I decided like, I don’t know, six months ago? that I was going to read ALL THE STEPHEN KING, so I was eventually going to read this book (and all his others) no matter what. Deciding which books to read first was the main thing. I decided to read this one first (and Misery and The Stand, come to think of it) because I read his On Writing back in November, and he talks about the process of writing all three of them. The way he […]
Mindbending
So I finally read Alif the Unseen. Wow — what a genre-bender. So many questions about belief, ideology, loyalty, technology, humanity, and identity are explored across multiple metaphysical planes and in achingly familiar real-world contexts. To back up to a plot summary, which I’ll ape from Goodreads: “In an unnamed Middle Eastern security state, a young Arab-Indian hacker shields his clients—dissidents, outlaws, Islamists, and other watched groups—from surveillance and tries to stay out of trouble. He goes by Alif—the first letter of the Arabic alphabet, and […]
Get ready for a lock-in from Hell.
If you were to toss Silent Hill, Event Horizon, The Shining, Office Space, House on Haunted Hill (the 1998 remake), and an IKEA catalog in to blender what would come out is probably very similar to Horrorstör. Less like a novel and more like a movie, this horror-adventure is fast paced, funny, scary and disturbing. Also a heck of a lot of fun! If you are a fan of the movies and games listed above than seek this one out immediately. Amy is an aimless […]
I Wasn’t Charmed
I wanted to like this book, and there were moments of it that I enjoyed, but the sixty or so pages in between these precious paragraphs were enough for me to not recommend this book to any serious urban fantasy readers. The bones of a good story are there: a fairly congenial and funny protagonist, a supernatural world, a believable love interest, and a manageable cast of semi-interesting major characters. Where this book failed to capture my attention was in the protagonist’s narration and the […]
Witch Serial Killer on the Loose in Cincinnatti
The Good, The Bad and The Undead has Rachel Morgan gunning for that slippery Trent Kalamack again. Someone is butchering ley line witches all over town. The FIB (the human led agency dealing with X-Files) want her to go undercover as a ley line student to spy on a professor. Morgan isn’t having any of it, convinced Trent is behind it as his secretary’s witch boyfriend disappeared. In typical fashion, the FIB boss warns her off that line of questioning. He saddles her with his […]
This series is awesome.
This isn’t going to be a great critical review, I’m sorry to say. I really enjoyed this book and I feel that it’s a perfect addition to an already stellar series, which I raved about in one of my earlier CBR6 reviews. Goodreads summary: “As the mate of the Beast Lord, Curran, former mercenary Kate Daniels has more responsibilities than it seems possible to juggle. Not only is she still struggling to keep her investigative business afloat, she must now deal with the affairs of the […]