Greek Glass Makers Navigate Fascist Dystopia Pros: Lyrical prose. Poetic and allegorical. Cast features much cultural diversity.Possible cons: Unusual structure including set up and unlikely wrap up. More character and theme driven than plot driven. Plot requires substantial suspension of disbelief. In the paranoid dystopia of Angela Panayotopulos’s paranormal novel, The Wake Up, a mad […]
Pros: Gripping plot. Professional prose, production and editing. Possible Cons: Loner, emotionally isolated main character. Many unpleasant supporting characters. Jeff Chapman’s medieval fantasy, The Great Contagion, lies somewhat outside my usual reading preferences. However, possession is one of my literary interests, and the novel covers a distinct possession, the well-known human into animal transfer. Hate
A Name in the Dark by G.S. Fortis, a Review Pros: Action packed plot. Vivid, cinematic prose. Characters with emotional depth. Possible Cons: High graphic index (violence). First two chapters with minor issues. Thanks my character Pam’s experience with an inner demon, I’ve become interested in literary portrayals of possession. Any kind of possession will
Pros: Action packed plot. Vivid, cinematic prose. Possible Cons: High graphic index (violence). Low to medium graphic index (sex) but much unpleasantness implied, including non-consensual and abusive gay relationships. In The Raidships, Mercenaries from a near by planet brutally attack Whit’s peaceful village on Alesia. He’s enslaved and transported to Valkra, a cold, cruel world
Pros: Masterful descriptions and characterisations. Haunting language. Possible Cons: Open-ended story telling. This book is horror (various unpleasantries occur). Whilst floundering in Internet quicksand, I stuck a foot into North American Lake Monsters: stories by Nathan Ballingrud. I clicked on the sample thinking the book described legends of “real” monsters, curious, having never heard of
Pros: Very funny, priceless witticisms. Possible Cons: Only for those ready to suspend disbelief from a flagpole. Valuable Lesson: Don’t stress too much over cover art. Finding comparable works to Harmony Lost was no easy task; the tale is a mixture: a dash of Sci Fi, alternate reality, an atypical romance, a struggle to the
Pros: Intricately imagined world. Timely themes. Much wisdom. Possible Cons: Suspension of disbelief mandatory. Many informational passages, characters and indefinite nouns. Tell/Show Ratio – high Graphic Index Sex – low Graphic Index Violence – medium World Building – excellent Internal Veracity – medium Science fiction novels often magnify current societal concerns. The opening quote from
(You can’t melt a frozen heart with anger) Pros: Lovely prose. Fabulous world building. Engaging plot with mystery, peril and hope. Deep themes including population control, religious hypocrisy and societal constraints, the human-animal connection. Fine characterizations including a portrayal of a failed marriage, and an intriguing protagonist. Characters act from in response to well-depicted psychological
(Marginalized humans undermine the dominance of machines with the help of a sentient breadmaker and a hair salon.) Pros: Clever set up, an interesting character, brilliant machine-world psychology. Possible Cons: Probably not the book for those unable to suspend disbelief or those who like their dystopias grim and sincere. Battlestar Suburbia begins as the story
