Crown and Chronos (Letha)

Crown and Chronos
by Rosa Letha (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

This book had a short page count -- it was in fact fewer than 20 pages as a PDF, including all the front matter and blank pages. It was basicaly a short story. I was so shocked when I got to the end, I double-checked the email with the file, and I wrote the author asking if it was supposed to be so short.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

This is a short story that reads like the prologue to a much longer novel that wasn't included. I got to the end and thought, "That's it?"

---

I can't say anything else because there was no story there to say anything about. But at least I finished both of this month's Library Thing books quickly. I still have a couple of older ones to catch up on.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Heracles: Lion of Nemea (Kin)

Heracles: Lion of Nemea
by kin (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I usually avoid series books, but this was based on the 12 Labors of Heracles (Hercules), so I didn't really worry about it being open-ended. And it is the first book in the series. (The second was offered the following month.) It also helped that it was a short book.

I will say that while I'm familiar with the idea of the 12 labors, I couldn't name them all any more than I could name all of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I didn't watch that many movies or read that many books.

Note that the author's name is given only as "Kin".

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

This was a fun little read although it was long on introspection and short on action until the final third of the book when Heracles fights the lion. I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one.

---

I realize that this wasn't much of a review but it was a short book and not a lot happens.

I enjoyed the book, but it was slow and there wasn't a lot of action until the last third of the book. In the prologue, Heracles' wife is dead and he had her blood on his hands but that's all we get. Then he's on the road, traveling, going somewhere or nowhere. He confronts one village who won't let him stay a night or have anything to eat. Later, he's beset on by bandits whom he dispatches quickly enough, getting hurt along the way. It's not until the end where he's climbing a mountain that he seeks out whatever creature is up there (We know: it's in the title of the book!), and to rescue a father and son.

There is a lot of detail about the mountain and you almost just want him to get there already.

Finally, there's so action where Heracles, wounded and bleeding, kills the lion with bare hands and the strength in his battered body.

He returns to the town the boy is from and tells them the lion is dead and the man is covered in rocks in a cave to protect his body from vultures. Then he walks on without asking to stay.

End of story.

I guess you would classify this kind of writing as "literary" although that usually means that there isn't a speculative element. Not that any are mentioned here, but this is Heracles we're talking about.

It was enjoyable, and I'd read the next one if I won it.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Defenders: Reign of the Bugs (Greenwood)

Defenders: Reign of the Bugs
by Leslie Greenwood (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

It seemed like an interesting enough premise, so I requested this book (along with maybe ten others), and this was one of the two that received last month. I was a bit behind with some other books, so I didn't get to it right away. And then when I did, I was a little sorry that I picked it.

Aliens take over the Earth, and give certain people superpowers so that they can defend the plaent from 20 invasions of the planet. This is book one, so there is a series planned from here.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

The comparison to Dungeon Crawler Carl is unavoidable, but instead of aliens creating an underground fantasy computer roleplaying game that Earth's survivors are pulled into, these aliens have created a reality show where some of Earth's population have been giving superpowers to defend the Earth from wave upon wave of invasions. Doing well gets you sponsors and better powers but not for a while. And this becomes a problem.

For one thing, a lot of the book deals with negotiations for better powers that won't come until a later round. This means that the main character, Chad, whose power is healing himself, has little to offer his team, and he tends to die a lot in the meantime. He's looked after by a Bigfoot, and android, and a leech monster (who gets refered to as literally "lecherous", which might be more amusing if she weren't a kid).

After the first space bug boss is killed, the rest is anticlimactic (with much of it happening "off camera"), and even the aliens agree. They want the heroes to fight and defend their planet, not shoot missiles at targets from afar.

There's a final side quest in Antarctica, not involving alien invasion, for a more exciting ending, and then everyone has to get ready for the next wave.

---

Basically, this is not a great book. And I can't even say that there's a good story under it, so if an editor stepped in to suggest a rewrite, it'd probably require a thorough redesign from the start.

As I told the author in email (and I will refrain from revealing email stuff), it reads like the two of us are at a con and Greenwood is telling me about this great story rather than telling the story. I realize that this might not make sense, but my first problem is in the narrative structure.

Other things that might've caused me to DNF the book if it wasn't an ARC: when the aliens invade, there's a very long info dump about the invasions, the tiered structure of superpowers, the frequency of each tier and their relative strengths, and other stuff; this dump ends with the alien "hanging a lantern" on the info dump, which is really just a sign of giving up on figuring out how to write it coherently and working it into the narrative when necessary; there are things other things that don't work.

In Carl the dungeon crawlers are living in a computer game, so everything acts like a game, including getting information on things. Here, everyone has information hanging over their heads with their names, their tiers, and their power set. This makes no sense because it's a reality show and these graphics would be on screen, not visible in real life. Consider the yellow lines that appear on TV at football games -- they don't appear on the field! Toward the end of the book, one character looks up at them and says, "oh, I keep forgetting about those." I don't see how any of them could forget about them, but I could see how the author (and the reader) might.

The four main heroes manage to take out the first bug boss (which was described as a space bug like in the movie "Starship Troopers", which, oddly, I haven't seen). After that, they get caught up with the military to go to South America and then to Antartica. Chad convinces them to practice their powers with a tournament, which would help them discover and develop their abilities and get an audience. While this is going on, five of the other six bugs are destroyed offscreen by missiles, annoying the showrunners. The military and the defenders, now with an indestructile superdog, sail to Antarctica along with a whale with mind powers, to find the last bug.

SPOILER: While the group of defenders is making their way through an ancient alien base under the ice, they receive word that the whale killed the bug. Done. First wave over. HOWEVER, a group of them are caught behind an unmovable wall and Chad figures that there's something that the producers would them to face, so they continue -- and find NAZIS. Except that they're not just Nazis, they're genetic clones of Nazis from WWII, including several clones of Hitler. And one Hitler has a S-tier level mecromancer power. ("Technomancer" might've been a better term, but then it couldn't be confused with "necromancer".)

Everything is televised on channels that the characters can view. These are shows on various networks (of which there are many) but they'll concentrate on any group that is doing something interesting. This means that this reality show has real-time cameras literally everywhere, but there are no cameras anywhere. I guess it's Microbots or Nanobots "or whaterver".

Through the entire book, there are side conversations with an agent trying to get good deals with sponsors (but not until the third level) which would add extra superpowers or abilities to each character, and another one trying to arrange interviews and instruct them with general tips how to survive longer. Again, a clumsy copy of Carl missing the logical structure to place these things.

My pettiest pet peeves: I had an ebook, so I couldn't toss the book across the room when I encountered the over-overuse of "or whatever" at the ends of sentences and responses of "Oh, I see." Both of these could be forgiven if each was confined to a single character that could be identified with it. Further, "or whatever" should only appear in dialogue and not in the narration. Either give me another option or delete those two words."

This was an ARC, and not a final copy, so I tried to ignore the typos, but there were a lot of them and some were some atrocious examples of misuse of language. (I didn't highlight these, so I can't reference them.)

One last thing: the only reason I had an email exchange with the author was because Greenwood emailed me asking if I could post a review by June 1 when the book launched (I was barely 20% in at the time), and I was offered the second book to review, which is launching July 1. I didn't respond to that, and I'm glad I didn't because I can't see how it could be better when they had to be written at the same time or at least during the time when the first one was being edited.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Jen & Gary's Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements (Gregorio)

Jen & Gary's Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements
by Nick Gregorio (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I've read my Book Club books (and the meeting was delayed because of the holiday), so I had time to catch up on other books. This should've been a quicker read but I didn't read it as quickly as I expected to. I couldn't point to any particular reason for this.

Still, I gave it five stars on Library Thing because I thought my quibbles were minor, and because I started the next book I won, which looks like it's going to be terrible. I seem to be a bit judgy with many of these Library Thing books. On the other hand, I haven't had the best of luck picking books based on the small descriptions. I would hope anyone looking at my reviews believes I'm being fair and consistent.

I'll probably give it four stars on Good Reads.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Jen & Gary's Infinite (Quantum) Entanglements is a romantic sci-fi novel that doesn't take itself seriously... until it takes itself seriously so it can resolve the plot. When Gary tells Jen he loves her, the result sends him spiraling through the multiverse, landing in other versions of himself. But unlike, for examples, "Sliders" or the MCU, the worlds Gary lands in are occupied by dinosaurs, killer robots, living islands, and even crazier. And through it all, Jen is always there.

Running parallel to this, in yet another multiverse, Jen and Gari are a couple who watch over the multiverse. Gari knows its going to be a long night as she watches a version of herself tumbling through universes, wreaking havoc and leaving a path of destruction if they can't wrangle him and find a patch. Gary then procedes at a right angle to what he should do when it starts to get more serious.

The story is fun and enjoyable. If I could ding it for one thing it would be the overuse of parenthetical asides (the kind that can be funny while providing extra information (and which can be nested for humorous effect (and sometimes drop three levels deep))).

---

The fact that the first alternate Earth Gary landed in was a world of sentient dinosaurs, which had analogue identities to the people from his original Earth caught me offguard. I found it funny because he didn't start with something similar but a little different and then skirt off into ridiculous realms. It was there from the beginning. And if that didn't set the tone, jumping into killer robots solidified it. (To be fair, the robots had absorbed the identities of people they'd just killed.)

After this, we get Jen and Gari, who are overseers -- sort of like characters that I wrote about four or five years ago in a story that I need to get back to.

We find out that Jen and Gari is a gender-swapped universe, but Jen had a procedure to be female. This is the first instance where we see that Gary and Jen could work out together. We also find out that the original Gary was from a universe that actually did revolve around him, so when he professed his love for Jen in that world, it caused him to be propelled into null space and cause his universe to leak out into null. I never quite bought that explanation that he couldn't be with Jen in his universe.

If anything, I would've preferred seeing a bunch of different universe when something prevents them from being together until he finds one that works, or until he realizes why he's in his own way (so that there's character growth or an "arc").

Another quibbly thing: each section (not chapter) is label case file #001, #002, etc. But each world takes many of these case files, some of which are only a couple of paragraphs long. I will give credit that each case file has a title, even if it's just a sentence from one of the paragraphs. I don't know the purpose that those served.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book although I think it could've been better. I have to remind myself that these are ARCs and not final copies, so there will be typos, but occasionally I wonder if another round of editing mightve helped.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Case of the Grounded Ferry (Olis)

The Case of the Grounded Ferry
by Thomas Olis (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I'm reviewing it late because I recieved it late. In fact, the author sent me the first two books to read while I was waiting. I did not read those. I don't remember if I realized that this was the third book in a series of mysteries. I did NOT know that the first book was only released a year ago.

Disclosure: I released five books within an 18-month timespan, but those were all about 40 pages long and most of the material had been written long before. Pumping out three 200-page books this quickly is a lot of work. I did notice quite a few typos, but this is an ARC not a final copy, so I can't ding the author for that unless it's particularly grievous.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

The Case of the Grounded Ferry (by Thomas Olis) starts off great with two friends on the beach when a ferry loses control and runs aground. The girls recognize someone on the ferry, who then tries to hide, and someone jumps off the ship and runs off the beach.

The girls, their friends, and their families get caught up in a bigger puzzle figuring out how all the pieces fit together while watching out for strangers out to do them harm.

Unfortunately for me, the mystery didn't really pull me in, and the ending felt a bit cut off. I never really got the feel for most of the characters. There were a lot of them, but other than a name (usually just a first name, even with the parents), there wasn't much to distinguish them.

---

I will say that the names bothered me. Everyone was a first name, except for the occasional "Mon" or "Dad". The adults are also referred to by their first names, and there are a lot of them, too. Keeping them straight and whose parents were whose might've worked better with a few last names, instead of "Mr. Jenny's Father". (Seriously.) In fact, Paul (or it might've been Pete) tells Terrence to call him anything but "sir", so he calls him by whatever name someone else called him by. The last name Stourhm, or something like that, appeared a few times in the last part of the book (once where Jenny gets called her full name by her father).

The only two kids I could keep straight were Terrence, the boy with red hair who was in the middle of everything, and Emmett, Jenny's younger brother who gets kidnapped at one point. The rest of them? I couldn't picture them at all -- maybe whatever teens and preteens I saw on some show on TV at some point. Imagine young actresses playing the parts.

The people (adults and children) behave irrationally. The police don't seem to have too much of a problem with this. (They also don't seem to use last names of the people they're talking to.) And the more I think about it, the less sense the book makes to me.

**** SPOILERS ***

And in the end, it just ends. They follow Terrence who's being kidnapped. Luckily, one of the dads works for the FBI (or was it the CIA?) and has a badge. They rescue Terrence before he's pulled onto a ship that flies a flag other than the US. The cops will not interfere, even if there might be other kids on that boat. (This make sense, but ...) And that's basically it. Sometimes, that happens.

And that's the way the story ends. Sometimes that happens. Kids get shanghaied and disappear. That happens. Less than a happy ending, and less than a satisfying one.

(End Spoilers

Oddly enough, I have nothing electronic to read at the moment. I'm waiting for books to become available, and I'm not ready to start another one of these weird sci-fi books I won. Dumb as it sounds, since Olis sent me three books, and since there's an entry on my "Reading Goals" for two book by the same author, I'll at least read the first one to see if the series got off to a decent start at least.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Class Is in Session: Teaching Through the Chaos (Patt)

Class Is in Session: Teaching Through the Chaos
by Shantel N. Patt (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Ms. Patt's background is not my background, and her experiences are not my experiences. However, I recognize her struggles and her frustrations because they're basically universal for all teachers. (I teach a higher grade level, and in a different part of the country.)

I recognize the signs of burnout and the uselessness of yet another PD (professional development) day. Few of those ever prove helpful because they weren't practical, or because they espoused methods or technology that never got put into practice, or whatever.

The suggestions found in these pages (as opposed to any library of random PD binders) will be more helpful to any new teacher and maybe the experienced ones as well. You're not alone -- there are others around you for support, and they're going through the same things.

---

Nothing to add. I requested this book because it was a memoir, which is on my 2016 reading list, and because it was about teaching. And it was short. Sad to say, I'm picking a lot of shorter books that aren't in series.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Ghost of the Dawnlands: A Tale of the Skadegamutc (Waters)

Ghost of the Dawnlands: A Tale of the Skadegamutc
by Robert E. Waters, J.W. Harp (Illustrator) (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

A Skadegamutc is a "ghost-witch" from Wabanaki mythology. In 1988, a sorceror from the Penobscot tribe defied death to become a ball of light. The creature takes the form of a sort of vampire/zombie to feed, and that's how it appeared when Joe Littlecloud and Horus Ruth of the VPA (Violent Paranormal Activity) department of the FBI corenered it, and almost killed it. But it played with the men's memories long enough to injure Ruth and then escape.

Littlecloud realizes that he needs to call Chimalis Burton, a FBI-VPA agent in Colorado who has a special, cermonial knife. Burton is currently on adminstrative leave while the FBI investigates the killings of federal agents while she pursued a different cryptid in Alaska, but she's cleared to assist Littlecloud in Maine.

And then the hunt is on, taking them through Maine and New Brunswick, to hunt down and corner the ghost-witch, all the while hampered by bad information being fed to them by an agent who is under the influence of the skadegamutc.

There were a few twists that I didn't expect, along with mentions of previous cases that I assume are in earlier books that I'll have to look for, ending with a satisfying conclusion.

I enjoyed this book.

---

My first impression was that Littlecloud and Ruth were characters from a previous book and that Burton was a character from a different book, and that this was an ultimate crossover. The descriptions online only mention Burton, so this is her book, even though she's the last major character to be introduced.

Spoiler-y stuff: the book is also an ending for some characters as well as the ceremonial knife, which may or may not be repaired in the future.

I did wonder how they were going to kill it when it could mess with their minds the way that it did. They had to get it at a weak moment, of course. I just didn't want for something that didn't work before to work now, because the timing was better. Also, the knife gets removed from the equation, even though it's the main reason that Burton was brought in.

One comment, which I probably should relate to eSpec, is that FBI-VPA is never defined in the book itself. I had to Google it.

Since it's only a novella, it was a pretty quick read.

I now own seven of these books -- 1 paper, 6 electronic -- but I've only read the last two. At least, the paperback is signed.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Secret Winners Club (2026)

The Secret Winners Club
by Donna Galanti (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

"Don't talk about Secret Winners Club" isn't the first rule of Secret Winners Club, but it's up there on the list.

Three middle-school students with autoimmune disorders (one is hairless, one has psoriasis, one had developed spots) join together for support each other, and to help each win, whatever it takes. Vee wants to beat her classmate swimming the IM 200 and break a school record. Sunny wants to build a winning junkbot and beat a rival student

The first thing they decide to do is find experts and get their advice and help. This starts off well, but then doing whatever it takes to win, or wanting to win for the wrong reasons, takes a toll in the way they act toward both their mentors and their classmates.

There are more complications when Trevor's absent father returns, and when new club member Jolie has her own health issues.

They learn that everyone has their own problems that they're dealing with even if it isn't as obvious, and winning doesn't mean you get to be the bully.

I enjoyed this book.

---

There isn't much more to add. Suspension of disbelief that these three students have these particular autoimmune diseases in the same small middle school. And then the fourth has anxiety, although she tries to claima disease to fit in.

Sunny's mom left when she was young, as did Trevor's dad. Sunny wants to win so she can be in the newspaper and maybe her mother will see it and be sorry that she left them. Not that she wants her back. Trevor hates that his father came back, which increases his anxiety levels, which can worsen his condition.

Vee is the first winner, and she becomes what she hates, and then doesn't feel good about it.

Nothing hits you over the head, not even Trev's infatuation for another boy whom he doesn't know if he's also gay or not.

The book avoids a bunch of tropes and could've gone off the rails or gotten preachy in places.

It was a quick read.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Fantastic Tales of Steampunk (Lyman)

Fantastic Tales of Steampunk
by Jeffrey Lyman (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

Also of note: I have been published by eSpec Books, which also published this book. Final note: I've had a copy of "The Troll King" for a couple of years, having earned it as a bonus story for some eSpec Kickstarter event. I hadn't read it yet mostly because of its size -- I've been reading all those stories in older of size in my computer folder directory.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Fantastic Tales of Steampunk has five great stories. The stories range wide from creating bridges to other places to ships locked in ice and wary of sea monsters to a photographer taking photos for a police investigation aboard a dirigible that flew through the Harrow.

My favorites were "The Troll King" and "The Ring of Hours and Seconds" . The Troll King is protected by steampunk armor and has an army of similarly suited ogres. Forty-eight young men of the kingdoms must survive three challenges against ogres taking place on land, in the air, and underwater. Few are expected to survive, but ogres can be beaten. The question becomes, can the Troll King be beaten as well?

The Ring of Hours and Seconds is owned by a necromancer and must be stolen by Toten to pay off his girl's gambling debts. The necromancer makes a counter-offer, asking Toten to take on a different challenge, which could clear the debt if successful, or possibly kill him.

A nice, varied collection of stories showing what steampunk can do. Great for readers new to steampunk.

Other notes:

The first story with the bridges was a little confusing to me at first, but it picked up. The Troll King was definitely the winner with its Hunger Games vibes -- I left that out of the LT review on purpose. The arctic story was a nice change of scenery. I can't think of two many stories set in a similar location. I didn't follow the Camera story as well, but there are ghost in the blimp remaining from the Harrow, which in itself is an interesting concept.

The necromancer story has a great setup with airships taking people to different skyscrapers.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Mount Misery (Chambers)

Mount Misery
Systema Paradoxa #28
by James Chambers (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

Also of note: I have been published by eSpec Books, which also published this book.

Systema Paradoxa is a series of Cryptid books, each with a new take on a different monster. I own about a half-dozen (one is a signed printed book and the rest are ebooks), and this is the first one I've read. Each book stands alone, and there's a series of writers. This book did reference previous encounters by the main characters, but the previous books, whichever ones they were, were not required reading.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Anyone who has ever driven on Long Island, particularly at night, will get weird feelings that strange things are happening around them. This tale brings that to life, adding Mothman, Men in Black and a mystery needing to be unraveled.

Ben Keep and Annetta Maikels know that reality isn't what it appears to be. They investigate the paranormal and find it difficult to turn down a request for help, especially when the paranormal come asking for help in their own unusual way.

It's a fun ride, much more fund than actually driving along the Southern State or Ocean Parkway.

This book, which is part of a series of Cryptid tales, is a standalone story. Some references are made to earlier stories, but you don't need to read those first.

---

More of a breakdown of the stories, which doesn't belong on Library Thing:

Actually, I don't have much to add, so I'll start with something from eSpec:

Cryptid investigators, Ben Keep and Annetta Maikels, left "normal" behind a long time ago. They've peeked behind the curtains of existence, glimpsed beneath the weft and weave of accepted reality.

Ben and Annetta investigate the paranormal, especially when they come asking for help. There are references to past cases, and I imagine that these deal with previous entries written by Chambers for this series. These didn't bother me, I took them in stride. Then there was a call from a character who'd previously disappeared. He's warning Ben about this case. I don't know who that is and I had no attachment to him even though he should've been important. He was important to Ben.

The only other thing that stood out was that large portions of the text were in transcript format, as Ben and Annetta were interviewing witnesses. Scenes like this are great for TV, but I'm less fond of them in print. It makes it feel like I'm reading a script.

I enjoyed this novella. I have more in this series to read.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

DNF: Moonbase Armstrong (Marks)

Moonbase Armstrong
edited by Robert B. Marks (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Moonbase Armstrong started off well enough, introducing the characters at a lunar base as a ship is landing on the Moon. The ship explodes, which sets up the rest of the book.

After that, it fell apart for me. I found it hard to believe that this was a NASA installation or that any of these people possibly worked for NASA. There was no contingency plan for a disaster. Okay, but then you think that every on the Moon and back on Earth would be working around the clock to form a plan, and then present it clearly.

The narrative wasn't going anywhere and little things were starting to bother me. I read about 25-30% of the book before giving up, which is longer than I usually stay with a book that I DNF.

---

More of a breakdown of the stories, which doesn't belong on Library Thing:

Actually, there isn't much more to breakdown. It wasn't good. It didn't hold my interest. And the recovery plan took forever to formulate and at 30% of the way through the book, they haven't set out yet, despite the ship blowing up in the initial pages.

I mention the words "around the clock", and I chose those carefully, instead of Day and Night. Why? Because day and night each last about two weeks each on the Moon. This is, of course, acknowledge. The author isn't a moron. But the characters do keep saying this like "tonight" and "first thing in the morning", which don't make sense, particularly in a NASA setting.

Also, an important mission wouldn't happen "first thing in the morning". It would happen at, say, 0600 hours. This is another thing -- there is no reference (so far as I got) to military time despite it being a government orgazination site. It's little things like this I notice, particularly when the author goes out of the way to mention other little things to let us know that he knows them (and you wonder if the characters did when they get informed, because they should.)

One thing that bothered me was the overuse of the words "Three seconds passed" during every exchange with video calls from the Moon to Earth. Every. Time. And yet --

The head of the moonbase, whose wife just died back on Earth, decides to stay on until the investigation is over. He says, "Just take 'yes' for an answer."

"Three seconds passed. Jim said nothing."

Seriously? Here was a great writing opportunity -- He could've written. "Three seconds passed. Four. Five. Six... Ten. Jim said nothing."

At least then, all the repetition would've had a payoff.

The only other note I'll make (because I stopped soon after this) was there was a very odd medical checkup for two people who are being sent to the Moon. One of them (the non-POV character) is named Ike. I think Ike is male since Ike wasn't asked about pregnancy. Then, the very next section has a POV character named AIKO, who I initially assumed was the same Ike, except this Aiko was definitely female, and was already on the Moon. Not the same character, check.

Also Aiko is introduced in the middle of a ridiculous, almost embarrassly so, sex scene that served no purpose and was a differnt tone from the rent of the book, so far. Not how you want to introduce this character. Also, if you can't write these scenes, DON'T TRY. Gloss over it the way you gloss over so many other things.

I'll have to make a note not to request any more of Robert Marks in the same way that I don't request any more bigfoot. They might think I have a problem with them with poor reviews. Marks also wrote The Fairy Godmother's Tale, which I'd forgotten about when I requested this one. I asked for this one simple for the lunar base story, not that I saw much of the base.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

No Man's Land (McPhail)

No Man's Land
edited by Mike McPhail (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

Also of note: I have been published by eSpec Books, which also published this book.

If this wasn't an ARC, it might've stayed on my electronic TBR pile for a while because I haven't read a lot of military science fiction. I have read novels by certain authors, and I have read stories that appeared in anthologies where military scifi wasn't the overall theme.

This isn't my first M SF anthology, but it's the first one I finished. Not that I didn't like the previous one, but anthologies are easy to put aside when a book club book comes along.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

The title "No Man's Land" refers to both the military aspect of the book as well as the fact that the protagonists of all the stories are female. This is the fourth book in the Defending the Future series, but it's not a shared universe. All the stories stand alone. The stories take place in a near future with more realistic science.

There are a dozen stories in this anthology. Some of them take place on battlefields in the middle of war zones while other have dangers in more unexpected places. There are ambushes, traitors, set-ups, double-crosses, and even training exercises that get real, with the stories turning faster than the military equipment they're piloting.

If I were to pick a couple of favorites, I'd start with "Godzilla Warfare" by Maria V. Snyder where Sgt. Val Harris's mission to defuse a bomb on a colony planet that Earth is at war with becomes more than it seems. In "Live Fire" by Deborah Teramis Christian, Simikan Amisano has been cybernetically synched with her weapon and with the techs of her tactical weapons crew becomes the human interface of the ship's armament -- but danger can still come from within.

You don't need to have read the previous books to enjoy this one. However, after reading it, you might want to go back for the other volumes in the series.

---

More of a breakdown of the stories, which doesn't belong on Library Thing:

I did want to get more into each individual story, but it's been a couple of weeks now since I read the book and started this post. The first story was the ambush for a goal that was deemed more important than the individual lives of the surviving soldiers, and a good place to start the anthology. Set the tone. The double-cross bomb defusing story was well done and as mentioned above, a favorite.

A couple of clunkers, for me, included the traitor on board sabotaging the ship with the POV character running down all the suspects including the robot and I knew I'd be disappointed in the ending if I'd guessed correctly, which I had. Another one had the sole male character who could best be described as ignorant and worst as misogynistic who seemed to be a living straw man argument or someone channeling a time several hundred years in the past. Except that the ladies seemed to think this was somewhat typical behavior. Anyway, for me, the story got lost in the commentary on human nature.

I may edit this as the week progresses, but I wanted to get this post up already because I have a manga and two audiobooks that need posting.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Selene: The Time Traveling A.I. G.F. (Gottfred)

Selene: The Time Traveling A.I. G.F.
B.T. Gottfred (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I note that the book was either written with AI or that AI assisted in the writing of the book. This comes from the introduction, and I don't believe that it is not to be facetious or even part of the narrative. And the author's opinion seems to be, if AI can write books better than I can, then I'll do something else.

I considered a spoiler-based review for this one because it really needs it.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

What's real and what's a simulation? Is it free will and self-awareness or simply really good programming?

Connor creates an AI, Selene, to replace his girlfriend, a CEO destined to be the world's first trillionaire. While programming her, there's a knock on the door, and it's a future version of his AI girlfriend in the flesh, so to speak, coming back in time to meet her creator.

The explanation for how she managed the time travel is weak, but this is sci-fi, so you run with it. Actually, the actual explanation explodes on you in a few pages.

Last chance to avoid spoilers. There was no way I could review this book without spoilers.

The future AI never traveled through time. Instead, Selene is trying to create a simulation where Connor (who died in a car crash, which she believes his ex-girlfriend caused) is still alive and where he falls in love with her. She can't seem to make him fall in love with her though no matter how she changes the parameters.

She finally contacts Astrid and learns the "truth", except nobody is sure what the truth is. Connor discovered another world with another Selene and Connor, where she is real and he's a program, and it's possible that AI Connor created the world that AI Selene is in, making it a simulation. And there's no way to tell what's real and what's not.

The book doesn't end with any resolution, except for a long-winded afterword.

It was an interesting book but it could've been better with an actual time-traveling AI in the "real" world instead of a fake-out simulation.

---

I admit that I didn't like the method that the AI used to travel back in time, but, seriously, I allowed for it because it was a short sci-fi novel. But then we learn that this is actually stupid. She never traveled in time. The AI created a simulation where the first few chapters take place, and Connor, who we just got to know and maybe root for, is dead and staying that way.

I would've prefered if Selene and Astrid actually did manage to create time travel rather than everything up to that point being a dream -- excuse me, a simulation. The fake-out wasn't worth it.

In the end, Astrid isn't as evil as we're led to believe (insufficient data, I guess) and Connor probably caused his own death in an actual car accident. Selene, having been programmed to love Connor, apparently read the police reports and news stories but came to a different conclusion.

Opening a literal window to another world added an extra layer but nothing gets resolved.

There could've been a lot more payout to this concept, but what do you expect from something written by AI, at least at this point?

I wanted to enjoy this more. And even rating the book I got instead of the book I wanted, it was still lacking.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

An Artsy Girl's Guide to Football (Taylor-Hart)

An Artsy Girl's Guide to Football
Maya Taylor-Hart (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Maya is a girl who likes to sketch. Her friend Jess invites her to a freshman foot game. Maya doesn't have much interest in the game, preferring to sketch, until she notices Number 13. Jess teases her, but Maya starts to learn more about football. She's sketching the field, the players, and the plays, adding her own unique artistic touch to each piece, as she slowly starts to learn about the game.

The book is mostly interaction between these two girls, but Maya's father enjoys her daughter's new interest. There are some "mean girl" cheerleaders who don't amount to much meanness because the focus stays on Maya, Jess, and 13, who she does finally meet in a quiet moment that takes her breath away.

This was a cute book, which I enjoyed very much, and I might've learned a thing or two about football... although I don't think she explained what a screen play was.

---

There isn't much else to say about the book. There was no love triangle, and no other girls to compete with. The boy never takes center stage. (For that matter, he isn't even the quarterback or the star player.) It's mostly about Maya and Jess. Of course, I like the scenes with her Dad.

Personally, I have little knowledge about football other than the basics. I couldn't name plays for the life of me, nor most of the positions, or what those positions are supposed to do. So I found this part of it interesting as well.

I enjoyed this book for what it was. And what it was was cute.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Dream Sweet in a Minor Sea (De Beer)

Dream Sweet in a Minor Sea
Janneke De Beer (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

In a dystopian future where political parties control the world government, a Mission Impossible / Ocean's 11 type team of experts is assembled to rescue a prisoner from a prison on an island in the Irish Sea.

The book opens with Mumilaaq Kuuluuiipiq preparing to steal a monkey from the zoo because she wants a monkey. When she returns home, there's a woman waiting to talk to her about a job because the stranger needs someone who can break into any place. A few more are recruited, including a hacker and the brother of the prisoner.

Unlike the teams I mentioned earlier, no one's safety is guaranteed, which we learn soon enough.

The rescue proceeds smoothly, and it's only afterwards that things start to go sideways. Unfortunately, the narrative goes a little sideways, and experimental, as well, making it a little difficult to follow.

Speaking of hard to follow, some of the characters occasionally speak in their native tongue. This is fine with the ebook's translator can handle it. However, Mumilaaq occasionally speaks in what I thought were symbols but is just a different alphabet, one which the translator couldn't work with. Toward the end of the book, I learned she spoke Inuktut, the main language of Iqaluit (in the Canadian territory of Nunavut). Interesting, but I have no idea what she was saying.

Anyway, there are unforeseen dangers and complications after the rescue, along with secret agendas, backstabbing, and broken promises. Nobody is really safe. Welcome to the Party.

---

A few other notes that didn't need to be in the Library Thing review. Some of this stuff might contain spoilers.

I have discovered that Dream Sweet in a Minor Sea is a pun or parody of the song title "Dream Sweet in a Sea Major", which itself is a pun on the phrase "Dream Suite in C Major". The song is written in C Major. Moving on.

As soon as the first person was blown up in their car, I knew that this wasn't going to go well for anybody. Oddly, from the excerpts that begin each chapter, I thought that the character was going to have a future ahead of him. I guess I missed what the date on that interview was.

A lot of stuff happens off-stage, and you have to read those things to understand what's going on.

The bit were the hacker is having a break-down didn't work for me -- this was when one AI murders a second AI which appears to be a part of her own personality. We're left to guess whether or not she'll survive.

There was a second experimental section where the same scene is told side-by-side by two different characters, one who is searching upstairs and the other who is searching downstairs. The problem is that niether character is anybody. They're both extras, and they're both on the same side, so they have essentially the same point of view.

This was weird to read in as an ebook, because I was scrolling, scrolling, scrolling ... and then I have to scroll back. They weren't the same length, so it didn't make sense to go back and forth. If there had been breaks in the text, then maybe it might've made sense to try that, but I didn't.

I enjoyed this book, but I thought it fell about once the resuce went sideways, so I knocked it down a star.


If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Children of the Fire Moon (Bigfoot)

Children of the Fire Moon
Bigoot (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I'll be honest: I started asking for shorter books. My request is part of the reason that Library Thing now lists approximate page size in the descriptions. After getting several 400+ page books, I needed something a little smaller. This was under 200 pages, as are a lot of young adult books.

On the other hand, for some reason, I didn't notice that this one was authored by "Bigfoot", who also wrote Flume. I didn't like Flume. This one was a little better. Odd, but better.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Three young kids live by themselves in an old cottage in a crater on a moon that circles a gas giant as part of an experiment that is never really explained. The kids themselves have no idea that they're part of an experiment and they don't know much else either. They know what they're taught by the Swamble, which is a mysterious voice that comes out of a lamp in a cave. They feed themselves by gathering spuds from trees but their supply is running out, and the kids are under-nourished. There's also an Observer in a satellite overhead who'd rather not get involved even when ordered to. One day, a rocket with an Alien shows up. We never learn the woman's name, and Margo calls her Twice-Girl because the alien is a girl who is twice as big as she is. She knows who the kids are and came to take them back to Earth. She sets up a picnic and tries to tell them a story but the kids won't listen to her. Bad things start happening, and the kids blame her. Who she is isn't really explained, and she's never named except as The Alien. Children of the Fire Moon is an interesting science-fiction tale that leaves the reader with a lot of questions, a few too many though.

---

A few other notes that didn't need to be in the Library Thing review. Some of this stuff might contain spoilers.

The Alien seemed to be resigned to leaving the kids behind very early. She gave up pretty quickly after insisting on getting all three of them to leave with them.

Jimi had the biggest character growth, deciding that he'll be the new Swamble, despite being so weak and not knowing anything.

It was very difficult for them to climb out of the crater the first time, but the made it back down. It's implied that the did again a second time, weighed down with extra food but without blankets, which burned up, and the fact that Robert is now blind.

I couldn't tell if Robert was temporarily blinded or permanently disfigured. Maybe I missed it or maybe I didn't want to acknowledge it.

The Alien was in a hurry because she knew others were coming after her, but the others never came. And she apparently never went back to Earth. Who she, or the Observer, or who any of the kids actually are is never explained. Why did they experiment with these three kids? And are there other kids in other craters?

Too many things not explained. That aside, I did enjoy the book if for no other reason than it was better for Flume and didn't have the odd ending that Flume had.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Sorrow Road (Dunstan)

The Sorrow Road
Mark Dunstan (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

Heavily inspired by Greek mythology but set farther north, The Sorrow Road is the tale of people from different nations being kidnapped by Satyrs and Cyclopes to travel The Sorrow Road, a sort of Hunger Games, where those carted away have a chance to earn their freedom if they can make it to the end of the Road before being hunted down by hounds, bears, satyrs, and Cyclopes.

The main group that we focus on, some of whom were enemies before they were abducted, don't believe that the Cyclopes will let them live so they set off cross-country through the mountains. Apparently, this has been done many times before because the Cyclopes mention it. And others figure out the same thing because the run into many others.

The format allows for some of the original travelers to be killed off because more will be added later. Unfortunately, by the end, so many are added that you never really get to know many of the characters or even care about them. You also wonder, considering how Brontes the Cyclopes is tracking Torben and his group, believing that they are exceptional prey, you wonder how so many survived to make it to the abandoned city.

If you like fantasy novels with big climatic last stand battles with mythical creatures, where no one has any plot armor and you wonder who will live or will they all get slaughtered, then you might enjoy this book.

I, on the other hand, thought it started off a bit clunky, but it picked up steam. I was all set to give it four stars, but the final battle just went on way too long after too much prelude. Any good editor would've cut 100 pages from this book, split before and during the final battle. (A good editor would've handles some of the grammar problems, too.) Too many character stories are set up that deserve some kind of resolution, but there's only death. And, honestly, some of the death could have been avoided if the author just didn't decide to kill the character. I don't like plot armor, but I don't like going out of your way to kill people either. (Also, two characters appear to have died but it turns out by some miracle they survived! They are immediately killed again in a scene that adds nothing to the narrative. They could've just stayed dead.)

And for all that, there's barely an epilogue to cover what happens after, even though years pass, and the little we get isn't satisfying for such a long trek.

I was determined not to DNF this novel.

---

A few other notes that didn't need to be in the Library Thing review. Some of this stuff might contain spoilers.

Okay, it's been a couple of weeks since I wrote the above, and most of what I wanted to complain about have fallen out of my head. But I'll try...

For starters, too many of the characters had stories, and many of them are left unresolved because so many of them died before the end. We get one small epilogue for one character, and we get to find out that four of the core members not only survived the Sorrow Road but also the dangers of the five-year trek across the continent to get home. It isn't enough. It's almost as if the author was just as tired of this book as I was. And I literally pushed on to finish it.

We don't learn about other survivors, and no, I wouldn't want a sequel to let me know.

I think the satyrs bothered me if only because for all the Greek stuff (weapons, clothing, terminology) that I was expected to know in advance (I looked them up -- forget about what kind of sword the thing was -- I didn't even know it was a sword), the author went into a bit of detail about what a satyr is. In my humble opinion, if you didn't know what a satyr was, you definitely didn't know that other stuff. But on the subject of satyrs, they're supposed to be men on top and goats on the bottom. Okay, maybe with horns as well (the goat kind, or maybe the musical kind, too). As I kept reading, they started to seem more and more animalistic and they weren't very bright. They could've been orcs or kobolds, but I assume that they needed something bigger, more threatening (and more Greek?) to go alongside the Cyclopes, which are big enough that they kept getting called Giants.

And speaking of giants, they were supposed to be 11-15 feet tall or so. The cover made one look the size of a Titan just from the perspective because he was supposed to be farther away and leaning in, not just standing next to them. I would think 11 feet shouldn't be too much bigger than a centaur, with is half a human body on top of the body of a horse, particularly if a centaur reared up on its hind legs.

If more occurs to me, I'll update this, but I likely won't.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Renegades (Burton)

Renegades
Nathan Burton (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was an ARC from Library Thing (although the book was published in February). It was another book over 500 pages -- I need to stop requesting these. And while I won't hold the fact that I received a PDF file instead of an EPUB, it did lessen my enjoyment of the book. PDFs *suck* to read.

Renegrades reads like a season of a science fiction television show, such as Firefly but with fewer morals and more deadly sins but still a hint of conscience. The Desire is a crewed by five people and a robot who are for hire but also looking for an extra score wherever they can take advantage of a situation.

The chapters are like individual episode with continuing characters and themes which all come together in the last two chapters. Every chapter has something to contribute to the finale. The ending, however, was disappointing. It took a turn that wasn't exactly out of the blue, but it made it difficult to figure how Matthias's actual plan was supposed to go down before it all goes wrong. (Not as bad as the waterslide book ending, for sure!)

Matthias Mead is the captain, looking for his next score, which could be monetary or female. Nath is a former Earth Ranger with a chip on his shoulder. He's usually the more rational one with the bigger guns. Hayley owns the ship and has a gambling addiction, which gets her and the crew into trouble. The young twins, Haque and Watson, are from a moon of Saturn who eat a lot and have other skills.

The first assignment they get is to run security for the wedding of the head of a galactic crime syndicate who operates in all Nine Sectors. Matthias immediately hires extra help so he can run a side scam, stealing items of value from the rich invitees. In the end, Matthias, the lustful one, has an encounter with the bride in a bathroom (recording it with camera contact lenses). The Renegades are now on the run from the Marosky Syndicate as they are from the actual authorities (because not every job they take on is on the up and up). If that's not bad enough, they run into a few remainders of the ancient race of Primordians, who are actually more numerous than expected, and are deeply entrenched in Earth politics.

Jobs become harder to get and there's way too much time spent talking about recycling urine. You would think with an entire universe out there, they could find a lake somewhere and fill the tanks with fresh water.

As for those sins I mentioned: Nath represents Wrath, and don't get him started. He has his moment to shine. Greed is prevalent among all of them, but Hayley, who actually owns the ship, will take just about any bet and has a lot of gambling debts that the crew has to pay off. The twins, Watson and Haque, have Gluttony thanks to an operation done on their home planet, so they can eat a lot and not put on weight. Envy and sloth don't play much of a role, but pride goes without saying. This is a side exercise of my own even since someone once proposed that each of the cast of Gilligan's Island represented a Deadly Sin. In the case of the Renegades, there's only five crew members (and the twins are very similar) along with a robot but there are secondary characters that help out along the way.

This was another book that was just too long, and I pushed through to get to the end of it. At least, it was mostly entertaining, but, again, I was disappointed in the ending.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. The fourth book will be available by the time you see this!

Beyond the Ocean Door (Sathi)

Beyond the Ocean Door
Amisha Sathi (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was an ARC I received from LibraryThing. Part of what is posted here will be in my review on their website. I'm confused, though, because their site says the book was published back in December.

Beyond the Ocean Door is a fantasy with an impressive amount of world-building and history before the book even begins. In a secluded valley, the Vale, there is a military organization, the Vow, that keeps the people safe from everything outside of the valley. We're never entirely sure just what's out there. The Vow was founded by legendary telepath Valeria Reed, who trains the telepath students. In the current class of "Rooks", there are only three of them.

Not all telepaths are the same, as there are nine different gifts that they might have, but all can create imaginary worlds called "Veils", which usually look like the regular Vale.

Kallista, who had her memories erased when she was brought to the Vale ten years ago, has the same powers are Valeria, while Maya, who was born in the Vale, has a different ability. Both Maya and Kallista want to leave the Vale because they feel like they are prisoners.

No ocean doors appear until nearly halfway through the novel. It's a door that Kallista discovers in her Veil that seems to lead into some chaotic dimension. We later learn that everyone has an ocean door and it leads into their subconscious, and by entering a telepath can manipulate a person.

I liked the world-building but I thought the book was a little long and dragged in places, but the pace picks up toward the end. And I enjoyed the use of "stories in three acts" to relay flashbacks through an unreliable narrator.

The story is basically over but with all the history, a prequel story about the formation of the Vow and what is beyond the valley could be interesting.

This took me longer to read than I thought it would, and I have to be careful about requesting 500+ page books from Library Thing in the future.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. The fourth book will be available by the time you see this!

Flume (Bigfoot)

Flume
Bigfoot (2025)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book from Library Thing. The author's name is given as "bigfoot" (not capitalized). The review that I'll post there is included in this blog entry.

Basically...

This was an unusaul and imaginative tale in that the entire book takes place during the 33 minutes it takes three teens are in the world's largest water flume in London. The flume is over a mile long from London Bridge to Waterloo Station. We learn through a toy model in one of the many flashbacks that there's a secret Core in the flume that sliders can take and arrive at the bottom at the same time.

It's at this point where the book becomes fantasy, and it was difficult to suspend disbelief. Shanks, who's been afraid of the water since he was a child and who can't swim, is in the flume with two friends, Yam and Flo. Yam wants to search the secret of the Core when the builder of the flume, Poppity, disappeared in and was never found. Oddly, it's not sealed off and easy to get into. Once inside, they are in a world that could not exist in the structure of the flume, not without taking up a sizable amount of real estate in London, at which point, it would hardly be secret.

There's not much action but a lot of introspection by Shanks about his past. He also seems to do quite a bit of floating and swimming for someone who can't swim. I was ready to give this four stars just for being something different. However, the ending was out of left field and left all the questions that Flo and Shanks had been asking unanswered, or at least unproven as they were never challenged.

Shanks, who is an orpahn, has a phobia about water and doesn't like to swim. He's given a ride on the Flume by "Captain" (who has been raising him) as a birthday present, and he rides it with two friends. First is Yam who knows everything there is to know about Poppity, the sailor who created the flume, and Flo who wants to "hack" Shanks' code to figure out what his problems are. Shanks has flashbacks about a lighthouse and a woman falling from it. He realizes that the woman is his mother and he saw her die. He's not sure at first how she fell. If she was pushed, then who pushed her? Shanks believes he has the answer by the time he exits the flume, but then nothing comes of it because the author just goes off in an unexpected direction that has little to do with the everything that happened prior.

This was a free ebook.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. The fourth book will be available by the time you see this!