Xombies: Apocalypticon by Walter Greatshell

Fortunately, when Xombies: Apocalypticon, by Walter Greatshell, arrived on my doorstep, I didn’t need to dig my shotgun out.  I was, however, understandably wary.   This review is mostly spoiler-free!

No Starbucks Today

I am advocating a day without starbucks. I know. Sounds horrid.

But it’s for a good cause. A dollar. Five dollars. Anything would help.

Ii guess this is kind of personal for me because I have a dearly loved friend who fought so hard to bring his first baby girl home safe and healthy.

:::hugs J::::

Sso… if you can help with the adoption fee from the orphanage, they’d appreciate it. There IS a drawing. Be sure to enter for one of the prizes.

http://cjredwine.blogspot.com/2010/08/skip-starbucks-day_22.html

If you can pass on the link to your blog or twitter or email, please do so. Thanks.

The Climb (Three Crow Fiction)

The Climb By Gary J Beharry

I am afraid. He speaks to me in my dreams, you see. He tells me that because of me, everyone is angry. Things have stopped working the way they are supposed to, because of my selfishness. I do not understand. I do not remember.

He says I made my choice a long time ago. I had the courage to ask him why once, why it is my fault, why I am being punished. That, I remember clearly:

Ouroboros (Three Crow Press Fiction)

Ouroboros by Marie Robertson

“Will it hurt?”

It was a childish question, but Lawrence couldn’t help it.  The woman before him continued to work, her back to him, as though she hadn’t heard.  The room was lit with a low, cheap lamp, and Lawrence could barely see her thin, gnarled body.  She stirred something vigorously, filling the room with the scent of spice and timeless foreboding.

“Of course it will hurt,” she said after a few moments.  Her voice was like a sheet of dry paper being torn in two.  “It will be excruciating.”

Jumpers (Three Crow Fiction)

Jumpers By Steve Lowe

Marvin squirms in the wet grass with a shiv rammed into his side as tinny intonations of Beethoven’s fifth symphony emanate from his pocket. Lucy’s ringtone.

They picked a spot just above his belt, in that fleshy area around the hip, the tender love handle, to plunge the sharpened hunk of metal. Last he heard, they were lacing the tips of their homemade blades with poison, but he doesn’t know if it’s true. He coaxes the ice pick from his body and flips open his cellphone, oblivious to the chaos around him.

“Lucy.”

“Daddy? Are you OK? What’s happening there?”

“Yeah, baby, I’m OK.” Not very convincing spoken through clenched teeth. A frail woman in a wheelchair rolls past him, screaming.

The Porcelain Doll (Three Crow Press Fiction)

By Susan Cunningham

Cobwebs, dust, and stale air crush me like the weight of bricks. Time no longer matters in this musty old attic. How long has it been since I’ve been held and loved?

The feeling of tiny hands as they gently caress my hair seems like a distant memory. The sounds of children playing somewhere in the distance teases my loneliness. I desperately want them to find me, but I know what danger lurks if they do. Sometimes, they are so close. I imagine I will be found, and then my hopes shatter as the voices fade.

Today is different. The voices are much nearer this time.

Do I dare hope?

Strong hands grasp my leg and drag me through the dirt. A tall man with a gentle face holds me in the air, and I swing about like a pendulum.

Strange Fortune by Josh Lanyon

Strange Fortune by Josh Lanyon is the author’s first work in the fantasy genre. My editor introduced me to his popular Adrien English m/m mystery books when she requested I review one of his books. I ended up reading the whole series in one night. (Yes, I am the type of person who will do that if I like one book in a series).  So my only warning is that his work is strangely addictive (so of course I want to share that addiction). For a complete list of his works: http://www.joshlanyon.com/the_works.html

For an excerpt (Chapter 1): http://www.mybookstoreandmore.com/strange-fortune-p-6006.html which has the e-book formats available there. The trade paperback version is also available at his website as well as places like Amazon and even Lanyon’s official site.

Book description:

“Valentine Strange, late of his Majesty’s 21st Benhali Lancers, needs money. Happily, the wealthy Holy Orders of Harappu are desperate to retrieve the diadem of the Goddess Purya from an ancient temple deep in the mountainous jungle—an area Strange knows well from his days quelling rebellions. The pay is too good and the job seems too easy for Strange to refuse. But when Master Aleister Grimshaw, a dangerous witch from a traitorous lineage, joins the expedition, Strange begins to suspect that more is at stake than the retrieval of a mere relic.

Grimshaw knows an ancient evil surrounds the diadem— the same evil once hunted him and still haunts his mind. However, experience has taught him to keep his suspicions to himself or risk being denounced as a madman. Again.

Harried by curses, bandits and unnatural creatures, Strange and Grimshaw plunge onward. But when a demonic power wakes and the civilized world descends into revolution, their tenuous friendship is threatened as each man must face the destruction of the life he has known.”

Ghost of a Chance: A Ghost Finders novel by Simon R. Green review

Ghost of a Chance: A Ghost Finders novel by Simon R. Green is the first book in a new series of a team of agents that “kick’s the ectoplasm butt” of ghosts, haunting and other supernatural ooga booglies. It is to be released on August 31, 2010. Published by Ace, ISBN: 978-0-441-01916-8, $7.99, 272 pages mass paperback. 
On a side note: I cannot find an official author site for Simon R. Green so I am going to direct you to his publisher’s site instead with the book information for this specific book as well as his other series.  http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Search/QuickSearchProc/1,,Author_1000012976,00.html

Book description: “The Carnacki Institute exists to “Do Something” about Ghosts-and agents JC Chance, Melody Chambers, and Happy Jack Palmer will either lay them to rest, send them packing, or kick their nasty ectoplasm arses with extreme prejudice.”

Kappa: A Japanese Tale of Monster and Sushi

There are two types of sushi one orders when going to a sushi restaurant for the first time. Mind you, this is a family tradition of ours so the results of this test are wholly subjective but I was raised to test a sushi chef’s ability to make the two most basic of sushi; inari and kappa.

For those not familiar with these, inari is a sushi made out of a sweetened tofu pocket and stuffed with sushi rice; sometimes with blanched green bean and carrot slivers. Kappa is a cucumber roll; sushi rice rolled around a partially de-skinned column of de-seeded cucumber wrapped in nori (seaweed).

Not coincidentally, these are also the two types of sushi that most children are fed when they are younger. Since I come from a family of storytellers (I’m being generous. Most people say we just talk a lot), the legends behind these sushi often came before the dish.

The Shattered Sylph by L. J. McDonald

 

The Shattered Sylph by L.J. McDonald (http://www.ljmcdonald.ca/index.html )  is the second in the fantasy romance series dealing with the world of the Sylphs. I enjoyed The Battle Sylph as it was an original idea and had a feeling that Lizzy and Ril would have a story in the future (if they did not, I was going to be mad as I liked Ril and Lizzy). I was excited when it was announced that their story would be next. And I am happy to report that I found this entry in the series an even stronger novel compared to the debut book! Such a rare, happy occurance that I am still buzzing happily.