Review of Nephilim: Corruption, by Ann Margaret Lewis

If you've tuned into the live stream last week, you know everything about this book, and you have already bought it, I'm sure. 

For those of you who weren't kicking around then, let's have a review.

Ann Margaret Lewis is the author of two great Sherlock Holmes novels-- Murder in the Vatican and The Watson Chronicles. If you haven't read them, add them to your to be read pile. 

However, Ann has also written books on Star Wars. So of course she would get into space opera.

Nephilim: Corruption is book one of the Warrior of the Kizan series. If you're wondering what a Kizan is, it's a space highlander (the Scotsmen, not the immortals). The warrior in particular is Dahkar, and he's got the sword to prove it.

The premise is relatively simple: the Nephilim of the Bible were largely wiped out by the flood. Those who were Saved were taken to another planet for the safety of all concerned. The Saved were deemed Emunim. Fast forward a few thousand years, and they've grown into a flourishing society. The only real problem are the fallen among them--the Nephilim, whose whole goal is to make more Nephilim and spread their corruption. 

After a decade in military service, Dahkar's most recent mission with SpecOps has bagged the leader of the Nephilim. It's gained him a promotion to lead the palace guard.

But before Dahkar can even officially transfer to the palace, Princess Tasia is kidnapped and taken offworld. But she isn't taken to the Nephilim homeworld. She's taken to the origin point of their entire people.

The Princess has been taken to Earth.

This is the third time (and second title) I've read this book. Which makes it one of the few books I've read more than once--including Lord of the Rings, Heir to the Empire, Princess of Wands, and Proven Guilty. This isn't the best version, but definitely the second best. When it was published the first time, the editing job makes me very grateful that publisher is now out of business, because it was well and truly butchered. The current publisher, Silver Empire, has repaired it enough to bring it up to par with their rest of their output.

So yes, it's good. I'll say it's five star good, adding for my bias. I know what's missing, and what was cut out between the previous draft and when it landed on Silver Empire's doorstep.

The nice thing about Nephilim: Corruption is that it's relatively straightforward. Once the reader gets into the world (and if you're not fully settled in by the end of chapter two, I'll be surprised) it's smooth sailing all the way. The characters are all easily and quickly set up, and the plot gets underway as soon as possible. Everyone has a character arc and character development. Even the very minor bit players among the supporting cast.

The world building is smart and easy, with echoes of CS Lewis' Science Fiction Trilogy (mostly Out of the Silent Planet). 

Short version: it's fun, buy it.

(Why is this not a Dragon award pick? Because I didn't like the previous edit, and the eligibility had expired.)

Review: Educated Luck, by Mel Todd

In the last book of Mel Todd's "My Luck" series, the heroine, Cori, was outed as a wizard. An insanely super powerful wizard who has managed to largely screw up her own life without even knowing how.

In this case, "Yer a Wizard, Cori" is not the end to her troubles. It only makes things worse.

Educated Luck is the logical follow-up. Because, as par for the course in this world, magic equals mandated education, paid for by the government, leading from there into the draft. Which is a dark rabbit hole that looks more like a Sarlaac pit.

But before she can dive into that problem, the problem comes to her. A plot thread from book one emerges to make her life a little more difficult: an inheritance from a mage researcher, who wants to gift Cori his notes. The catch? She must finish her degree in a year and a half. It's not impossible. She has a triple associates degree from the first book. How hard can it be?

Except that if she doesn't finish the degree by the deadline, the notes go to the government of Japan, and its Emperor. Who is still a little miffed that America nuked one of his cities by accident in World War II.

And Cori can't finish if she's dead.

Educated Luck might be the best book Mel Todd has written. There's no character clutter. This perfectly balances world building, plot, and character.

I had two big objections to Employed Luck. The first was that it was too cluttered and tried to do too much. This avoids that particular trap deftly. The other problem involved two "historical notes" that talked about how everyone was pagan, death to traditional religion. Blah blah blah. Aside from the fact that I didn't buy it, it felt callous--it was both irrelevant to the story, and insulting to my intelligence as a historian, among other things.

However...

Given how much behind the scenes government tyranny we see here, I'm almost glad of it. If it was a deliberate retcon, cool. If it was always in the plan, even better. Given how much is revealed about the magic, media and government here, even the historical notes from the book are suspect, as they are "official" documentation.

Yes, it's interesting. I thought most of Educated Luck would revolve around all the variations on academia. Not quite satire, but magic exaggerating tendencies that are already there. This one focused more on governments and alternate history than education. Though, frankly, I would have liked a little bit more of the background on the alternate history--any World War II that ends with defeating Japan, but leaving the Emperor in a position of authority just sounds like a recipe for a rematch only a few decades down the line, not merely the cold war we see here.

Given the end of the novel, I'm hoping that the next book picks up the next day. Or at least has a prologue that covers what happens in the immediate aftermath. There's a lot to clean up from that conclusion-- and it needs to be cleaned up in more ways than one. 

Though at the moment, they cover enough alternate history, etc, that I'd like to run this one up the flagpole for the Dragon Awards in alternate history. But more on that tomorrow.

Anyway, Educated Luck. This one I fully recommend.

Review: Overlooked Again, by Jon Mollison

 The old poem goes

There was a man upon the stair

A little man who wasn't there

He wasn't there again today

Oh how I wish that he would go away.

He's back and he's armed in Overlooked Again

Yes, this is the return of superhero Joe Smith, Jon Mollison's contribution to Silver Empire's Heroes Unleashed series. And dang is it fun. His Phoenix Ring series may be the best part of the universe in a neck and neck race with Kai Wai Cheah's Hollow City thread... though that may be unfair, since Mollison and Cheah are the ones who I have read two books of (No, Cheah's next book isn't released yet. But I had early access. Heh heh heh). And at this time, there are two other authors who I haven't read yet.

In Overlook, Joe Smith, a prime with the power to be ignored, encountered the Phoenix Ring, a grand conspiracy that looks like if Dean Koontz designed the Illuminati,** and bringing in an element of The Man who was Thursday. But Joe also found a counter conspiracy. After crushing the ring in Serenity City, now, Joe has been quietly keeping the ring in its place -- in the graveyard. 

But like any good villain, the Phoenix Ring has its own counter move. Because they found not only one, but two people who can pierce Joe's powers, and hunt him down. So it's a good idea for Joe to leave town for a little bit.

Joe's new mission: go to Halo City (last seen in Cheah's Hollow City) and make certain that the Phoenix Ring can't rig an election for alderman.

But the Phoenix Ring hasn't gotten to where they are by lying down. They have all the forces of governments behind them. And Joe Smith is their primary target.

Overlooked Again is fun as much for what it does as what happens in the plot. The book is well written, obviously. As I said, I think there are a few references to The Man who was Thursday, some bad puns (The Phoenix Ring runs Firebird Industries? Ugh. How did I forget that from the first book?). 

And the villains. How could anyone forgot how absolutely evil these bastards are? They lack the mustache twirling of the most recent Dean Koontz novels, but they are no less pure evil. Imagine if the Chicago Machine was the tool of Satan... No jokes, please. I'm saving that for another novel I'm writing.

But what happens when a former sniper becomes the man who wasn't there? He becomes a ninja. No, I'm not really joking. You'll see him in action in the first chapter. Which starts out as very by the book, and ends in a tense, and interesting chase.

In the middle of all of that, Jon Mollison pulls off an excellent data dump that both recaps the last book, tells the reader what's been happening since then, and does it all without reducing a bit of tension. It's information discussion on par with David Weber (Or, see: David Weber orders a pizza)

Along the way, Jon has two interesting people after our hero. The first is a French hunter, the Owl, a prime who can hunt Joe, and fight him to a standstill. The other is ... well, you'll have to read it to get it, but it's a lead in to what Jon does with this book.

While I am not able to track what phases the Heroes Unleashed universe is in with this book (probably phase two), we have now entered the phase where there is overlap between the main heroes we're working with. It really begins to show off the shared universe all these players live in. No, I don't mean simply that Joe goes to the city created and written by Kai Wai Cheah, but this is also a world where the Atlantean (and Lovecraftian) magic of Richard Watts is an active threat.

And of course, they're all out to get Joe. They lead to moments where my only note was just "Aw f***"

The writing is also enjoyable. Little comments and phrases, like how "he could have completed the ensemble, but he would have stuck out like a disco ball in Church." Though I hear some megachurches already have those...

I also liked the very casual "You can't just murder your way out of this problem."

And everyone here is well written. The villains are colorful and three dimensional. The supporting cast beautifully compliments our hero. And the upper villains are pure bastards.

Anyway, it's all very well executed, and I look forward to reading the next one.

5/5. Buy it here from the Publisher (Amazon link forthcoming)

**Yes, I have read the Jane Hawk series, where he had something like the Illuminati. But this goes back much farther.

Review: Hired Luck, by Mel Todd

I've reviewed the main story arc of the Kaylid Chronicles.  And I reviewed book one of this series, My Luck.

My Luck was about Cori Catastrophe as she received her triple Associates degree.

Hired Luck.

New city, new job, new threat?

With my best friend going to college to learn how to use her magic, I'm job hunting in Atlanta. We're sharing an apartment and I've never been happier. The last thing I needed was to be involved in a murder investigation. Now the police are sure I had something to do with it. News alert: I don't. I've got a job, Jo's going school. I finally am on the track to have my own life.

Working as an EMT is great, but something weird happened at work. Something I can't explain. What if I'm wrong and I am a mage? The last thing I want is to be a mage, it would mean I'd lose everything I've been working for. Even if I am a mage, I'd be a low ranking one, a hedgemage, something that means I can keep my current life.

But I can't get the dead girl out of my mind. Who was she and why did she die? What good are my skills if all I do is keep finding dead people? With a serial killer out there, the police and FBI stepping in, I might lose more than the life I had planned. I might lose my life. Once again my luck holds true and I'm in the middle of something I don't know how to deal with.

This one opens with a nice omage to the opening of book one, and this time, it's the inciting incident of the plot ... however, Mel takes her time before springing that on you. From there, we get a less-than-stellar view of Atlanta. If this is what it's like to live there, cross Georgia of my list of states to move to. And, this being SFF in Atlanta, we have DragonWorldCon ... I wonder how many puppy kickers will object.

Mel has finally gotten around to the serial killer plot she hinted about back at least one series ago. And of course, Cori is going to be sucked into it.

The damn thing of it is that I can't tell you most of the plot because at the one third mark, we can throw out this entire above description of the plot right out the window, and the plot takes a breakneck one-eighty. 

Many of the revelations will be nothing surprising to the careful reader of book one.

However, once we explain all of those conclusions to Cori, that's where things go off the rails for her, and the real plot begins.

This one will be a 4/5. I had hoped this would be my Dragon Award nomination for fantasy for next year. But something about this held it back for me. I can't put my finger on why. Perhaps Mel tried to do too much with this novel? Perhaps she should have pushed this plot to book three after doing a book on the job Cori has been trained for? Again, I'm not entirely certain. Book 1 was carried entirely on character and world building. This has more of an emphasis on plot-- but like every murder mystery, it helps build the world on the order of How Things Work.

Not to mention that we spent a good chunk of the middle novel introducing us to new characters ... after spending the first third of the novel introducing us to new characters. We don't get many calls for Cori as an EMT, which made me a little sad. And I think that might be what held this one back--the tonal whiplash at the 30% mark. As I read through my notes, there are tonal shifts all over the place.

There are, as usual, a bunch of nice little touches. The magical crime family Rasputin, for example. Or the Merlin Arthur Conan-Doyle. Or that the FBI never changes... nor does public school. Or academic politics.

And unlike a certain magical universe, Cori contributes to the plot BECAUSE she has no assumptions, and all of her basic knowledge is fresh in her mind. There's a nice bit about biases, against her and for her, and how certain changes in her life change her--in ways she doesn't like. Then we take basic knowledge of the world, and throw it right out the window, heh heh heh.

Also, frigging magical tree cats. Also, unicorns can be scary.

A major plot issue to be addressed (not a problem to be fixed) is the conclusion. It's very much like Black Sunday meets an Indiana Jones movie, but not quite as satisfying. Yes, that is particularly vague. But I suspect you'll figure it out when you finish it. But it left me feeling vaguely dissatisfied. It was also heavy into sequel baiting, where the resolution to this was the creation of a whole new set of problems.

My biggest quibble? The casual, arbitrary and capricious dismissal of all religion... well, all Christians. And Jews. Apparently, no priest who has magic abilities wanted to be a healer? No Rabbinic scholars went into the field of doing a deep dive into magic? Somehow, all of the meditations, focusing exercises and mental disciplines of Christianity are instantly useless in this world of magic. Why? Because magic... That's it... Seriously? It's not even magic, it's matter to energy conversion, like the transporter or replicator on Star Trek. 

But Druid and Wicca are on the rise! Yeah. Sure. How many other human-sacrifice cults would you like to bring back? Because human-sacrifice is literally a massive plot point of this novel. So that strikes me as six kinds of Really Bad Idea. 

And it's infuriating because it's two throwaway lines in chapter openings that usually contribute to world building. And it was mentioned twice, without having a single ramification in this storyline.

But "Oh yeah, that guy in Rome is just a figurehead of an empty church." Right. It knocked me right out of the narrative and just plain irked me.

As I said, 4/5. 3/5 if I'm feeling pissy.

Anyway, buy a copy here.

Review: Storm Between the Stars, by Karl Gallagher

Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I've been a fan of Karl Gallagher's books. He delivers character and plot, even at times when you don't know which he's delivering on. Torchship was a better Firefly than the actual product. His Lost War series is criminally underrated, even though I think it's even better than Torchship.

And now he's back to a slightly harder SciFi, with a bit of a twist to it.

Storm Between the Stars: Book 1 in the Fall of the Censor is his latest release. I was worried about spoiling the key threat in this book... but the series title has already given that away.

To begin with, Niko Landry is Captain of a family-owned and operated freighter. Like all shipping companies, he makes a lot of deals based off of what will sell better in X system over Y, and never leaving his cargo hold empty. 

When Niko and his crew find himself lost in space, he finds himself in the midst of a great business opportunity. After three thousand years of a human diaspora caused humans to flee Earth and being subsequently cut off from the home system, they find themselves to be the first ones to have found a way back.

Since the Landry family business is private, they don't have to report anything to any one. They're the first ones back to the home system, and therefore, the first ones to find what new resources and technology may have been developed in the last three thousand years.

But Earth and the associated systems are now ruled by something called "the Censor." And what seems to begin as a system of bureaucrats is slowly revealed to be a creepy, terrifying system of oppression. Each new revelation makes the reader feel new levels of dread every time. It goes from "aw Hell" to "aw f***" to "why aren't they running?"

Karl essentially unveils a system, piece by piece, that builds into 1984 / Farenheight 451 IN SPACE, and ends with an interstellar space chase that David Weber would have been happy to have written. It feels a little like the end of On Basilik Station, only our heroes are being chased, and they don't have real weapons. Their only weapons? Physics.

Karl does a good job of developing a world. Many of the ideas are sane Libertarian. I have to make that distinction because there are the libertarians I know, versus the ones I've seen in public. He has a smart and sane approach to extended families, marrying into a family business, barter to get around taxes, how to work around oppression, and a lot of cultural elements that would make some libertarians I know scream like a sunburnt vampire.

There is also a great bit of work on language. I haven't seen this much effort put in since John C Wright's Somewhither. It's not as extensive, but it works well for the story. 

And there are nice little touches here and there. Character names that are very ... Welsh. Details on spaceship cargo loading. Human zebras (long story). Bringing back the zealots.

The only problem with this entire novel? We could have spent five pages on the crew being a bit more impressed with "This is something no one on our side has seen for thousands of years." In the book, they were all business, no wonder. Five pages would've been enough. It's a minor quibble, but I have to find a flaw somewhere.

In short, it's great world building. And I definitely enjoyed it. At least a 4/5. Maybe 5/5. I definitely recommend it. There's sequel bait, but there's there isn't a cliffhanger. So this won't cause you to throw your book against a wall.

Buy it here.

Review: Mel Todd's Commander

Not too long ago, I reviewed No Choice, the first in Mel Todd’s excellent Kaylid Chronicles series. It’s one of those books that remind me why I go to conventions – I get to meet great people and their awesome novels. Seriously, these books have been out for years, and I had to find out about them, and Mel, through conventions.


Anyway, with book two, Commander, while book one could have been urban fantasy, book two is where we go into science fantasy.

Because at the end of book one, our heroine, McKenna Largo, is hearing voices. At the start of book two, the voice is having full conversations … with everyone else.

The ability to shift doesn’t come from anything mythological, but from nanotechnology.

And oh boy, does the start of the flap copy say it all.

It can always get worse, unfortunately.Discovering an Artificial Intelligence lives in your head, strike one. Having the Artificial Intelligence explain aliens are the origin of shifters on Earth, strike two. Having it announce you are the commanding officer of the earth shifters, strike three.

Deciding there is only so much one person can handle, McKenna Largo ignores the strange new voice in her head and focuses on her law enforcement career. She soon learns there are other aspects to being a shifter. Who knew cougars had such a great nose for drugs? Her career prospects increase with each drug bust, but so do her enemies. Still McKenna insists on living as normal a life as possible. After one too many successes, these enemies target not just on her, but also her family and friends. Finding herself in a situation she never imagined, McKenna must step up and be the leader they need, a true commander. Now if she could just devise a plan that won’t get them all killed

TLDR: just do what I did and buy the whole series already.

For this specific book, there is, surprisingly, not a lot of action. This is probably because the last 30% of the book is almost solid action. The majority of the novel is heavily character based. In some respects, it’s sort of like a John Ringo Vorpal Blade novel – the first half of the book is how things get done, and the second part is where the plot happens. And the flap copy describes the plot. Thankfully, it still doesn’t give you a lot.

The funny thing is that the action scattered throughout the novel is very cleverly executed. Because that action isn’t real – they’re simulations. As said above, the shifters are caused by alien nanites. The reason? The shifters are to be foot soldiers for an alien race—mostly mindless, obedient drones. Why terraform the planet when you can terraform the people – and wage a Von Neuman’s War without losing a single one of your own kind? It’s almost like John Ringo’s Darhel had come up with a better plan to screw over people. So, of course, the nanites come with their own AI, and the AI come with battle scenarios that read like set pieces from a Halo game. 

So now if the plot gets slow, we can throw in a full space commando raid. Which was a nice way of inserting action into a story that, in other cases, would be considered slow… though, to be honest, we didn’t need the blow by blow of the scenarios to keep the story going. The story carried itself along well enough on its own.

Once again, one of the most impressive bits about this series is just how much thought goes into the impact of shifters suddenly existing in the world. If covers politics, sociology, mythology, science, medicine, and culture on every single level. And if Mel Todd doesn’t cover something, wait a chapter, she’ll probably cover it eventually. I’m almost certain that she came up with a lot of different impacts on plenty of different cultures, and anything she couldn’t show you in-story, she made a paragraph long vignette for a news story that topped each and every chapter.

And that’s just the side content. Mel puts in a ton of thought in on the individual elements of how things work. Again, it’s very John Ringo. Just going into the details of “Yes, you now have the sniffing ability of a drug dog, but with the higher processing function of a human being. Welcome to the drug squad,” was wonderful. She even had the legalities of such a sniffer cop down pat. 

But yeah, I like the character building. I like the world building. I liked the progression of the story, as each book raises the stakes, and segues right into the next book. 

Hell, I’ll tell you just how much of an impression this book made on me. When reading a book for review, I always make notes – either in the Kindle copy, or on a note pad (write on books? What are you, a heretic?). I haven’t even needed to reference my notes once during this entire review. Doing so now only provides some details – such as dealing with the foster care system, or that Mel Todd has a great way of delivering exposition that carries the plot, and an effortless way of conveying character backgrounds. Or that the little asides at the start of each chapter could be the plot of a book by themselves. Who am I kidding – Mel Todd even manages to make a reporter appear to be somewhat human. We won’t even go into the reality show. 

Negatives: There are some editing issues here – and they’re issues that I recognize. A word left over from rephrasing a sentence, but it doesn’t fit in the new sentence. Or a left over “I” from a first person narrator … even though the current edition is very much third person personal. I can’t say they were more numerous than the errors in the first book (I remember none from No Choice, to be honest) but they were more jarring. They kicked me out of the story for a minute or two.

The second problem is that the ending of book two is similar to the ending of book one. While book one ends with McKenna and a bunch of shifters kidnapped and forced to work on behest of criminals, book two ends with …  with McKenna and a bunch of shifters kidnapped and forced to work on behest of criminals. Granted, the mission is different and the stakes (and threat level) are higher.

Anyway, all the negatives aside, the book is 5/5 material. Just read it. 

Oh, and by the way....

And, while you're here, be certain to check out the Dragon Awards nominations list. Everyone should be voting in this. Everyone. The bigger it is, the fewer jerks can say that it's "invalid." I lost track of how many people vote in the awards, but I stopped counting at 8,000.

Review: Psycho (and Psychic) Games

I've already reviewed Amie Gibbons' Psychic Undercover (with the Undead), a law enforcement UF novel that really makes Laurell K. Hamilton look like an amateur (okay, LKH does guns better, but since LKH has even managed to make Edward a useless character, I'm not feeling charitable).

And now, we have Psycho (and Psychic) Games (The SDF Paranormal Mysteries Book 2)

Psycho (and Psychic) Games is ... 

Well, let's just say this is what happens when southerners make a Hannibal Lecter.

And they thought catching the serial killer was difficult...

Psychic Ariana Ryder just completed her probationary year and is now a full agent in the FBI's Special Division Force, a semi-secret branch that investigates paranormal crimes. She's got a great, if strict and strictly yummy, boss, a vampire for a boyfriend, and yeah, that has its issues and politics, but overall, life's lookin' pretty good.

The director, in a bid to score political points, puts Ariana on interrogating famous serial killer JB Truck, aka The Puzzle Master. Truck's been in prison two years and the authorities still can't figure out who all his victims were or where his vast resources came from.

Ariana's mission is simple, get visions off the psycho until they get the information they need.

But nothing's ever simple when there's magic afoot. The vampire queen's gunning for Ariana, there's a mysterious new shifter in town who needs a psychic's help (and is way too flirty considerin' she's a lady with a boyfriend), and Truck's got a few tricks of his own.

And he didn't end up in Nashville by chance.

Frankly, this book already has a very nice summation of the novel.

"This isn't Silence of the Lambs, it's freaking Nightmare on Elm Street."

I think this sums it up nicely.

I would say that this is as good as the first novel, though there are some minor issues. You don't "sick people" on others. There were one or two moments where I was concerned we were going to enter into squicky Anita Blake BS. Don't worry: while the sex did get heavier into detail, it's still better (and easier to skip) than the Hamilton books. In fact, it's more like how I with Hamilton would write her books. Maybe I could get back into them.

But as I said, this was is just as good as Gibbons' first novel in the series. It has elements of fantasy microbiology (which was my favorite parts of Grimm, and I would like to see more of that in fantasy in the genre in general).

And Gibbons' does some cute bits of business with the psychopath du jour. There was a good deal of 3D chess going on that reminded me of the Joker. And then he turns into Deadpool (from before he became a popular character)

This one even solved a lot of my problems with the first one. Because this was the book where our heroine is a full agent, and it was time for her to just grow the hell up.

And then she ends by setting up book three.

I've only got one noticeable problem with the series in general so far and this individual book in particular.

With the book, it's a bit unbalanced. About 75% deals with the serial killer. Then we have a break and we switch tracks, where it turns into a relatively good variation on an Anita Blake novel (a bit of soap opera, a touch of melodrama, and let's talk about feelings -- though that was in service of actually FURTHERING THE PLOT, so it gets a pass).

With the series. I don't have a really good sense of place. This is something that is occasionally a problem with even Jim Butcher. I don't get a sense that this is Nashville. I like to get an idea of where the heck I am. But aside from some of the accents, this could be almost any city and state in the union.

To be perfectly honest, this is still a 5/5. The problems in the book are easily overlooked and forgiven. If I were being more nitpicky, I'd penalize the overall score. But I'm not. And the book was still enjoyable.

So if you're interested into a nice mystery, something that harkens back to the days before Anita Blake before it became Penthouse letters, you're going to want to read this one.

Review: Adam Lane Smith's Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood

You may previously remember Adam Lane Smith from his work in Burrito Avenger and Making Peace (reviews in the links)

Adam has moved on to Christian Fantasy dystopia.

You have to be pretty flipping awesome to make me get through dystopia of any type. Mostly, you have to be named John Ringo.

If this sounds interesting, then you can get out Adam's main series of Deus Vult Wastelanders. The featured character is Gideon Ira -- imagine Judge Dredd as a crusader knight in powered armor. 

I wasn't a fan of book one. I blame the poor editing -- It opened with a fight with a demon, then tried to make us care about Gideon Ira, then put us with a fight against random thugs. Which isn't how you do story structure. Book two of Deus Vult Wastelanders was better.

The one I really liked is Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood. It's a spin-off from the main series, but I think it did a better job of introducing the world through character interactions than the first two books.

The Valkyrie revives in a coffin.

As she climbs from her tomb, she finds the end of the world has come and gone. Demons roam the blasted wasteland of what was once America. Humanity hangs by a thread and she, one of the last surviving Valkyries, is tasked with driving the rampaging legions back into Hell.

As she battles waves of demons, raiders, and mutants, the Valkyrie faces far darker questions: Does a created being have a soul? What does it mean to protect mankind as humans prey upon each other? When she confronts the cult of Moloch hidden beneath the ruins of an ancient abortion clinic, her burning need for justice may just prove more powerful than her orders to protect mankind.

The last survivors of humanity need her. Will she be our protector, or our destroyer?

Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood has multiple advantages over the main series. 

To start with, the Valkyrie has a personality. She's almost charming in her observations. She has a character arc and development.

And let's just say that she has an inventory system that feels like a very meta comedy about video game systems.

Another advantage this has over the main series is that our heroine is working with a team of various personality types. Adam's already got team dynamics down from Making Peace, and it really is one of his strengths. 

Overall, this was better than the last two. And if you want better than Larry Correia's Son of the Black Sword, and looks like a cross between Solomon Cane with a protagonist out of Nier: Automata (if Neir Automata was, you know, GOOD), then give Valkyrie Doll and the Ashen Brotherhood a try.

Review: Mel Todd's No Choice

So, what happens when you are a cop in the middle of a bank robbery -- you're held hostage, a child is about to die.

You turn into a giant puma and kill them all, of course.

Officer McKenna Largo is having a very strange day.

But she has No Choice.

Book one in the completed Kaylid Chronicles. Over 500,000 words. Start the journey here.

Being a Cop – difficult but rewarding.

Cougar – WTF? But can be dealt with.

Targeted by drug dealers and dirty cops – Watch out, this cat bites back.

McKenna Largo loves police work and would rather no one focus on her. Transforming into a cougar in the middle of a bank robbery, is a shock. But when a video of the event goes viral, she becomes the reluctant public face of shifters appearing around the globe.

The police department uses her for “PR”, and the governor creates and inclusiveness campaign, putting criminals behind bars seems a million miles away. Trying to juggle the animal she now is, the strange attention, and a society changing faster than anyone expects, McKenna worries she might be a monster. When criminals capture her and innocent young shifters, the cougar and the cop combined must decide where duty takes them.

Will McKenna run scared from the animal inside, or will she save the day and set her inner beast free?

If you like strong characters, fast-paced action, and unique shifters, then you'll love Mel Todd's exhilarating novel. Buy No Choice to shift into a thrilling urban fantasy today!

But millions of people around the world are also changing, shifting into various and sundry furry predators.

And no one knows why.

Officer Largo and her partner are at the heart of the firestorm. A long the way, she has to deal with police regulations, media nutcases, and unwanted celebrity.

Mel Todd is really fairly awesome at this.

Imagine doing cops as well as Grimm or Blue Bloods.

AND doing media relations as well as Carrie Vaugh's Kitty Norville.

AND examining the full spectrum of cultural impacts of the supernatural twenty times better than the Anita Blake novels.

No Choice would be that book.

No Choice is book one. I got the entire set for $.99, and this is more than worth it. I probably would have paid full price if I had heard of them in advance.

5/5 Stars. Easily.

Jimbo Reviews Crusader

Jim McCoy has released his review of Crusader.

His complete review is here, but some highlights

Tommy is a hero and the kind of guy we all wish we could be. I mean, unless your goal is to be a bad person....

.....For those of you who may not be Christian, this is still an ass-kicking adventure novel. There are gun fights and fist fights and insanity. There is even some sexual depravity. There are chases and woundings, quite a bit of blood, some things turned to ash and a seriously creepy setting in one spot. There are surprises. There is a conspiracy. I mean, you can't go wrong with a book that has oodles and bunches of people with AK47s in it, right?

.... I guess the thing that I've always enjoyed about Finn's writing is that it has a message but it's not message fic. Finn doesn't have his protagonist constantly harping on the evils of whatever. Yes, Tommy is a Christian and he prays a lot. His enemies tend to be demons or at least influenced by them. That's fine. At no point have I read a diatribe about the evils of non-Christians or been subjected to a lecture ala David Gerrold in Jacob. Tommy is simply a man doing what he needs to do. If he has a few extra gifts to do it with, so much the better.

One of the most exciting things about Crusader is that there is a sequel coming soon. It's due out November fourth. This is good. I can't wait to read it. The thing about a guy like Tommy is that you're always wondering about what he'll be up to after the current adventure. I have it on good authority that there are a number of books coming after Deus Vult too. My top secret sources have revealed to me that they'll be out soon and that I should keep myself from losing it too much. I mean, it's good to know that there will be more soon but I'm going to have to wait no matter how excited I get and like, I'm a geek and I get excited about stuff, so... yeah. I'll hold it together. At times like this I'm reminded of the fact that for the longest time I wouldn't read a series unless it was already completely published. Thanks J.K. Rowling! You've ruined me!

It's all good. I'll make it through the waits the same way I did for Harry Potter... somehow. Thank God that Finn writes fast.

Bottom Line: 4.75 out of 5 Paintballs Filled with Holy Water

And if you don't follow me on Facebook, yes, I have finished book 7.

I write a little quickly, yes.

New TV Review: Perfect Harmony

I can almost hear this casting discussion.

"We need someone to play an elitist, out of touch egomaniac."
"How about that guy from West Wing."
"We can't afford Martin Sheen."
"No, not him, the other screaming nutcase."
"The Jewish stereotype with a beard?"
"No, the other flaming egomaniac."
"Bradley Whitford?"
"Yeah. Him. Let's stick him in a setting where the locals make fun of him, and they poke fun at their own foibles."

And this is how Perfect Harmony was born.

The setup is simple. A retired music professor has lost his wife. After taking her to the deep south town where she was born to bury her, he is about to commit suicide... when he is stopped by horrendous singing of a church choir. Drunk, and deciding he will not die to such painful sounds, he marches in, corrects all of their singing foibles, and passes out.

The local southerners take pity on him, and adopt the arrogant SOB.

And this is a comedy.

I will grant that a lot of the humor is culture shock comedy. Those aspects are hit or miss -- the hits usually land in Bradley Whitford's head, so are much appreciated. (Can you tell he may have played this part a little too often?)

But where the show usually shines is in the music. And they have funny music moments. Whether they're slowing down a song to make it intelligible, and it works, or they're doing a rock version of a hymn (I believe one was Nearer My God to Thee).

I'm not going to say it's going for depth, but it does tell you something that I have gotten more laughs out of this show than I have out of any "comedy" in 30 years. (The last comedy I watched was Night Court reruns... or Head of the Class.) And merciful God, the humor DOES NOT RELY on the characters being total morons, or sex, or "I'm so smart, society is stupid." In fact, only one character here is actually a moron ... and even he's not so stone stupid, you expect him to stop breathing.

Anyway, you might want to give Perfect Harmony a try. It has been getting steadily better about the culture shock humor, but solid on the music fun. Expect at least three good laughs.

Let's call it a 6/10. Maybe even 7/10, depending on the episode.

While you're here, you might want to go over to the kickstarter for the complete sextet for Saint Tommy, NYPD, complete with audio book.

Fall TV review, 2019: Evil

To start with, psychologist Kristen Bouchard (actress Katja Herbers) was going to profile a simple serial killer. Then he started speaking in tongues and going insane at the sign of the cross. Vatican assessor David Acosta (Luke Cage's Mike Colter) thinks it might be a case of demonic possession. When the DA tries to twist arms to force Bouchard's verdict, she quits... 

And the Vatican needs a psychologist to help with assessments, because demonic possession can be confused with mental disorders and vice versa.

But assessor David Acosta comes with his own nemesis, Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson). Leland another psychologist who wants to promote dark, twisted behavior, going so far as to tell our heroine that he wishes to release the guilty and condemn the innocent.

And went Acosta tries to pray, something that looks very much like Townsend comes to harass and harangue him.

And thus begins Evil, one of the creepiest, smartest shows I've seen outside of Prodigal Son.

Our Trinity. The assessor, the shrink, and the tech guy.

This show is ... horror, after a fashion. The main plots with the miracle / possession of the week are relatively good procedurals. 

Somebody actually read the novel The Exorcist and decided "Wow, there are a LOT of tests you have to run before doing an exorcism ... or declare a miracle. We could make this a whole series."

These are some nice flashes of creepy in the main plot, and a lot of character driven element to the main story. Though a lot of it is deflated by the scientific, rational explanation presented as a possibility offered by the end of the episode.

There is usually a subplot including Bouchard's four Catholic school girl daughters, so seem to be getting sucked more and more into a tidal pool of darkness. And while everything that seems to be creeping in on them has a perfectly rational explanation, no one actually stops and spells out those explanations, unlike in the main plot.

While I don't know the actress playing Bouchard, she pulls it off quite well. And I've enjoyed Mike Colter's work ever since he was on Ringer, here is no exception.

I do have trouble with reconciling how Michael Emerson can be so normal, while being the creepiest freaking thing in the entire TV show...Okay. He's not the creepiest thing on the show. But damn, is he close.

Then there's "George" -- a Joss Whedon demon who plays a recurring night terror. Though whether or not he's a night terror or a real demon is left up for grabs. But he's entertaining anyway.

While this so is filled to the brim with wall to wall creepy things, much of them from the main plot are explained away, or are just ambiguous enough to be eerie. Because after all, this show isn't called Supernatural, it's called Evil. And the most evil, creepy things in this entire show isn't the potential possession that might be demonic. They're the things that are almost certainly "merely" human... but they're still pure flipping evil.

Right now, an 8/10. Yes, I'm grading it lower than Prodigal Son, but that's because the latter has more laughs. Dark Laughs, but laughs.

Speaking of dark, check out the kickstarter for my current horror series, Saint Tommy, NYPD. It's got a dark, twisted sense of humor, a strange perspective, and generally ... dark. And having fun with it.

Fall Review 2019: Prodigal Son

From the mind of the creator of Chuck -- Prodigal Son.

So, our hero, Malcolm Bright (Tom Payne) is the offspring of Doctor Martin Whitly, alias the serial killer named The Surgeon (actor Michael Sheen). Bright discovered what his father was and turned him into the cops, let by Gil Arroyo (Lou Diamond Phillips).

Fast forward twenty years and Bright is very ... intense for the FBI. When they declare that they're afraid he's about to break, Bright goes back home to New York. To his mother the blue blood, and his sister the reporter.

Now that Bright is out of a job, he's recruited to the NYPD by the very man he turned his father in to.

This series is dark. But it's also got a dark sense of humor. The father and son are delightfully deranged and demented. Everyone is slightly broken and nuts. I love it. 

Michael Sheen is so wonderfully creepy. He is so evil, and the actor is clearly having fun being Hannibal Lecter with a personality. He's so joyful as he chews the scenery. This smiling psycho is so normal, and yet so freaking creepy at the same time. The camera angles and the lighting are so perfect at highlighting him.

Tom Payne's Malcolm Bright is also wonderfully insane. He has PTSD up one side and down the other. He's only really doing "okay" when he's working on murderers. He's so intense in his performance, he's the right kind of over the top.

Prodigal Son is a fun, insane, dark romp that makes Criminal Minds look like ... okay, Criminal Minds is still flipping dark. But this is more enjoyable in a lot of respects.

Let's call it a 9/10 right now.

Speaking of dark, check out the kickstarter for my current horror series, Saint Tommy, NYPD. It's got a dark, twisted sense of humor, a strange perspective, and generally ... dark. And having fun with it.

Fall Review: the returning shows

As you all know, in previous years, I've done reviews of the new fall lineup as I see it. I get some of these continuing shows, even after I've given up on them, so I can give you slight updates about some of the crap that's still crap. But I can give you the best reporting on the stuff that isn't garbage.

So, previously on ....

God Friended Me... As noted in my original review, this is a bit of Person of Interest, only they have managed to show off how to show all of the problems of being a prophet, without making it necessarily about religion. Frankly, when this show ends, its best move may be to either leave it entirely vague, or have a direct visitation. Frankly, the writing is getting better, and it was really tightly written before. I think someone plots out an entire season in advance, which is the only way they can pull some of the plot points they use here. Perhaps the best show on TV right now. Even though they've had plenty of opportunity to go full social leftist nut bar, they haven't. And I am so grateful for that.

The Rookie-- Now on Sunday nights, it may be doomed to a time slot that will eventually kill it. But ABC has had some success in that time slot, so who knows? Nathan Fillion is finally starting to expand some of his acting chops, so he's no longer playing just Mal Reynolds or himself -- which, so far, seem to be his own two modes of acting. Believe it or not, the series is actually getting better. And frankly, I think Joseph Wambaugh or Michael Connelly would both appreciate this show. 

Magnum, PI -- Still sucks. In fact, I'm not even sure why they called it Magnum, except to skin the original property and wear it like a skin suit. There were originally plans for a Magnum spinoff series with his Eurasian daughter ... but apparently, making him a lazy Hispanic played by Jay Hernandez, and turning "Higgins" from a stuffy English WWII vet to blonde Bond girl was apparently the ... better option? (No, it wasn't). Totally unwatchable crap, and probably even worse than my original review. The only positive is that Tim Kang from The Mentalist has got work in Hawaii.

SWAT -- they went full SJW BS. It's crap. Worse than the knockoff Magnum. Worse than the new thing calling itself MacGyver. For more details, see my Agit-Prop TV article.

NCIS -- It's the same as ever. So your mileage may vary, depending how what you thought of it before.

NCIS LA -- I watch it for Linda Hunt, and the banter between two sets of characters (Hint: neither one involves LL Cool J or Chris O'Donnell). There is no plot, no matter how much they pretend otherwise. But the banter is fun.

NCIS NO -- Mediocre. Though it's nice to see that Scott Bakula has work.

Bull -- Original review is here. And frankly, it's largely the same thing, different day. Last season was ... my last season of it. Screw it, I'm out.

Blue Bloods -- The writing is actually getting tighter on this series. Character development is still ongoing for most of the major players, and several of the minor recurring characters. I'm not going to say it's Babylon 5 level writing and planning, but the recent episodes are handling 3 or 4 plotlines at the same time, and usually tying together their issues around the Sunday dinner table. It's a nice balance, and every actor gets a workout over the course of the episode. In competition for best TV show out right now.

Hawaii 5-0: I was fed up with this show a few seasons ago. Strangely enough, though, they managed to breathe new life into the show by bringing in new blood and letting them take up most of the screen time. That's good, because Alex O'Loughlin and Sonny Corleone's kid were getting tiresome.

New Amsterdam -- It's a fun show, though our main character is a little stupid at times. He thinks he can cut through bureaucracy with a personal touch and face-to-face communication. The answer is usually no. While he talks a game of socialism every so often, the solutions offered tend to be capitalistic or Catholic. (No, seriously, someone needs to explain to him what the concept of Solidarity is.) There is one particular new character who's a vet, who seriously needs to make a comeback, as he got in some solid hits to our lead's head, and his ego. (EG: "This person needs a home health aid to check on her twice a day." Solution: "Get her a puppy. And a dog walker. The dog walker will check in twice a day to walk the dog, and cost $20, instead of $200.") It's actually getting better from last season, and if it continues like this

The Blacklist -- While I admit, they had some sucky moments for a while, it got better as they have dropped a lot of the family drama and replaced it with the insane Bond villain of the week. Again. They've made what little family drama they have into spy thriller. Even their computer nerd has become a badass. Who knew? 

However, to be perfectly fair, since there are only three shows here that have my full-throated endorsement, how about you check out the latest kickstarter -- because books don't need wifi to stream, or TV's to view on, and they'll go with you anywhere, even the bathroom. Just please don't drop it.

Review: Bane: Conquest, by Chuck Dixon

As a rule, I avoid comic books. I find most of them overpriced and under quality. The last time I went out of my way to collect comics it was J Michael Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider Man. (No, I don't blame him for One More Day.)  Right now, there is so much political crap going on in comics, or so much poor writing (See: Batman's wedding) that you can't drag me to a comic book with a ten foot pole.


But recently, I found myself making an exception for Chuck Dixon, creator of my favorite comic book villain -- Bane.  

Commonly known as an antagonist for Batman, Bane has been largely ill-treated in Bat-media. I find him more interesting that Batman, and more likable than the majority of Bat villains. While many of them are tragic figures (not Riddler, Joker, Catwoman and Penguin, they're arrogant, evil, and larcenous, in that order) Bane is one of the few I genuinely like. When first introduced, he was intelligent, efficient, and not half as crazy as most of the rest of the Gotham crowd. And he had a plan executed so well, I want to see DC writers try to pull it off again to see how they can Mary Sue Batman out of it this time.

In short, he's a villain who plays chess and speaks Latin.

Once again, DC was smart enough to get Chuck Dixon back to once more write Bane. And this time, they allowed Bane to be the main character. (I was largely happy with Forever Evil ... then they dropped the ball in the endgame.)

This is Bane: Conquest.

In the dark waters off the coast of Gotham City, a mysterious crew of smugglers has made a deadly mistake--they tried to bring weapons of mass destruction into Bane's city!

After tracing the illicit arms back to their source, Bane and his henchmen uncover a criminal conspiracy that seems to span the entire globe and encompass every illegal activity under the sun.

But if there really is a secret empire behind all of the world's crime, Bane should--nay, must--be the one running it. And no one--not assassin cults, super-hackers, Catwoman or Batman himself--is going to stand in his way!

Twenty-five years after bringing Bane to life in Batman: Knightfall, creators Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan reunite to tell the most epic tale yet of one of Batman's most dangerous foes! Collects issues #1-12.

This one puts Bane up against a worldwide criminal organization called Kobra ... If you're having flashbacks to GI Joe, please don't. They're not into the world domination business. But they do amount to the biggest crime family in existence. 

The execution is everything I've missed about the character, and about comic books, for quite sometime. The character is smart yet vicious. The action and the odds are over-the-top. There are cameos from terrorists and space aliens. Every frame is on point. Nothing here is gratuitous. The story arc ends with an action sequence that's one part The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, and Where Eagles Dare.

This is comic books and their best. Where else are you going to have a close quarters combat duel with a mech on one end... and an unarmed man on the other?

By the end of the issue, you get to see why Bane is the best Batman "villain." It's a moment that comes after the shooting is over and all the scheming is done. It's moments like this where I think Bane should get his own series, as long as Chuck Dixon writes it and everyone in upper management leaves him alone.

Amazon has it right now for (checks price) $18. For nearly 300 pages of comic books, that's a darn good deal.

If you like Bane: Conquest, then I will also recommend to you my Saint Tommy NYPD series, or my Love at First Bite quartet -- they're as close as I come to writing comic books of my own.

Agit-Prop TV

Blanket statements annoy me.

For example, "All TV shows are propaganda."

Frankly, that's not true, even with CBS shows, where there is at least one episode of agit-prop per season demanded from the higher ups. (You can tell it's a command from above when you get a character in one episode being a monumental jerk in one episode, then the character returns in the very next episode, and it's like nothing ever happened. For whiplash like this, see Blue Bloods Season 5, episodes 3 and 4).

However, this season I can make you one very exact generalized statement.

All TV lawyer shows are propaganda... Especially this season.

I think it's been a near constant over the past 20 years. David E Kelly was broken by the existence of George W Bush in the White House. As far as I can tell, every lawyer show he's done since then has been less about the law and more about whatever BS agit-prop agenda du jour the writers wanted to push.

Fast forward to the two TV lawyer shows of today. All Rise and Bluff City Law. They are both crap shows with lousy acting and writing -- in one case from a halfway decent actor.

All Rise... my Lord, is this such insulting garbage. The TV show is supposed to be about a new judge appointed to the LA bench. But the first episode spends a few seconds on how she's "different" from other judges -- mostly that she's black and female. The casual racism is very casual, and is even insulting to the people of Los Angeles ... about which I don't care, though; LA can burn for all I care. And while the first episode was mostly trying to treat Night Court scenarios in a straight fashion, it was largely harmless.

However, you know the entire series goes straight to garbage in short order when the second episode is all about agit-prop. And I mean all of it. From minute one to the last.

First, you have to believe that an ICE agent can charge willy-nilly into an LA court in pursuit of an illegal alien. Then you have to believe that ICE stakes out the LA court houses in order to "go fishing" to "get easy catches"...

I'm sorry. I'm wrong. The first thing you have to believe is that ICE is even allowed in the City of LA or the state of California.

But then you have to believe that the "solution" to the episode involves an LA prosecutor, judge and defense attorney all conspiring against the federal government to make certain to enforce the "sanctuary" status of California ... which, if anyone was honest, is a flagrant disregard for the actual law.

This is the same week that real life California released two men charged with rape and murder because they were illegal aliens. So the idea that ICE is even some sort of threat is ludicrous.

This was followed by Bluff City Law. Someone wanted to make Erin Brockavich, the TV show, so it's "small lawyer versus big business" every week. Which works fine if you're Leverage and you want to do a cross between The Sting and Mission: Impossible. But this is more like Matlock -- where the writers cheat and pull out a deus ex machina solution for everything.

I would feel sorry for Jimmy Smits being part of this garbage on Bluff City Law, but apparently, he's one of the producers. 

Even the "villains" are stock cardboard cutouts from the communist playbook. Evil chemical company. Big Agra. I'm relatively certain that they even stole the antagonists from Leverage episodes. 

Both of these would be bad enough as they are for the main plots alone. We won't even go into the tonnage of schmaltz and soap opera crammed into each of the episodes. And of course, the curse of every "legal drama" -- the speeches. The endless, lengthy, "heartfelt" speeches that have no place in a courtroom, and dialogue that has never been spoken by a living person who knows how to actually use the English language.

And while we're at it, let's throw in another bit of agit-prop TV. S.W.A.T.

No, not the 1975 TV show, the PC crap starring Shemar Moore. I can tell you how most of these plots are developed.

• "Hey! Let's make a story around illegals!"
• "Hey! Let's make a story around LGBTBBQ"
• "Hey! Let's make a story around evil white people."
• "Hey! Let's make a story around commie protesters who hate cops, but make them smarter than our heroes."

I've actually being watching the 1975 TV show S.WA.T. on DVD. Why? Because it was $10 remaindered in the Edward R Hamilton catalog and I'm cheap.

The funny thing about the 1975 show? The plots are smarter than the current edition. The writing is stronger. The tactics ... exist (S.W.A.T 1975 knew what vertical movement meant, and what rappelling was for).

Hell, the 1975 version has better characterization. How is that possible? I've seen 70s TV. It largely sucked. But this is so much better than the current edition, I used it to convince current viewers of the new show to stop watching it.

But you know how bad all three of these the current shows are? Here's how bad.

• I would rather watch Bull, which is average on its best day.
• I would rather watch the current thing that calls itself MacGyver, which is barely even watchable on its best day.
• I would rather watch the current Hawaii 5-0, which makes me want to take a power drill to my ears.
• I'd rather watch the thing call Magnum, PI, which has exactly one actor I even find tolerable, and he's only there for three minutes every episode.

Frankly, I'm going to recommend a laundry list of books rather than this current batch of suck. Only some of them are mine. But you can check out any review on this website, I'll back it over the current schlock.

Start here, though, if you wouldn't mind. :)

Review: Brand of the Warlock by Robert Kroese

Review: Robert Kroese, Brand of the Warlock 
Book 1 of The Counterfeit Sorcerer 

A hooded man, his face marred by a mysterious black brand, walks the Plain of Savlos. Some say he has the power to summon demons. Others say he is the only one who can vanquish them. His name is Konrad, and he has a secret....

Once an ordinary soldier, his life was forever changed by a fateful meeting with a dying sorcerer. Now he is all that stands between civilization and the creeping evil of the shadow world. The Brand of the Warlock is the first book in the fast-paced sword & sorcery series THE COUNTERFEIT SORCERER.

Pick up The Brand of the Warlock and start your adventure today!

Robert Kroese seems to specialize in characters who are cynical, capable, and that may just be too smart for their own good. His character of Rex Nihilo is a good example (okay, in the case, there’s also the additional elements of “He’s so smart he’s stupid” and he’s totally insane).

Now we have Konrad. Poor Konrad. All he wants to do is be wealthy and respectable enough to marry the girl next door – who is kind, intelligent, and about four levels about his station.  His plan was to join the army, find honor, glory and rank, come back home and live happily ever after.  His military stuff is... very military.

"The officer who had developed the idea for the Corps had been reassigned to the southern frontier, and another officer, who was nearing retirement and had no interest in the program, had been assigned to run it until a better choice could be found."

Followed by a description of the Scouts as 

"the effectiveness of the Corps was largely due to our chaotic method of operating."

Which is very JSOC.

Then when Konrad tries to stop a fugitive fleeing hot pursuit, with his lady love as a hostage, things go sideways for everybody. The fugitive is a warlock, and has transferred his brand to Konrad’s face. He is tried and convicted – and instead of being thrown into Chateau d’if, he’s thrown under it. As salt is a traditional ward against magic, the only fit prison for a warlock is … a salt mine. With minimal lighting.

Once he is released from prison, we’re off to the races. Konrad has only one mission – to make certain that the girl next door survived the encounter with the fugitive who stole years of his life.

To be honest, there are many elements here that belong in a traditional novel. Or as my family calls them, a Novel novel – classical literature. Our hero has one goal in mind, and a lot of other things happens to him along the way. Superficially, it almost looks like there’s no plot, merely one damn thing after another. However, I can assure you that this is not the case. Eventually, everything ties together. And I do mean everything. Even one or two random encounters turn out to be important. And I suspect that at least one random encounter from this book will come back to bite Konrad in book 2.

On the one hand, it feels very much like a “BOOK ONE,” or a pilot episode of the series. The best example of this feeling comes from the very first Hugh Jackman X-Men movie. It doesn’t really feel like a complete story, just act one. 

One the other hand, it sets up everything quite well. A good chunk of the book is dedicated to avoiding a deus ex machina moment at the end. Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it.

All in all, Rob has written yet another fun, readable world. Minimum four out of five. I’ll grant him a five out of five, subject to being revisited upon reading the other novels in the series.