Cover Reveal: Operation Chimera

Posted by cat2002116 on September 8, 2014
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Operation Chimera 1000

 

Operation Chimera, by Matthew Cox and Tony Healey

 

Genre: science-fiction, action-adventure

 

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

 

Date of Publication: October 20, 2014.

 

Cover Artist: Ricky Gunawan (http://ricky-gunawan.daportfolio.com/)

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22590305-operation-chimera

 

Description:

 

Generations of war with the savage Draxx have left humanity desperate for a way to gain the upper hand.

 

A chance to turn the tide in their favor is all legendary Captain Nicholas Driscoll needs to hear to lead an expedition behind enemy lines to the Chimera Nebula – a region of space so unstable it remains largely uncharted.

 

Lieutenant Michael Summers sees an opportunity to matter, a chance to let future generations exist in a universe without constant war. He and other brave young cadets join the Manhattan for its first dangerous mission – to penetrate the Chimera Nebula and discover what it is the Draxx are doing in there.

 

But first the ship and her crew will be tested by enemies both outside and within…

 

 

About The Authors

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Born in a little town known as South Amboy NJ in 1973, Matthew has been creating science fiction and fantasy worlds for most of his reasoning life. Somewhere between fifteen to eighteen of them spent developing the world in which Division Zero, Virtual Immortality, and The Awakened Series take place. He has several other projects in the works as well as a collaborative science fiction endeavor with author Tony Healey.

 

Hobbies and Interests: Matthew is an avid gamer, a recovered WoW addict, Gamemaster for two custom systems (Chronicles of Eldrinaath [Fantasy] and Divergent Fates [Sci Fi], and a fan of anime, British humour (<- deliberate), and intellectual science fiction that questions the nature of reality, life, and what happens after it. He is also fond of cats.

Find Matthew Cox Online:

Website (http://www.matthewcoxbooks.com/wordpress/) | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MatthewSCoxAuthor) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/mscox_fiction) | Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7712730.Matthew_S_Cox)

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Tony Healey is a best-selling independent author. Born in 1985, he has lived his entire life in the city of Brighton, UK.
In 2011, he found his fiction published alongside Harlan Ellison and Alan Dean Foster. A year later, his sci-fi serial FAR FROM HOME became a best-selling sensation, followed by similarly successful sequels. Since then he has collaborated with authors Bernard Schaffer, Matthew Cox and William Vitka on various projects. He has also had work published by Curiosity Quills Press. He is married and has three daughters.
For the latest on Tony’s various projects, visit his site www.tonyhealey.com

Find Tony Healey Online:

Website (http://tonyhealey.com/) | Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/fringescientist?fref=ts) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/FringeScientist) | Goodreads

Blog Tour: The Traveler’s Wake

Posted by cat2002116 on September 8, 2014
Posted in: Blog Tour, Books, Reviews. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Blog Tour (2)

 

(I received a free copy of this book, from Curiosity Quills Press, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I did find this book slightly hard to get into when I started reading it. I had a little bit of difficulty getting behind Wesley’s character at first and even by the end of the book, I’m still not entirely sure that I really liked him… though he was certainly an interesting character.

The plot of the book was fairly good and I liked the gradual reveal of the information about the main character, rather than having it all come through at once. I also quite liked the religious aspects about this book, being a Christian myself.

I liked most of the other characters in this book, but there were a couple of times where I got confused with the characters. I did think that the author did a really good job of showing Wesley’s mindset and how close to despair he was.

I liked the hints of the supernatural elements in this book as well. I would have liked a bit more detail about what was going on there, but I think it worked quite well in the way it was used in this book. Even if I wasn’t sure I liked Wesley, I could really empathise with him easily.

There were some really dark moments in this that made me shudder when I read them. I was glad that the author didn’t shy away from the darker moments in the book, but some of those did make me cringe when I was reading them. There were still some things here I wasn’t completely sure I understood.

I quite liked the ending of this book, too. I felt it worked really well with the rest of the book. I also really liked Morton and Ruth as characters, as well as the banter between the rest of the guys.

I’d probably check out other books by this author at some point in the future. This one was really well-written and I was able to see a lot of the events happening inside my mind. I’d also like to see some of the other characters further explored, too. I felt that they each had stories that could be told.

 

Get a copy

Let’s Be Cops

Posted by cat2002116 on September 8, 2014
Posted in: Movies, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Let's Be Cops

(This review may contain spoilers).

So, this is another film where I recognised the two main actors, having seen both of them in things before. I think they worked really well as a comedy duo in this film.

My favourite types of comedy are the ones that come more out of the situation and less the slapstick style of comedy. This did have some of the latter, but it was just as much comedy arising from the personality of the characters. And I really liked the fact that there were a lot of serious moments in this film as well.

When I was watching this film, I did find myself drawn in and it managed to keep my attention throughout. It was also nice to see Nina Dobrev in something else; I really disliked the character she plays in the Vampire Diaries, but she played a character who was actually likable in this.

I’d say this film is a good one for comedy that also touches on a few more serious issues. It doesn’t portray the police in a bad light and there were quite a lot of moments where I found myself laughing out loud. This is a film I probably wouldn’t mind seeing again at some point in the future.

The Falcon Throne

Posted by cat2002116 on September 8, 2014
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The Falcon Throne

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d give this book 3.5 stars ideally. I had a lot of trouble connecting with many of the characters. The ones who were technically the good guys were actually quite weak. For instance, I would have liked Roric a lot more if he’d been a stronger character.

The more interesting (though not necessarily likable) characters were the not-very-nice ones. I did like Grefin, to an extent, but I felt he didn’t really help himself at times. And I felt some sympathy towards Belfre… at least for a while at first.

The first chapter of this book did pull me in and I would have liked to see more of the character introduced there and learn more of his history, rather than just the hints that were given.

I felt that the author did a good job showing the amount of politics that went into everything that was happening. The world was a pretty intriguing one, though every time I saw the word ‘leeching’ mentioned, I just thought that was referring to the use of actual leeches, rather than healing generally. Since, most of the time, it was in reference to someone having a wound, I kept being like, ‘But he’s already bleeding… oh, wait…’

There were some quite harsh things that happened in this book, but a lot of them did make sense. The world itself also had a lot of medieval themes, I noticed.

I did find Liam quite an interesting character and I liked his relationship with Benedikt. I’m not sure if I’d read the next books in this series, though it would be good to see what does happen with the characters at some point in the future.

Before I Go To Sleep (Film Review)

Posted by cat2002116 on September 8, 2014
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Before I Go To Sleep

(This review may contain spoilers).

Just as a note – I haven’t read the book this film is based on, so this review is just based on the movie.

I’ve seen both Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth in other things, so when I saw this film advertised, I decided that it looked good and like one I’d want to see, knowing that the actors are ones I find fairly believable.

Although this film delivered fairly well on the suspense, I felt a little bit like there was something missing. It wasn’t as good as I thought it could have been, though.

Waking up to find that you’ve apparently aged overnight is probably a very scary experience. I did feel that the film did a good job of showcasing that and the confusion and turmoil that Nicole Kidman’s character faced came across very well.

I felt the film fell a bit short with the explanation, though. There were certain things that put a bit of a strain on my suspension of disbelief.

There were some nice tense moments in this film despite that. I wouldn’t watch it again, but it was fairly entertaining to view the first time. I just felt… a bit disconnected from the characters.

Blog Tour: The Misadventures of Hobart Hucklebuck: Guest Post

Posted by cat2002116 on September 6, 2014
Posted in: Blog Tour, Guest Post, Promotion. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Tour banner

 

Hobart Hucklebuck’s grandfather wrote this as many of you aren’t quite sure about the difference between magic and enchantments.

 

Hello, everyone. I guess that sometimes it’s hard for me to comprehend why young people can’t understand that there is a distinct difference between magic and enchantments. Well, I guess I shouldn’t say that as it also applies to many adults I know although I won’t list their names here in case they are reading this.

 

You see, when I was growing up and walking twelve  miles to school every day through mountains of snow, there was no such thing as enchanted items. You had to sweep your floor with a broom, clean up the leaves in the backyard with a real rake and even wash your own dishes.

 

However, if you were a good magician, you could cast a spell so that broom would sweep the floor for you or make your shoe laces tie themselves. In fact, most people in Pennywhistle (and most other areas) had the ability to do most of these things. But when you cast a spell, it does not last. If you cast a spell so a rake would clean up the backyard, the spell would slowly fade and you’d have to cast it again. The amount of time the spell might last would depend on your level of prestidigitation.

 

Well, unfortunately, people started getting lazy. Not only was it too much trouble to sweep their floors or wash their dishes, it seemed to be too much trouble to even cast a spell to accomplish these chores. That’s when the Bureau of Magic decided it was time to hire high level magicians to work together to enchant items. Working together, these high level wizards could cast a spell so powerful that it turned into an enchantment. They could, for example, enchant a flyswatter that could endlessly chase flies around your house. While a flyswatter with a spell cast on it might only hunt flies for a few minutes, an enchanted flyswatter could chase flies indefinitely. (You would just need to be careful, however, if a fly lands on your nose!)

 

People loved enchanted items and they soon became everyday items that most people could afford to buy. Whether enchanted items is a good thing or not is definitely a debatable topic, but they have made our lives a little easier. (Sometimes I think maybe a little too easy.)

 

But what happens when enchanted items stop working? Well, you can find out all about that by reading The Misadventures of Hobart Hucklebuck: Magic & Mayhem.

 

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The Misadventures of Hobart Hucklebuck: Magic and Mayhem, by Stan Swanson

 

Genre: middle-grade, action-adventure fantasy

 

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

 

Date of Publication: August 7th, 2014.

 

Cover Artist: Ricky Gunawan

 

Description:

 

Things are not as they should be in Pennywhistle. Enchanted toasters are not toasting, enchanted sprinklers are not sprinkling and Hobart Hucklebuck’s origami messenger birds are suddenly attacking him.

 

Someone seems to be draining the power from all of the enchanted items in the village. But who could it be and why have they implicated Hobart’s grandfather?

 

“The Misadventures of Hobart Hucklebuck” follows Hobart and his friends, Specks Spacklethack and Rosie Rumpleskirt, as they try to solve this mystery and free Hobart’s grandfather from the Tower of Tribulation on Mumblemonk Mountain.

 

The trio’s investigation into the mysterious happenings on Druid Lane gets them into hot water more than once and ultimately brings them dangerously close to disaster not only for themselves, but the entire village of Pennywhistle.

 

Find The Misadventures of Hobart Hucklebuck: Magic and Mayhem Online:

Goodreads | Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble

About The Author

Stan Mug Shot Sepia (1)

Stan Swanson is a Bram Stoker award finalist and author of eight books including Forever Zombie (a collection of short stories), Write of the Living Dead (a highly-praised writing guide written with Araminta Star Matthews and Rachel Lee) and Return of the Scream Queen (co-authored with Michael McCarty and Linnea Quigley). He is also editor/publisher for Dark Moon Books and Dark Moon Digest. Upcoming titles include Horror High School: Return of the Loving Dead (the first book in a young adult horror series co-written with Araminta Star Matthews), Dead Sparrows (a collection of apocalyptic poetry) and The Methlands (a horror novel co-written with award-winning author Joe McKinney).

Find Stan Swanson Online:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

Blog Tour: The Other Lamb

Posted by cat2002116 on September 5, 2014
Posted in: Blog Tour, Books, Reviews. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

Blog Tour

 

(I received a free copy of this book, from Curiosity Quills Press, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

When I started reading this book, I wasn’t completely sure what to think about it. This was another book that took me a little while to get into… but once my suspension of disbelief was properly activated, I found myself getting properly into the book.

Angels and the themes of vampirism are both plots that, in my opinion, have become quite over-used. And vampires were over-used even before they started sparkling.

That having been said… I did find the storyline to be quite entertaining and the plot to be one that held my attention throughout.

I was a bit surprised at how much graphic sex (and violence) there was in this book. It’s not something I actually have a problem with, but I had thought this would be a bit tamer, since it seems to be a young adult book.

I thought that the revelations in this book were shown in quite a good way. It was better than having the long, multi-paragraph exposition that I’ve seen used so much.

I couldn’t say that there was any one character I liked more than the others. None of them really fit in with the regular ‘good’ or ‘evil’ affiliations. I was a bit disappointed that the arch angels came across as so disturbingly sadistic… evil… though unfortunately, I’ve come across that multiple times.

The fallen angels were, I felt, the most interesting characters. The priest one was the most intriguing out of all of them. I couldn’t get behind Zach very easily. He didn’t really come across as the normal hero (or antihero) of a book and I felt he was a very passive character for a lot of the book.

I’d probably read the next book in this series at some point. It would be good to see what happens to the fallen, especially. Some of those relationships were intriguing ones that I’d like to see further explored.

 

Get a copy:

The Other Lamb

Cover Reveal: Untaken

Posted by cat2002116 on September 4, 2014
Posted in: Cover Reveal. Tagged: . Leave a comment

cover1000 (1)

 

Untaken, by J. E. Anckorn

 

Genre: young-adult, action-adventure, science-fiction

 

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

 

Date of Publication: October 16th, 2014

 

Cover Artist: Amy Chitulescu (http://ameliethe.deviantart.com/)

 

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22698391-untaken

 

Description:

 

It turns out that a real alien invasion is nothing like the Sci-fi shows 14-year-old Gracie loves. Not when it’s your own family who are swallowed whole by those big silver ships. Not if it could be you next.

 

In her search for her family, Gracie meets Brandon, a high school dropout who would never have been caught dead hanging out with a dork like Gracie before the world ended. Gracie isn’t too crazy about Brandon either, but he has one thing she doesn’t: A plan.

Brandon’s uncle has a cabin up in Maine, and If Gracie and Brandon can survive long enough to get there they can hide out until the Space Men pack up their ships and leave.

Until the army guys come to rescue them, says Brandon.

Brandon is big into army guys.

 

Gracie has to admit that Brandon’s Awesome Plan probably would have worked out great if wasn’t for Jake.

 

They found 5-year-old Jake, laying half-dead under the remains of someone’s ranch house. He’s a good kid, even if he won’t-or can’t- talk.

 

But Jake has a secret, and when Gracie finds out what it is, the fragile new life they’ve started to forge looks set to break apart.

 

When the people you’ve been counting on to put the world back together start hunting you down, alien invaders are the least of your worries.

 

About The Author

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J.E. Anckorn has been an artist and writer ever since she began to surreptitiously doodle on school supplies instead of learning about practical things, like osmosis and mathematics.

 

After barely surviving a freak mathematical osmosis disaster, she set out to travel the world, living in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong before returning to her native Britain- just in time to marry an American and leave for the U.S.A. She still failed to learn anything about osmosis, but did manage to cultivate an accent that is unintelligible to almost everyone. (It happened through a mysterious net movement of information from the outside environment into her brain. If only there was a word for that!)

 

This led to her development of a new language, based almost entirely on polite yet uncomprehending nods. In between these adventures, she has worked as a toy designer, copywriter, and freelance illustrator. She lives in Boston, with a small grumpy dog, and a large, slightly less grumpy husband.

Find J. E. Anckorn Online:

Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/JE-Anckorn/62490393088?ref=hl&ref_type=bookmark) | Twitter (https://twitter.com/ultra_lilac) | Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8379204.J_E_Anckorn)

The Last Shuttle

Posted by cat2002116 on September 3, 2014
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The Last Shuttle

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I think it’s clear that a lot of research went into this book and although I felt it could have been a bit longer, I did find this book quite easy and entertaining to read.

There were quite a lot of details in this book, though I struggled a bit to relate to any of the characters. I think having a bit more background would have made it easier for me to empathise with the characters.

Even despite that difficulty, I felt myself drawn into the book. From about the middle of the book to the end, I was eager to see what would happen and really pulled into the plot.

I can’t say I understood all of the technical details in this book, but I did appreciate that the author had done all of that research and clearly knew what he was talking about.

I was quite intrigued by Sentinel and I would have liked to know a bit more about his planet and people. I think there’s a lot more of this story that could be explored in the next book.

Massacre at Lonesome Ridge

Posted by cat2002116 on September 3, 2014
Posted in: Books, Reviews. Tagged: , . Leave a comment

Massacre at Lonesome Ridge

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

Zombies are one of those things that are used quite a lot in fiction, whether horror or otherwise. (Teen paranormal romance is starting to use zombies, I’ve noticed…) Therefore, I imagine it’s probably very difficult to come up with a different, unique spin on the zombie genre.

I felt that this author did a good job of creating a new spin on the zombie genre. Instead of the zombies just coming out of nowhere, or reading their origin but not actually seeing it happen, it was good to see an explanation of the cause… plus, I felt that the origin of the zombies was quite an interesting one. I would have liked a few more details about it, though.

I actually quite liked Little Bear as a character at first. I empathised with both him and Summer Rain after the first scene of the story. Of course, I lost a lot of my sympathy for them as the story went on… but I appreciated the glimpses into their thoughts and feelings and how their minds worked.

I wasn’t really sure what to make of Charity. By the end of the book, I didn’t really like her… but then again, it wasn’t clear how much of her mind was the same and how much had changed.

I thought it was interesting that there were the two types of zombies; the ones who were more like animals and the ones who had a bit more intelligence. Again, that’s something I would have liked to learn a few more details about. There didn’t seem to be any reason as to why some of them remembered their history/personality and others didn’t.

At first, I did get a bit confused with the different characters, but eventually, I was able to relate to them. I liked Jasper quite a lot, but I was very surprised by the fact that Jeremiah grew in my estimation by the end of the book.

The book itself was really well-written and I could see a lot of the scenes happening in my mind. I would definitely be interested in reading the sequel to this book at some point in the future.