit of a softer blow, but I can see where someone who didn’t know that would feel like the story had an abrupt and unsatisfying ending.  I think Siregar does a good job, between the addition to the title of the novella and in the introduction, of disclaiming the larger nature of the story, there are those who don’t read the electronic title or the introduction.

The writing is very good.  The dialogue moves along nicely and also moves the plot along.  There is very little wasted speech, unlike some who tend to have paragraph after paragraph of dialogue whose only purpose seem to be to give the reader some little nugget about the character who dies on the next page.  (Ok, that’s a bit dramatized, but you get the point.)  The story itself is good.  I’ll be honest and say that it isn’t the most unique setup that I’ve ever seen, but, then how many of them really are.  The way that he melds the Gods and the world together is well done, and I think it will be enhanced by the extra ability of a full novel.

This is one that I’ll be looking for when it is released.  The novella is enough of a taste of the world, the characters, and the quality writing, to make me want to find out what happens.

The Kindle version of this is, as of this writing, currently priced at the low-low price of free, so go pick it up if you have a Kindle!

Dante’s Journey

By: JC Marino

This is a book that’s been on my “to-read” list for quite some time.  It’s an interesting concept, really.  Take the original classic Inferno and put a more modern twist on it.  Marino does so with the help of the protagonist, Joe Dante, a Boston Police Officer whose only purpose in life became vengeance upon a crime boss who he blames for his family’s death.  We come into the story as Dante finds himself in a strange place, and quickly find out that he’s passed through that bright light and landed himself on the first level of Hell. What follows is an interesting tale of the search for his family’s killer and, more importantly, for who he really is.

I have to admit, the first 50 or so pages almost turned me off of the book.  The characters lived their lives in the past, so the slang and phrases that they use in their speech threw me.  Once you get used to it and figure out that it’s going on, it wasn’t so bad.  I also found myself confused by the ending.  I won’t spoil it here, but suffice to say that the ending isn’t the clearest on who is who and what really happens.  There’s a bit of complexity in the plot, that needed to be tied up.  It was, but just not very neatly, I thought.

If you overlook the adjustment pages in the front and the somewhat muddled ending, the book is a good book.  For a book whose setting is Dante’s Hell, I expected a bit more religious overtones, but I never felt like the religion was the purpose of the book.  The story was.  It is a story of discovery, and as such, there’s a bit of introspective meandering, but it’s well mixed with action as they travel through the circles of Hell.

I think people who normally read detective books will like this more than I did.  I gave it three starts (out of 5) on Goodreads, but it really should have had a 3.5.  They don’t have half stars there, so it got 3.  It’s a good book, that’s worth a read, especially if you are into detective/action books.

Fuzzy Nation

By: John Scalzi

In interest of disclosure, I was sent a review copy of this book by Tor, the publisher.  I’ll try my best to keep that out of the review.  I won’t make any such claims about my author-love of John Scalzi.  Got it?  Free book, no sway.  Author-love, sway.

Fuzzy Nation is, as Scalzi says, a “reboot” of Piper’s Little Fuzzy.  I’ve never read the original by Piper, so I can’t really speak to whether Fuzzy Nation takes a huge detour from the original or not, nor can I compare the two.  What I can tell you though is that it is a terrific story.  The plot cruises along and Scalzi does a wonderful job of hiding the motivations and important plot twists from the reader until they are absolutely necessary.  The writing, typical to Scalzi, is short on elaborate description and long on action and dialogue.  Neither of those, in my opinion, is a bad thing.  It lends to a book that reads quickly, and keeps the reader turning pages, and, also is what has gotten the name John Scalzi associated with the term “Bestselling”.

Having not read the original, I don’t know how much credit to give to Scalzi for the story itself.  Whether a majority of it came from Piper, or, from Scalzi, it was good.  A classical morality sci-fi tale about finding sentient life on a otherwise non-sentient planet and the reactions of those who would rather it stayed a non-sentient planet.

I think that, if you’re read the original, you really should read this “reboot”.  Really, even if you haven’t, you should read it anyways!  Another great novel from John Scalzi!

P.S. The original, “Little Fuzzy”, is available for free at Amazon for Kindle.

ADDED: Fuzzy Nation also has it’s own Power Ballad Rock Song by Paul and Storm.