If you’re familiar with Corcoran’s Aristillus books, wherein successful engineers build their own “Galt’s Gulch” on the moon, only to be attacked by jealous collectivists from the Earth, you’ll recognize similar fingerprints on Red State Mars. There’s even an early Easter Egg where a Martian colonist 3-D prints a spacesuit for a dog (long story.)

From there, Corcoran blazes a new trail with this story, one that occasionally runs parallel to his lunar escapades, but overall heads in a new direction…

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The Story

The main narrative takes place in 2126, and is bracketed by brief glimpses into 2176, 50 years after the events of the story. A century into the future, five American/Texan families have built domed cities on Mars and while they’re still several generations away from terraforming the planet, they’re thriving.

A while back, separatists from China did the same thing, building domes a short distance away in the same valley. Everything is chill until one day new officials arrive from China to upend the status quo and make impossible demands of the American domes. The Americans rely on trade with the Chinese for critical goods, so they can’t just sever ties, but they don’t want to roll over and surrender either.

What comes next is a soft analog of the Mexican-American War, in space, with futuristic technology and long-term ramifications for the Red Planet and Earth.

It’s a hefty book, tipping the scales at over 600 pages, but Corcoran has a very blue-collar approach to his prose which makes it read well at pace. There are times when I wished it could have been a little bit poetic, as opposed to feeling rather blunt, but that may have just padded the word count. He focuses a lot on the hard science of it all, so you get a bit of an Andy Weir treatment, but people actually punch and shoot at each other in Red State Mars.

The Characters

The American families are all hearty frontiersmen, and that brings a fair amount of testosterone and guff with it. These people don’t always get along but if they’re going to survive the tidal wave of Chinese military power, they’ll have to figure all that out. There are five families to track—Mackenzies, Newcastles, Hollinses, Atkinses, and Hyltons—and their names can run together from time to time, but Corcoran clearly keeps track of who’s who throughout the book. They’re likeable when they can be, and when they have to embrace their bastardry it’s at least understandable in the context of the story.

At the end of the day, you want them to win, and they’d be right to do so. The stakes of their survival kept me invested as the story unfolded, whether it was on the Martian surface, up in orbit, or back on Earth, as the American government figured out how to respond to the unfolding events on Mars.

The World

It’s our world, post WW3. While it exists downstream of our history, Corcoran isn’t writing analogs for our modern day. Yes, you have individualists versus collectivists to some degree, you’re just not getting “Tronald Dump” leading the Republicans and “Hamala Karris” leading the Democrats. He sets up timeless challenges in a way that feels believable.

There’s also a lot of thought put into the application of future technology. 3-D printers and “computational feedstock” as a staple resource feature heavily in the day-to-day lives of the Martian colonists, and its use as a trading commodity directly affects the story from the get-go. A.I. has only proliferated and each family uses an instance of it in their own way. The Chinese also have a future iteration of their eugenics policies and genetic modifications which, again, directly affect the story.

Politics

Corcoran is a libertarian from New Hampshire and his novels reflect that. The end.

Content Warning

The combat scenes are violent, the deaths are tragic, the profanity is abundant, and the slurs are not spared.

Who is it for?

If you ever wanted Robert Heinlein to punch you in the teeth and question your testosterone levels, Red State Mars is for you.

Why buy it

Do you want to read about Texans taking a break from barbecues and 120-yard football games to fight Chinese tyrants with their homemade rock-crawlers and low-gravity artillery? Because I do.

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American Treasure Hunters is a new series of youth mystery novels from Ark Press, and their first official release since announcing their arrival last January. If you’re tired of angsty YA books that are really just wish fulfillment for alcoholics experiencing delayed adolescence into their 30s, give this series a try: the protagonists are competent and ambitious while still young, starry-eyed, and maybe just a touch naïve. (And that’s a charming thing.) On top of that, you’ll get a healthy dose of history and adventure wrapped in one.

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The Story

The eponymous trio of Treasure Hunters (more on them in a second) live in Outer Banks, North Carolina. It’s summer right before their senior year and they’re partying on the beach for the Fourth of July, engaging in the time-honored Southern tradition of shooting fireworks at each other to simulate battle. (God bless the South.) At the outcome of this year’s contest, they stumble across a wrecked Confederate steamer at low tide, and they find the first of a few clues that could lead them to missing treasure from the Civil War.

What follows next is a little familiar in terms of story development—the boys meet up, they discuss some things, they borrow tools from Local Supply Guy, they ask Town History Genius some questions, they get followed by Shady Man of Dubious Origin—so it’s really carried by 1) the premise of this particular mystery (Civil War treasure) and 2) the boys solving the case.

The Characters

There’s a trio at the center of this lineup, but the Treasure Hunters as such could technically include their girlfriends and a kid from school. I won’t give you a full rundown of the cast, mainly you need to know about Ben (smart, home-schooled), Porter (elite jock, starting quarterback, huge), and Latch (grease monkey, good with machines.) The boys have different backgrounds and different skillsets, but their interests overlap and they bring their unique knowledge bases to the table to solve these treasure hunts.

They’re somewhat idealized, and that makes them easy to like. They stay on top of their grades. They get along with their families. They’re not out boozing or slumming around recklessly and complaining about the older generations ruining the world. These guys are the result of intact homes with good moral upbringings, but the book isn’t preachy about it. It’s just there, and it’s refreshingly wholesome.

The World

Since this series pitches itself as an adventure through history, it’s very much our world, and I thought it was a gutsy move to tackle the Civil War right out of the gate—especially in a way that didn’t make up any dumb reasons to hate on the Confederacy. There are no pulled punches but no straw men either; the boys have to get the facts of history right in order to find the treasure and evade their shadowy pursuers.

This requires them to know the truth about men like Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, along with the time in which they lived and the events that defined their lives. Having read an above-average amount of nonfiction about this myself, it was nice to see it handled fairly in fiction for a change.

Politics

None, just history.

Content Warning

Very clean. “Wholesome” is the word that kept coming back to mind. The boys definitely have love interests and they get twitterpated in a very PG way.

Who is it for?

No bones about it, this series is an attempt to recreate the magic of The Hardy Boys that started a hundred years back. Rather than try to buy up and reboot that IP (which would bring its own set of challenges), Ark Press made its own from scratch, with Andrew M. Dare welding the aura of yesteryear to the tech of today.

Grandparents will buy this for their grandkids, uncles will buy it for their nephews. The price leans toward the “premium” side which might make it less accessible to Joe High School and his minimum wage paycheck, but young male readers are indubitably the target audience, as well they should be.

Why buy it

It’s fun, it melds historical fact with fictional adventure in the vein of Indiana Jones (though with slightly lower stakes), and it’s unapologetic about what it wants to be. The historical details were well-researched.

In fact, the only error I caught had to do with the character of Porter, who is a Latter-day Saint/Mormon. As his eighteenth birthday is less than a year out, he’s planning to serve a mission for his church, and the book mistakenly notes that this will last a year and a half. (Missions last two years for men.)

I assume this’ll get fixed in future printings. It’s an extremely minor detail that made me chuckle a bit. The book is great and maybe it’s a little premature of me, but I went ahead and pulled the pre-order trigger on the rest of the series—there are five more coming out this year.

I want more books like this. Check it out.

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Out Law takes place a few weeks or months after Twelve Months. And Twelve Months addressed almost every thread left dangling by the large book that was Peace Talks and Battleground.

However, there was one more thread dangling out there: Marcone.

At the end of the day, there’s always freaking Marcone.

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The Story

Chicago “Baron” / mobster Marcone believes that Harry Dresden owes him a favor. And Dresden doing small favors has never come back to bite him in the behind before.

In this case, it seems innocuous enough. One of Marcone’s thugs in a suit wants to go straight. Help him go straight.

Then Harry finds himself battling a bookie with demonic power, and worst of all … the IRS. The worst part is that at least one of these threats was created by Dresden himself.

Out Law is tagged as a “novella,” even though it’s 200 pages. This may be a novella only by Butcher’s standards in that it’s not the size of a Wheel of Time tome. But it has all of the hallmarks of a full Harry Dresden novel. It has the same pacing, it just doesn’t have ten problems trying to kill Dresden all at once—only two. For Harry, this is what a “simple” job looks like. There’s only one potential world-ending threat.

Of course, this has all the hallmarks of Jim Butcher smartass. Two of our antagonists are named Emilio and Estevez—given Butcher’s usually commentary on his work, I wonder which Emilio Estevez film traumatized him more, Young Guns or The Mighty Ducks.

At the end of the day, this wraps up the Marcone threads from Battleground and ends up being a fun little novel.

Surprisingly enough, there is also additional blowback from Changes.

The Characters

There is a lot of character in this one, perhaps as a leftover from how much character development everyone had to go through in Twelve Months. Harry is forced to work with a lowlife who has been an antagonist, and trying to go straight. The lowlife in question is comedically inept about how the noncriminal world works.

And Jim Butcher has done the impossible: he made a lawyer and an IRS agent look like real people. I’d go into more detail, but that would be spoilery.

The World

This is Harry Dresden’s world, and after 18 novels and two anthologies, Jim Butcher has it pretty well fleshed out. Funny enough, Butcher gets to negotiate his secret history world with more real world issues—Chicago government and the IRS to be precise.

Politics

It’s a Harry Dresden novel that focuses on personal redemption and personal responsibility. If you can find politics in this, good luck with that.

Content Warning

Mild horror elements.

Who is it for?

If you like urban or epic fantasy, you’re going to enjoy Harry Dresden.

Why buy it

Harry Dresden novel that focuses on personal redemption and personal responsibility, with comedy.

Buy Out Law

On his first day at his grandfather’s house, Patrick finds a curious metal…

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Eddie’s father, Robert Donahue, works for the American Oriental Trading Company. He brings silk to the U.S. by trading with the Chinese, utilizing his business relationship with prosperous silk merchant Mister Sun to accomplish this. If Sun cannot fulfill the order in its entirety, then Robert Donahue buys from other silk merchants to fill the gap, but he will call on Mister Sun first and foremost.

This morning, that is Eddie’s job: to go to Mister Sun and put in an order for silks for the company. Eddie spares a few more minutes to watch the Marines longingly. They look like cowboys. But he cannot stay and gets up to run his errand….

In the process, he literally runs into a newly arrived Marine sergeant.

Buy it here!

The Story

Eddie apologizes to the Marine, who cheerfully tells him not to worry about it before introducing himself as Sergeant Joseph Campbell. New to the International Legation Quarter, Campbell asks Eddie for directions to the Marines’ barracks. Pointing them out, Eddie is awed to have met a Real Marine. He shakes the admiration off as he heads out to the market in Peking proper, arriving at Mister Sun’s Prosperous Silk Shop just in time.

Mister Sun and Eddie greet one another before the boy delivers the order from his father for the company. While Mister Sun goes to count on the abacus and Eddie waits patiently, a commotion starts out on the street. Looking around Mister Sun when the older man goes to investigate, Eddie watches a group of “Boxers” destroy the wares of a Christian Chinese couple before striking the woman’s husband in the head with the butt of a spear.

Worried for his safety, Mister Sun sends him away in a hurry. Eddie rushes home by another series of streets than the one he took to the market, but he soon realizes that he cannot tell his mother about the Boxers being so close. She worries over him and his father all the time; if he tells her of his near miss, it will only upset her.

His father is much calmer about such things, though, having served with the Union Army during the American Civil War. He needs to know how close the Boxers are, so Eddie tells him what he saw. Already privy to some reports that the rebels are nearing Peking, Robert Donahue frowns at the news but assures his son that they will be all right. He needs to stay in the Quarter and not tell his Ma about this, though. Got it?

For a while, Eddie gets it. But when the son of the French diplomat challenges his courage, Eddie must go see the Boxers’ “magic.” When this escapade leaves the two youths trapped with a wounded man in the city as the Boxers and the Imperial Chinese Army lay siege to the Quarter, Eddie needs to make some serious choices. He has to find a way back into the Quarter and then survive the siege. But what can one boy do in the middle of a war?

The Characters

Eddie has good sense, but he is also a boy. When he is insulted or his family’s name is dishonored, he feels it and reacts accordingly. He will stand up for himself and for others, but he will also (usually) obey his parents, no matter how much he wants to go on an adventure. What good is an adventure if you do not keep your word? Eddie must earn that honor back, something he does in admirable fashion as the siege continues and he gains more responsibilities.

Jacques, the son of the French diplomat, is a fop and a drama queen. Less mature in some ways than Eddie and overly fond of fashion, he nonetheless proves to have more mettle than his early behavior suggests. Mister Sun is an honorable old gentleman in the best Chinese tradition while Sergeant Campbell does Marines everywhere proud. Eddie’s parents soon show their caliber, demonstrating where Eddie learned his best qualities by their constant, steadfast courage under fire.

The World

The world is the first year of the 20^th century. The Boxers are rebelling and fighting their way across China in an attempt to expunge any taint of Western influence, often with the tacit help of the Imperial Army. When the siege begins, Frenchmen work with Germans, Austro-Hungarians work with Russians, and Americans rub shoulders with Japanese soldiers in the International Legation Quarter. It is a world on the cusp of change – bloody, horrific change. It is a world long gone but, for a brief period, it is visible again through the eyes of a teenage boy who has known no other world at all.

Politics

None.

Content Warning

There is some blood, and the threat of two pet dogs being made into a meal when the Quarter must tighten their belts as food supplies dwindle. Although this threat is not carried out, dog lovers be aware. When death is dealt during the siege it is hardly described at all, so that one would almost miss that anyone had been killed, making this book perfect PG reading for children.

Who is it for?

Boys will love this book, which carries on the best tradition of the Dear America pseudo-diary series and similar projects. It will entice any young reader to investigate history more closely even as it keeps them in the grip of excitement. Fans of the 1963 movie 55 Days at Peking will enjoy the novel as well, whether they be young in fact or young at heart. Anyone looking for an accurate historical story to supplement homeschool or even school reading would be wise to purchase this book for their sons, grandsons, or nephews. Girls will enjoy the novel as well, so those with daughters, granddaughters, or nieces should put this on the list of gifts for their young readers.

Readers with fond memories of the Dear America series and similar series who wish for more books in that vein should buy a copy of ’ A Boy Against the Boxers for their shelves or request that their local library acquire it so patrons can enjoy it at regular intervals. It is that good!

Why buy it?

It makes history interesting in the best tradition of juvenile fiction, focusing on a relatively obscure piece of past in the process. More than that, it makes the topic fun. What better impetus could there be than to purchase a novel than that?

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When author came out with a sequel, I figured it was time to try it and see what the fuss was about.

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The Story

In a small rural village, on Inga Ivanova’s wedding day, her mother revealed to her the family legacy: Deathbringer, a magic sword with a long and terrible history. Her name isn’t even Ivanova, but Alenir. Inga must tell no one about this, not even her husband.

When noblewoman Yenda Avard appears at the wedding ceremony, she’s there for the sword. She slaughters everyone present, even Inga, and takes Deathbringer.

But Deathbringer has the power of life and death. When Inga drags herself out from under the pile of corpses that were the wedding guests, she finds that Deathbringer is keeping her “alive,” even without a pulse. But if Inga can’t retrieve Deathbringer in one week, she’s going to stay dead this time.

And when Inga discovers her full power as a sword bearer, this is going to be one heck of a revenge story.

I generally can’t get into high fantasy, or attempts at high fantasy. Deathbringer has been the exception. The setting is interest, the problem is intricate and well elucidated, the writing is tight and concise. The melee combat is well executed, and the sword combat is on par with Fred Saberhagen’s. The tropes are few and far between. The villain is unique in being almost pure evil, with no redeeming values that I can find—it’s nice to have a villain who isn’t just misunderstood. Everyone has their own motivations for doing what they want, for good or ill.

The Characters

Inga is a smart character, who doesn’t have a lot of experience in the larger world, but adapts quickly. She also has no experience with magic, and comes up with some innovative solutions. She also has no patience.

Surprisingly, a lot of the story ends up revolving around her sidekick, Kale. The antagonist is his fiancee, the destination is his home town, and he ends up in conflicts with his family as well. Inga had one very bad bad day. Kale’s entire life seems to end up beating him down.

And Yenda is … “obsessive evil psycho b*tch” seems to sum up her personality. Her entire personality. It’s been a while since I’ve tripped over a fantasy villain this evil. Maybe Light from Death Note.

Even Deathbringer itself makes for an interesting character.

The World

The world-building here is subtle. Just the detail of a matriarchal society and all those problems are introduced in a sideways fashion. You may not even notice it until a quarter of the way through. The late Victorian-era level technology next to magic swords doesn’t even feel discordant. Between the story and the index, Carpenter clearly has a history of the world he hasn’t info-dumped on us. I admire his restraint.

Politics

If you can find political messaging in this book, I worry for you.

Content Warning

There is very little on-screen issues. One male character has been roofied repeatedly. And there are a lot of bodies by the end of this one.

Who is it for?

While Blake Carpenter has cited some of his inspirations for the book on his Amazon page, I can’t concur. While the sword Deathbringer seems to have some general overlap with other magic swords—sorry, but I never liked Elric, unless we mean the Technomage from Babylon 5.

Deathbringer feels more like high fantasy Alfred Hitchcock. Our protagonist is a fugitive, who doesn’t know who she can trust, with aid coming from the most unexpected places.

Then we get to the end, where it turns into something from Middle Earth: Shadow of War.

Why buy it

It’s a steampunk fantasy world with Alfred Hitchcock plotting and pacing. What’s not to like?

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So, today, we bring you a list of new releases for June and some of those that arrived in May. If you want some wild, weird adventure and fun, we have it here for you. Just scroll through the list to choose from among these fascinating offerings!

Discovery Motion (Ransom’s Law Book 3) by Robert Kroese

Releasing: June 29

Cal Ransom is done playing detective. He has a ship to run, a crew to protect, and a corporation that would love to see him disappear.

But after Aralx, the repossessions don’t look like bad luck anymore. They look like a plan. And the one place that might prove it is the one place Cal swore he wouldn’t go back to: Koschei.

Koschei is a dead system with live problems—an old enemy who won’t let Cal leave clean, and ruins that don’t want to stay buried. When Cal finds a trail that points to what really wiped out an alien civilization, he realizes the conspiracy isn’t about money. It’s about containment.

Now the Ministry is paying attention. Corporate interests are moving in the dark. And Cal is forced to make the kind of alliance that comes with strings—and a criminal price tag.

To get out with his crew intact, Cal will have to out-argue people who don’t care about the law, outmaneuver the people who make it, and decide how far he’s willing to go once he knows the truth.

Pre-order it here!

Mercenaries by Pam Uphoff

Released: May 6

A hundred and seventy years before the Fall of the Alliance . . .

Anatoli Vyatkin and Wolf Offen have graduated from college into a major economic slump, and no job offers at all.

So why not check out some property Wolf inherited? Previously rented to a mercenary company, a desperate mayor from a world under threat mistakes them for real mercenaries . . . well, why not give it a try?

Buy it here!

Assassin in the Alehouse: A Cozy Fantasy (Fables of Finlestia) by Z.S. Diamati

Releasing: June 2

Embark on a cozy fantasy tale of found family and quiet mysteries. A quaint quest to find the place that feels like home and the ones who make it so. A journey filled with self-discovery and new romance.

From cloaks and daggers to mugs and flagons …

Hazkul Bern spent years in the shadows, becoming Kelvur’s most prominent assassin. When his notorious guild is torn apart in a war with a wicked sorcerer, he has no choice but to retreat into hiding in the seaside town of Lornash Point.
With his life as an assassin seemingly over, a local alehouse brewer gives Hazkul a chance at a fresh start in a new life he never wanted.
But when an ominous note is pinned to the bar top, threatening his new friends, the elf assassin wonders if he’ll ever escape his past mistakes.

Take a seat at the table and see what magic awaits.

Come enjoy the hospitality of the seaside town of Lornash Point. Meet new friends as you sample amber ale at a local tavern, uncover mysteries in the shadows, and taste pub comfort food prepared by a culinary wizard.

Pre-order it here!

Caldera’s Heart (Heartfire Chronicles Book 1) by Dan Michaelson and D.K. Holmburg

Released: June 26

Her god told her to save him. He did not say why.

Griffin is a rising auramancer of the Lower Arcanum, sworn to the obsidian tower whose rulers conquered the caldera a generation ago. When a sacred site of the Vorethim is corrupted by magic no native should be able to wield, he’s sent to find who bent that power — and the answer will crack open a conspiracy older than his order, deeper than the mountain, and closer to his own blood than he ever wanted to believe.

Eliza is a chieftain’s daughter and a teacher of children wounded by a war her people cannot win. She hears Voreth in the thermal currents, feels the god’s breath in every tremor, every wisp of steam — and lately, that breath has gone wrong.When she finds a wounded invader bleeding in the tunnels her rebellion uses to kill his kind, Voreth’s command cuts through everything she was raised to believe.

Save him.

Her father will call it treason. Her oldest friend will call it betrayal. And the High Arcanum, when they learn what Griffin has seen — and who saved him — will call it something far worse.

Because the invaders are not only colonizers. They are hunting something sleeping in the heart of the volcano: an entity older than Voreth and far hungrier. The sacred sites are shattering one by one. Griffin’s own sister has vanished into a rebellion she will not explain. And the mountain is beginning to tremble in ways it hasn’t in a thousand years.

Voreth is all things. Life and death. Creation and destruction.

And Voreth has chosen them both.

Two enemies. One god. A fire neither of them will survive alone.

The Heartfire Chronicles begins.

Pre-order it here!

Kiss Me, February (The Yearly, Texas Romance Series Book 4) by Bokerah Brumley

Releasing: June 2

She came to make content. She stayed for something real.

Social media influencer February Scott has one goal: a million views. When her followers vote for a farm internship as her next adventure, she packs up her dented Explorer and heads to Yearly, Texas, to sweet-talk her great-uncle Farmer Bill into letting her document life on Heritage Acres. Easy content, easy views, easy exit.

She doesn’t plan on Officer Mark Jones.

Their meet-cute comes with flashing lights and a $220 speeding ticket, and February is convinced the annoyingly handsome small-town cop exists solely to ruin her day. But Mark has his own battles — he’s a single dad fighting to rebuild a relationship with his thirteen-year-old daughter, Aspen, one awkward phone call at a time.

As February trades ring lights for real dirt, and Mark learns that vulnerability isn’t weakness, the two discover that the best things in life don’t come with a filter.

Featuring a fish-out-of-water heroine, a grumpy-sunshine slow burn, a swoony single dad, a scene-stealing teenager, and a found family that proves home isn’t always where you start — it’s where you stop running.

A Yearly, Texas Romance. Sweet heat. Big heart.

Kiss Me, February has a touch of laughter, a few tears, and a lot of heart in a small-town romance. Each book in The Yearly, Texas Romance Series is a standalone romance. They can be read in any order.

Pre-order it here!

The Mighty Sons of Hercules: Volume 2

Released: May 20

Back, Bigger, Better, and Stronger!

Long ago, in ages past (2023), Cirsova Publishing released a tribute to Peplum cinema: The Mighty Sons of Hercules!

In this new volume, the Mighty Sons of Hercules return in search of further adventure. They will fight injustice, defend the weak and helpless, and right wrongs wherever they are found.

Join the Mighty Sons of Hercules on their new quests! You’ll be amazed by their impressive feats of superhuman strength. You’ll be dazzled by the exotic and dangerous beauties who would seek their downfall. You’ll cheer as they save the innocent from peril and mete out justice to dastardly villains.

Wherever righteousness must have a champion, there you will find the Mighty Sons of Hercules! Whenever there is need and no mortal man can suffice, a Mighty Son of Hercules shall appear!

Buy it here!

Lamplighter Below: A Post-Apocalyptic LitRPG Adventure (Above the Drowning Light Book 2) by Kal Griffith

Releasing: June 4

LAMPLIGHTER BELOW - Vol II - Above the Drowning Light

The Wave nearly ended Tahama. No one knows why it happened. Someone has to find out.
A deep patrol Crawler rolls into the Pale. Small crew. Dangerous mission. Mars volunteers without explaining himself, not to the crew, not to anyone.
The old world is still down there, broken and buried and full of things that used to be people. That's expected. What isn't: something is organizing those things.
Not everyone comes home.
The mist doesn't care about bravery.
Lamplighters do.

Pre-order it here!

A Sense of Murder: Road Mage Volume 1 by Sam Robb

Released: May 14

In a far-flung corner of the worlds-spanning Empire, Ser Kellan tor Iaestus is a Highwayman, sworn to keep the peace in the rugged Outlands. Armed with a revolver from a forgotten war and a hidden Talent to see truth, he is an agent of justice and peace in a wild land... so long as he keeps his talent hidden, lest he be pressed into the service of the Empire.

When Prospero, an Imperial Magus, arrives in the Outlands hunting for a magical truth-teller, Kellan is assigned as his guide. Certain he can keep his Talent concealed and maintain his freedom, Kellan escorts the magus on his journey. All goes well until a string of seemingly unrelated murders exposes demons, dark powers, and a warlock weaving cruel designs in the shadows. As Kellan and Prospero investigate, they follow a thread that leads from the Outlands to the city of Victar de Reya, links whores and politicians, and takes them from fine restaurants to piratical celebrations.

Saddled with a suspicious young seer and facing demons clawing at them from the Unreal, the two must work together to unravel the warlock's conspiracy before he kills again. But can Kellan locate the killer without exposing his own power, and surrendering the independence he's fought so hard to protect?

Duty demands truth. Survival demands secrecy. Kellan can't have it both ways... and time is running out.

Buy it here!

Hell on Wheels by D.J. Butler and David West

Releasing: June 2

A CANNONBALL RUN ACROSS AN AMERICA FULL OF MAGIC

Silas Danger can’t stop running.

The year is 1975. Silas drives a red Pontiac GTO. Trapped in the back of his muscle car are the ghost of his sister Betty and half of the demon that killed her. He doesn’t know how she died, and he hasn’t figured out how to save her yet, but he knows that if he spends three days in any one place, the other half of the demon will catch up, kill him, and drag Betty down to hell.

Silas works as a scout, messenger, courier, herald, and sometimes spy across the weird, fragmented, magical world of Other America. Dodging bridge trolls as well as alien grays, lamiae along with snallygasters, undead blues singers and also bison-headed giants, he runs errands in exchange for information that will help him save his sister.

This time, he’s hired to run a deck of Tarot cards from New York to San Francisco on a tight schedule. The first complication comes when the dame with the card deck won’t just hand them over, she insists on coming along. The second is that everyone else in Other America seems to know that Silas has the cards, and everyone seems willing to kill to get them.

Pre-order it here!

Sons of Gold and Fire: A Boy, a Dragon, and an Impossible Quest by Fred Philips

Released: May 1

From the award-winning Gold and Fire Series — Winner of the 28th Annual Critters Readers’ Poll (1st Place, Tied), Finalist for the 2026 Imadjinn Awards Best Middle Grade, and Nominee for the 2025 Kearsells Indie Book Awards.

Aron’s brothers are gone, snatched by goblins in the night. His father and his knight-master rode after them into the mountains and never came back. The only one who can fix this is Aron — and the great golden dragon who is his best friend.

But Doubloon has been snared in a wizard’s enchanted trap, held fast by a net that his own fire cannot burn through. With his family imprisoned and his dragon helpless, Aron is out of options.

His only move is across the mountains. Alone. No harness. No wings. No backup — except a smart-mouthed goblin who talks, a couple with dark ideas about adoption, a sabrecat who takes his last strip of jerky, and one massive platinum dragon who actively despises humans.

Sons of Gold and Fire is a quest story that never lets up. Packed with monsters, narrow escapes, and a friendship between a boy and a talking goblin that nobody planned but everybody needed, this is the kind of book that stays with you long after the last page.

Perfect for fans of fast-moving adventure with heart. Ages 8–14.

Series reading order: Book 1 — Dreams of Gold and Fire Book 2 — Sons of Gold and Fire

Buy it here!

Reaper’s Justice (The Dungeon Apocalypse Book 3) by C. J. Carella

Releasing: June 11

System Integration Has Begun

Roland Webb is trapped in New Haven as the city undergoes System Integration. Deadly trials await him and his friends and allies while the rest of his party struggles to survive in the Refuge Safe Zone.
And when he is done with the initial phase of Integration, Roland must face other Exemplars and an Undead Nemesis to ensure the survivors do not become slaves or even cattle for the more powerful.
Dungeon Apocalypse features furious action, horror and dark fantasy with a dash of humor. It has LitRPG and Cultivation themes (Class and Cultivation Paths toward Ascension), progression storylines, and a System that imposes game-like rules upon reality.

Pre-order it here!

The Ishtar Deception (The Billion Worlds Book 4) by James Cambrias

Releasing: June 2

A SPY, A MURDER, AND ONE SARCASTIC AI; MYSTERY, ACTION, AND ADVENTURE FROM THE BILLION WORLDS!

The Billion Worlds’ Greatest Spy Faces His Greatest Challenge

At the end of the Tenth Millennium, Sabbath Okada, agent of a nameless branch of Deimos’ labyrinthine government comes to the vast city of Ishtar on Venus to investigate the suspicious death of an undercover agent. His companion, Daslakh, is an old and cunning AI with its own self-imposed mission: to act as Okada’s conscience.

Searching for the truth takes Sabbath and Daslakh to the glittering towers of Ishtar’s elite, a brutal combat sport arena, and the unforgiving, wind-lashed face of Mount Maxwell, highest peak on Venus. Along the way they face ruthless Lunar Republic spies, double agents, and sadistic Ishtar police, but Sabbath’s greatest challenge comes from Meili Tewa, his deadliest enemy and his only love.

Each twist in the case reveals a new layer of deception, another betrayal. Hunted and on the run, with no one he can trust and no help from home—it’s time for Sabbath Okada to remind everyone why he’s the greatest spy in the Billion Worlds of the Solar System.

Pre-order it here!

Reckoning of Steel: The Last Eternal by Jacob Peppers

Released: May 1

Many believed the Eternals to be gods.

But gods don’t die screaming.

There is only one left.

A broken man. A fallen god. A lone wanderer carrying the very weapon used to slaughter his kin.

Branded a traitor, hunted by creatures out of nightmare who would kill for the magical artifact he carries, he rides to the remote town of Shadowhaven.

He came looking for sanctuary.

He found a trap instead.

Surrounded by enemies and haunted by his past, the last Eternal must choose — die in the dirt as a relic of a lost age, or remind the world why his kind were feared as gods.

On the edges of civilization, the fate of the world will be decided as it always is.
In blood.

In a reckoning of steel.

The adventures of the Last Eternal span 11 books with more coming. This is where it all begins.

Buy it here!

Level Six: A Science Fiction LitRPG Novel (Galactic Merc Book 6) by Chris Kennedy

Releasing: June 12

I just wanted to tell my neighbor to shut up.

Hi, I’m Jack Taylor, a romance author from Earth, who got snatched by the Grays when I was camping. After being rescued, I first became a merc and then a Herald, trying to prevent an invasion of the Void Feeders that intend to consume the galaxy. I’ve seen them, and I’m here to tell you—if they’re not stopped, the whole galaxy is going to die.

I’ve now been named the Final Herald, and everything is on me. The Void Feeders are pressing ever harder, and the interdimensional fabric is getting thin in a number of places. The only thing that can save the galaxy is the Forge of Aion, but it requires the combined seventeen Heralds to make it function… and guess who’s supposed to gather them all up?

I’ve only got a month to do it, too, which—at first glance—is impossible since they’re all scattered across the galaxy, and it would take longer than a month just to travel to all of them. And have I mentioned that three of the races are extinct?

But I’m now a Level Six merc now, and I’ve got a cool spaceship and a great support team. If I can’t do it, no one can…which is actually the likely outcome, and the galaxy is probably doomed. But I refuse to go down without a fight, especially since I haven’t gotten to drive a mech yet!

Pre-order it here!

Song of the Sword (The Wayward Chronicles Book 4) by D.K. Holmburg

Releasing: June 16

The song of power is changing. And Leo may be the only one who can hear it.

After uncovering his connection to the mysterious aura magic, Leo hoped the Academy would be a place of learning, not manipulation. But everyone—mentors, factions, even the trees themselves—seems to have an agenda for him. And now, with whispers of the elusive Maestro resurfacing and the secrets of the assassin’s guild coming to light, Leo is pulled deeper into a web of lies, legacy, and lethal ambition.

Desperate to gain the knowledge and time he needs to face what’s coming, Leo agrees to a dangerous journey beyond the known world—a place where time itself can be collected, and the price for failure is far more than death.

Old powers are awakening. New alliances will be tested. And Leo must decide what he’s willing to sacrifice to master the song and reshape the fate of the guild that betrayed him.

Pre-order it here!

There you have it, readers! All the novels fit for the beach this summer! Are there any you have heard of which you would like us to include next month? Put them in the comments, then let us know which ones you enjoyed on this list!

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In the 25th Century, Galactic Justice upholds the law across the Milky Way. They use the HALO to extract confessions from the guilty. For the most heinous of crimes, the guilty are erased and a new personality is uploaded in their place.

Samuel Archer Spade is a private detective on Space Station 1964 on the far edge of the galaxy. He’s a former GalJus Inspector whose conscious couldn’t square with using the HALO. Spade is at his usual spot, his unofficial office on Norma, when a knockout blonde in a red dress, walks into The Galaxy’s Edge, the station’s bar. She’s on the run from an unwanted admirer.

But when the man arrives on the station, he’s looking to hire Spade himself. He’s claiming she has stolen something from him, As Spade tries to sort out who is telling the truth, GalJus arrives looking for both of his clients for a murder committed on another planet.

Trying to find the truth will lead Spade to discover a dark secret. Some elements within GalJus are using the HALO to frame innocent people. Even worse, they’re programming people to commit murder.

That’s a secret GalJus is willing to kill for and both Sam, and his clients, are right at the top of their list.

Here’s where to buy the book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F98C56KY

Here are our reviews of the book:

Here’s part two of Chapter 3:

Read more

When Shadow Hunter, by BR Kingsolver went on sale, I thought I’d try it.

Now I’m just hoping I got the right Kingsolver.

Buy it here

The Story

To begin with, our heroine was sold to the Illuminati, raised to be an assassin. When she realized that the illuminati were the bad guys, she left … just in time to avoid being blown up with the rest of the higher ups. Having moved to scenic westport and taken the name Erin McLane, Erin gets to work trying to put her past behind her, and adapting to be a functioning member of day-to-day society. She’s even taken a job at Rosie O’Grady’s Bar and Grill, where only the local supernatural population hang out.

Except the moment she gets off the bus, she has to kill a vampire. The city is bereft of a vampire in charge, so every vampire has gone off the leash to feed openly, littering the streets with one body too many. Werewolves are being slaughtered with ease. And the local cop is eyeing her a little too closely, and not in a romantic sense.

It seems like while the Illuminati have been decapitated, their agents on the ground have gone independent.

What follows is a nice, simple, straightforward procedural. Much of the book is exploration of the world, and Erin finding out what it’s like trying to be a real person in the day to day world. The threats are nice and low key. This isn’t the end of the world. No one is trying to take over the world. The fights are meat and potatoes punching and kicking, with the occasional enchanted baseball bat behind the bar.

And it’s so nice to have a civilian protagonist who’s first move in every situation is to call the police.

Also appreciated is when someone tries to slap a modified “chosen one” label on her, she laughs in his face, and it’s promptly never mentioned again. It’s a refreshing change. She doesn’t have combat magic, just something that’s a step above basic telekinesis.

All in all, it was an entertaining book.

The Characters

I’ll give Shadow Hunter this, it certainly knows how to speed run a background. Erin is entertaining. She doesn’t have Harry Dresden’s mouth, but she does have a solid sense of the absurd.

And most of the characters are interesting. I would like for them to give more page time to Liam, the autistic bartender. But everyone has fun little character moments along the way, like the cop who likes opera or the bar drunk is really good at security.

The World

The world feels very much like early Anita Blake (before it became porn). The magic systems explored aren’t overly elaborate, and quite basic. The vampires are powerful, but not superhuman. Everything has reasonable limits.

Though I admit, the cops felt very real. Especially when the paranormal crimes unit is stuck in a basement next to the loading dock.

Politics

None, really.

Although having our main character live in a world of magic, but says “X are mythological, like demons and angels” just felt stupid … until it turns out X exists, and is very much part of the novel. So… eh.

Content Warning

None, really.

Who is it for?

This is very much a basic Urban Fantasy procedural, with an attempt to be Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon. It’s not quite as fluffy as a Lyndsay Sands “immortal” novel,1 but it’s no Harry Dresden either.

Why buy it

It’s a good way to kill a couple of hours. No, not my best endorsement. It’s one of those days where I want to rethink having a star rating on this platform. But it’s cotton candy. And sometimes, having junk food won’t kill you.

Buy it here

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The king of Nineveh has appealed to the god Basmu for power to conquer the neighboring cities. Basmu has promised him this power if he slaughters the youngest children in the city, which would include the king’s own newborn son! Unable to back down, the king orders all the youngest children brought for sacrifice, weeping as he does over the coming loss of his own child.

Jonah, of course, wants nothing to do with Nineveh. The LORD didn’t even tell him explicitly why He wants Jonah to go and preach to them. He simply vanished after whacking Jonah on the head with His staff! Well, forget this. Obviously, there has been some mistake. Time to hightail it Somewhere Else. Anywhere else.

What does Jonah’s mission have to do with Finnian’s quest, as seen in Volume 1? To answer that question, readers need to return to the 9^th century A.D. Specifically, 9^th century Italy!

Buy it here!

The Story

Last time readers saw him, Ragnar was headed to a secret location to find a Necromancer who could give him what he needed to claim the sword of St. Michael for his dragon overlord. If the blade is remade and given to someone who uses it for God’s purposes, then it will undo all the evil that Ragnar as well as the Necromancer have declared they will serve, and which they rely upon for their power.

The Necromancer agrees to give Ragnar what he seeks – an army of undead warriors that cannot be killed. But first, he must be certain there is no “stain of goodness” left on Ragnar’s soul. Anyone who has even the slightest remaining bit of goodness in him cannot lead this undead army!

Meanwhile, Finnian and company head to Monte San Angelo on the eastern coast of Italy. They seek the next piece of the sword of St. Michael, accompanied now by a mercenary who was employed by the abbot of Mont Saint-Michel in France. Known as Pierre, the mercenary helps the company land and complains about Brendan’s pet puffin Pica being hungry. Merewyn jokes that Pierre is probably the one who is hungry….

Entering the monastery of Monte San Angelo when they hear that a piece of the Sword of St. Michael has reportedly been discovered, the band of heroes runs into Shannon, a redheaded lass from Ireland. As it turns out, Shannon is Brendan’s younger sister, and she came to San Angelo at the behest of a mysterious voice. When Finnian shows her the sword shards, she brings him to meet the abbot – who declares that Finnian is carrying forgeries!

After being thrown out of the monastery, the group finds the real piece of the sword at Monte San Angelo. They then sail to Greece, where they meet Roman (Byzantine) soldiers preparing for combat. After persuading the captain of the Roman guard that they can recover the next piece of the blade, the captain allows Finnian and his friends to pass, provided they take his towering slave Demetrius with them. Wielding an axe at least as tall as he is, Demetrius soon proves his mettle against the Drekings, who are now reinforced by an army of the dead.

But when a last-minute betrayal leaves the group playing catch up, will they be able to stop Ragnar in time? And are those who serve evil truly bereft of all goodness? Or is there some good in even the worst human on the planet?

The Characters

Finnian and Merewyn come into their own as the tale progresses, with Finnian shedding his callow tendencies as he assumes responsibility for leading his team safely through the mounting challenges they face. Ever at his side, Merewyn finds herself helping to keep the peace between members of the group as it grows to accommodate new members. The two make a great duo and are clearly on the way to becoming a couple.

Pierre is a grumpy teammate while Shannon brings some lighthearted spunk to the team, adding depth to Brendan’s background as he grows into his role as Finnian’s spiritual as well as physical navigator. For his part, Demetrius brings a ferocity of spirit in addition to strength to the group dynamic. Stoic but loyal, when the Drekings make themselves his enemy, he is eager to aid Finnian in his quest.

By far, the greatest character growth is seen in Ragnar. Presented as a one-dimensional villain initially, the Viking king’s backstory is finally revealed in this volume, showing his motivation for swearing himself to Jormungandr so long ago. Is it possible that he can be redeemed? Or will he succeed in dragging the world deeper into darkness and misery?

The World

The world expands from the familiar territory of 9^th century Ireland, England, and France by moving to Italy and eventually Greece. Following real history and the known Viking raider routes, as well as Byzantine civilization in the 9^th century, the collection fleshes out Finnian’s world beautifully. It also takes readers on a fantastic (literally) dive into a re-imagined version of Jonah’s story, which is worth the trip and thought-provoking in itself!

Politics

Demetrius is a slave. This may bother some readers, even though he is freed before the book ends. Other than that, there are no politics to speak of in the narrative.

Content Warning

Basmu is not a nice deity, and the topic of human sacrifice is broached. Monsters appear, near-death experiences befall our heroes, and while the undead army is on par with a Ray Harryhausen film, some kids may not like seeing skeletons. Overall, it is PG-13 material, but these are things to keep an eye on.

Who is it for?

Anyone who wants a good Biblical adventure will wish to pick this collection up for the story of Jonah, especially if they wish to introduce children or even adults to the Old Testament. Christians and Catholics searching for something “clean” for their kids to read that won’t offend their faith should purchase it as well, or at least request that their libraries buy a copy for the shelf. History enthusiasts hoping to encourage an interest in the Bible as well as history would be wise to buy the collected tales of Finnian for their children, charges, or nephews or nieces. Finnian will appeal to boys but for those trying to get their girls to read, his adventures will hold intense appeal, especially where the romance between the two leads is concerned! Budding artists or those who love beautiful art will also want this collection in their personal library.

Why buy it?

It is good, clean fun in a beautiful package. The story is well-considered, the adventure is intense, and it is all tastefully rendered in the artwork. Who could turn that bargain down?

Buy it here!

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Buy Edenet.

The Story

In the 22nd century, we have the Cyberpunk apocalypse. Not quite Blade Runner, but very similar to Deus Ex. There’s, Cybernetics, genetic engineering, and mass surveillance and social credit still exist. There are full body cyborgs and nanoscale engineering. Of course, there’s AI. Edenet is the next generation of, well, the Internet. Designed by the Anatol Corporation, it make supercomputers for every user all around in the world. Edenet is run by a cutting-edge artificial intelligence. And its lead scientist has disappeared.

Anatol corporation hires psychic contractor James Morgan to track down our scientist. Anatol’s Eligia Ogrod is attacked to him as a tech specialist.

And when the trail leads from Warsaw to Hong Kong, tracking a missing egghead goes from doing some legwork to waging a full scale counterintelligence operation.

To anyone who has read Kai Sun Cheah in the past, you already know Edenet is going to be an awesome novel. It’s fill with his usual blend of thoughtful plotting and professionally cautious characters, and of course, all the martial arts he can cram in. The only determining factor is whether or not you enjoy Cyberpunk. I’m someone who generally doesn’t, but I breezed through this in a few days.

Edenet starts like the teaser for a Bond film, and we spend the first half of the book investigating the disappearance—from examining parts of the company she works for, to putting her life under a microscope.

About the halfway mark, Edenet becomes a pure thriller, with melee combat, chases, staying one step ahead of the hunters, and putting together a rescue that Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp would appreciate. (I still find it amusing that even in the next century, a Glock still needs aftermarket parts.)

Edenet also has some interesting musings on “the singularity,” and the possibility of where AI can go. It’s what Star Trek used to do.1

There’s also a twist along the way featuring the MacGuffin, but I’m not sure if Kai Sun Cheah meant for us to realize it ahead of time or not. If he did, he played exceedingly fair with the clues.

Between the deep world-building, the vivid character building, and the fast-pace plot, I can wholly recommend Edenet.

The Characters

Most of the book is from James Morgan’s point of view. He’s thoughtful, occasionally deeply philosophical, and a badass in a melee. His psychic abilities were not natural, but the result of a head injury. He’s pretty Christian in his meditative moments, and probably in his very strict policy on nonlethal force—but he also treats it as a purely pragmatic matter as well. He’s overall interesting. But if you’ve read any of Kit Sun Cheah’s other books, that’s not a surprise.

Eligia Ogrod is also interesting in her own way, especially when Morgan has to teach her body mechanics—as a fullborg, she can download all the Kung Fu she likes, but nothing is a match for experience.

The World

Edenet has a very well fleshed out world, but nothing is particularly overwritten or overdeveloped. We get just enough to carry us through … granted, that’s still an awful lot of world building, since the world is the background for our main leads. Edenet goes from Los Angeles, “Capital of the State of Aztlan,” to Poland, to China. So there’s a lot of world to build.

We have augmented people, cyborgs, full body conversions to metal, psychics.

The only thing worse than the People’s Republic of China is Cyberpunk China.

Politics

Our antagonists are good authoritarians who run a society on social credit. So unless you’re a really big fan of the People’s Republic of China, Edenet has no political elements that stand out.

Content Warning

There is someone who literally gets his head blown off in the opening scene, so there’s blood, but even that wasn’t particularly gory.

Who is it for?

Take the espionage and action of a a Gregg Hurwitz Orphan X novel, throw in some tactics of Vince Flynn (RIP) Mitch Rapp novel, and then land it in a cyberpunk setting, and you’re ready to roll.

Why buy it

An action-packed thrill ride of the type we don’t get that that often.

Buy Edenet.

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In the 25th Century, Galactic Justice upholds the law across the Milky Way. They use the HALO to extract confessions from the guilty. For the most heinous of crimes, the guilty are erased and a new personality is uploaded in their place.

Samuel Archer Spade is a private detective on Space Station 1964 on the far edge of the galaxy. He’s a former GalJus Inspector whose conscious couldn’t square with using the HALO. Spade is at his usual spot, his unofficial office on Norma, when a knockout blonde in a red dress, walks into The Galaxy’s Edge, the station’s bar. She’s on the run from an unwanted admirer.

But when the man arrives on the station, he’s looking to hire Spade himself. He’s claiming she has stolen something from him, As Spade tries to sort out who is telling the truth, GalJus arrives looking for both of his clients for a murder committed on another planet.

Trying to find the truth will lead Spade to discover a dark secret. Some elements within GalJus are using the HALO to frame innocent people. Even worse, they’re programming people to commit murder.

That’s a secret GalJus is willing to kill for and both Sam, and his clients, are right at the top of their list.

Here’s where to buy the book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F98C56KY

Here are our reviews of the book:

Here is part one of Chapter 3:

Read more

You can’t get cheaper than free

Based Book Sale

The Summer 2026 Based Book Sale

Summer is Coming…

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a month ago · 42 likes · 11 comments · Hans G. Schantz

To celebrate that—and to help you pick out some works from the greater crowd—Upstream reviewers have dug through the sale to pick out the books we’ve already reviewed. It helps you, the reader, narrow down books, and maybe even authors.

Now, there is no order to these reviews, unless they are several reviews in a series. I have grouped these by reviewer, so we can avoid column inches of just one book review. Originally, I was going to sort these by fewest reviews to most reviews. That fell apart.

What I have done is excerpted quotes from the reviews to give you a sense of the book, and you can pick and choose from there.

Happy hunting.

The Sale

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Hacking Galileo, by Fenton Wood: “It’s like if Forrest Gump wasn’t just about a guy who happened to be around every big thing happening in the 60s and 70s, but instead crossed lines with major political, technological, commercial, and scientific figures in the 80s, all so they could save the Earth from an extinction-level-event fired out of the Silent Galaxy.”

Trucker Man Reads

Lucky to find another best-of-2023 book so quickly.

Nobody in indie wants to say this, but finding gems in our particular vein can be almost as tricky as picking a winner off the main floor display at Barnes & Noble, in between the “Maybe You’re Gay” table and the “White People Bad” section. One of the missions over at Upstream is to elevate the gems, or even the very pretty-looking rocks, so as to persu…

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3 years ago · 1 like · Graham Bradley

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

“If you liked Reacher but wish the guy had more personality and stood for something other than his own interests, this is definitely your book. Or you can think of it as Flash Gordon meets Die Hard 2. Or maybe Die Hard 4, the one where John McLane beats up an F-35 and kills a helicopter with a car. It’s that level of insane kick-assery.”

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Reviewed by Declan Finn

Reviewed by

Jimbo's Awesome Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews

Roy Griffis's Holding the Line: Book One of The Long Watch

(Welcome to Day Two of Jimbo’s Memorial Day Weekend Event. Today we’re honoring Roy Griffis…

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24 days ago · 1 like · Jim McCoy

Rachel Griffin. Again

Sword’s Edge. Again.

Ark’s Royal

Jimbo's Awesome Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews

Declan Finn's White Ops

What do you get when you mix Star Wars, James Bond, The Hardy Boys, Chuck Norris and The Manchurian Candidate? Honestly, I get excited, but if you’re Declan Finn and you mix all of those things you get White Ops. What a thrill ride. Seriously, this was a really good time but it’s really hard to classify outside of being a Science Fiction novel. There is…

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a year ago · 3 likes · Jim McCoy

Jimbo's Awesome Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews

Henry Brown's Escaping Fate (Paradox Book 1)

I’ve been harping on the need for good literature for boys and young men for quite awhile now. I don’t want to see the men in our society reduced to a bunch of hacks who can’t read because their teachers gave them stuff that sucks to read. It is my mission to bring to you, from time to time, books that would be of interest to young men. I am therefore v…

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2 months ago · 5 likes · 3 comments · Jim McCoy

That’s probably more than enough for you to glom through. Of course, there are at least a hundred more novels over at the sale.

We do hope you find something fun.

The Sale

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The Story

Some people get an owl or Gandalf at the front door—Emily got a necromancer.

Emily Sanderson leaves the library, meditating on her miserable life. Between footsteps, she finds herself in another world, with a necromancer ready to sacrifice her. A second sorcerer named Void—having detected an incursion from another world—drops in and rescues her.

The necromancer, “Shadye,” had asked the fae for a Child of Destiny. Emily’s mother? Is named Destiny. At least the fae are consistent.

While Void can’t send Emily back home, he does sense that she has magical potential, and the Grandmaster of Whitehall, the local magic school, owes him a favor.

What follows is a deep dive into a whole new world, and Emily’s impact on it. And the ending is a shootout so epic, it’s hard to imagine what comes next.

Schooled in Magic is a surprisingly epic, self-contained novel, despite being the start of a series. The characterization is efficient and tightly written, very “David Weber Orders a Pizza.” The world-building is more thorough than you’d expect; I suspect it’s Tolkien deep, but Nuttall doesn’t want to bury us, only covering what’s needed for the book to keep going.

Of course, Schooled in Magic addresses all of the standard tropes of the boarding school novel, even developing his own sport—which Emily is not good at, does not understand, and doesn’t want to. I appreciated it, but only because I know where the tropes come from. No. Nuttall swapped out sports for martial magic. And surprise! martial magic is all about fighting, surviving, tactics, and endurance. It’s almost like someone understands what’s required in defending oneself against the dark arts or something. And when magic goes wrong … my God! The adults understand, and use it as a teachable moment!

We of course also have the trope of the school bully, which Nuttall executes far more elegantly than anyone I’ve seen in a while. Readers had to wait for George MacDonald Frasier to make the bully of Tom Brown’s School Days into a fleshed out character.1 Here, we have character motivations and everything.

The meta humor is much appreciated here. Even in chapter one, where she “thought of all the fictional heroes she’d known and loved, asking herself what they would do. But they had the writer on their side.” When doubting her abilities in this new world, she ponders, “What was she going to do? Impress Shaye by her masterful grasp of role-playing games, creative writing, and wasting time browsing the internet and reading web comics? She didn’t even have a homicidal rabbit with a switchblade on her side.”

Taking “the chosen one” trope and turning on its head with the “Child of Destiny” bit was such a nice little twist. And it keeps playing out over the book.

By the end of the book, every piece of worldbuilding, character, and plot come together in the final throwdown in one of the neatest bits of writing I’ve seen in a while.

Schooled in Magic is like Lamplighter’s Rachel Griffin novels, in that it makes my head hurt to think that JK Rowling sucks all the air out of the room. Had I read this before the Harry Potter novels, I would have thought that Rowling was the pale imitation.

Despite reading all of the Harry Potter novels, I only ever kept the last one. I’m already debating if I need to get the entire Schooled in Magic series in hardcopy.

The Characters

Christopher Nuttall pays great attention and spends a lot of care on each of his characters. The introduction of Emily tells you everything you need to know about her by the end of page 2. And watching her develop from depressed teenage bookworm to magical academia is pleasant. Heck, she’s a teenager who isn’t annoying, making that an achievement all by itself.

Emily also has real empathy, where she goes out of her way to model her mind one someone else’s in order to understand how they think. I don’t see that much.

Almost every student Emily interacts with gets what feels like full biographies in a matter of a few pages. From the roommate who’s a shopkeeper’s daughter to the mean girl who really is a princess.

Even Void is summed up by himself.

Most of the professors don’t get quite as much development as other characters, but even that’s hiding at least one plot twist.

The World

Schooled in Magic is a vivid, highly developed world, where both necromancers and royal kingdoms alike are kept apart by petty bickering. And watching Emily disrupt entire political systems with little things like modern numerals, bras, and “Has anyone heard of the stirrup?” And she spends so much time thinking about how little she knows about how things work. But on the flip side, it’s interesting with this world and its expressions of things we understand—like making certain the water is boiled to kill the “invisible devils in the liquid.”

Oh, yeah, and it’s so nice to have someone use classes for world building. Not “here’s a clue in this particularly mystery of the week,” but a class that explains to the reader not only the history of the world and the governing bodies, but how the world has gotten to this point over centuries. It’s also critical to the plot, but everything in this book turns out to be critical to the plot.

The magic system here is surprisingly impressive. To start with, this may be one of the few magic worlds that actually address “where magic comes from,” and how one exercises it. Most people when explaining magic stick to one allegory, but while Emily starts by understanding the most basic spells as binary, (with some people as Script Kiddies) it even surpasses that understanding. And parking Whitehall on ley lines was an interesting tidbit that turned out to be key to the plot.

Also, speaking of magic.

Cough. Can’t imagine where Nuttall got that idea from. Cough.

The academics at Whitehall are practical and straightforward, from charms to “martial magic”—where the professors are Sergeants and the department head is a general. I even like the tactics.

This is even one of the better thought-out language models. Not John C Wright’s Somewhither good, but better than almost everyone else I’ve read.

Also, it’s nice to have someone address laws about turning random materials into gold.

Nuttall even redesigned chess.

Politics

There are no real politics in this world, unless you consider basic economics or corporeal punishment as political.

If that level of “politics” set you off … seek help, man.

Content Warning

If you’re set off by caning teenagers for being idiots, then there, that’s your content warning. I think it still only brings it to a PG at most—a modern day PG, not a 1980s PG.

Who is it for?

This really is for anyone who wants a well written epic fantasy novel. I think even calling it for people who are fans of magic schools is too narrow. Do you like Harry Potter, then sure, read this. But if you like Narnia or Tolkien, you’re going to love this.

Why buy it

It’s just amazing. And Schooled in Magic seems to be permanently at $0.99. Take the risk. I think you’ll be glad you did.

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When they couldn’t attack them directly, the Censor would “teach them a lesson”— orbital nuclear bombardment of their homeworld, Fiera.

But the nukes didn’t destroy Fiera. They only pissed off the Fierans.

Now, it’s time for payback.

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The story

Our story opens with the end of the last book. In the Concord homeworld of Fiera, within the bubble, a dozen cities nuked by the Censor forces, people who saw 1984 as a handbook. Over ten million are dead. The Fierans are burning for revenge-- so much so they make a new Revenge party. Their platform: find every planet in the Censor and exterminate the inhabitants.

That’s a problem when the first planet within reach is under the Censor’s lash, and the inhabitants hate the bastards just as much as the Fierans do.

The first problem of the book isn’t even striking back against the Censor, but making sure the new Revenge party doesn’t take over. The Fierans are pisses, and they all want a piece of Censor prisoners ... with crowbars. And there are some POWs who are too stupid to know what’s good for them.

Then there’s the problem of fighting the Censor on the ground.

In one sense, this book can be summed up as “One damn thing after another.” In another sense... imagine if the United States had invaded Poland under the Soviets, and asked for volunteers to fight the Soviet troops. The problem then becomes keeping the volunteers from becoming too eager.

The plot moves along in a series of snapshots. Karl doesn’t go into the nuts and bolts of every little detail. At first glance, it may look like “one damn thing after another,” but everything fits together like the pieces of a puzzle. Reading the books back to back will be a help because every event in the novel builds upon those of the previous book.

In terms of Military SF... It’s Karl Gallagher doing space battles. He is literally a rocket scientist. This is his wheelhouse. He owns this wheelhouse. David Weber should be taking notes and hire Karl as his consultant, if not his ghostwriter.

Also, the last time I saw someone take this much care into discussing linguistics, he was John C. Wright.

The characters

This volume is largely carried by Marcus Landry and his wife Wynny.

Like most of the crew of the Landry trade ship Azure Tam, since Marcus has the most experience with Corwynt and the Censor, he’s propelled into a position of authority, whether he likes it or not. Sometimes, he’s the one of the highest rank, and sometimes he’s just the only one who gets the job because no one else wants it. He gets around, usually while being shoved or pulled into one position or another.

And Wynny is also serves multiple hats in the story, one of them literal. As a sociable woman with a wide array of contacts, she becomes intelligence for the Fierans. After solving the murder mystery in the second novel, she is propelled into the legal side of things. This ends up with an interesting case that concludes with some off Perry Mason judo legalisms, with a bizzarely romantic conclusions.

And it’s fun when Karl ties both of their job hopping to the Corwynti culture. Heh heh heh. Culture shock is a bear.

But no one is ignored. The linguist of the first novel takes on a large part in the wider world. The Azure Tam is already set up for its own story.

Even one of the ship mates in the first book has a cameo in the novel... as part of the revenge party.

Let’s just say that Karl sets up characters so well, and so easily, with so little screen time, he manages a great sucker punch with a character who was in the book maybe 10 pages.

The world

I am blown away by just how little of this book is action. Technically, a lot of it isn’t even plot, but applied world building. But damn this world is so well built, it’s just fun to be carried along on the day-to-day events and watching how things work. Everything we’ve learned about the world in the first two books come into play: how the Censor works, how life in “the bubble” works, and how life in the harsh world of Corwynti works.

I even like the small detail of “this is black market meat” and people whip out a Geiger counter.

Also “History books don’t have sex scenes.” Heh.... You’ll have to read it to get that joke. It’s a long story, but has a nice punchline.

Also, when I said that much of the plot is applied world building? Part of that is culture shock going both ways. The Corwynti have no concept of voting (they bust understand it as a brawl), and the Fierans have no way to count how many people live on the planet, because census takers are traditionally shot. The solution? The movies.

The cultural misunderstandings also impact the plot. The Censor keeps seeing their enemy through the lens of their own corruption. It feels like Tom Clancy’s The Bear and the Dragon, where the Chinese communists can’t understand the United States, because they saw things only through their own worldview. It becomes even more impossible when they’re lost in the wildness of mirrors that is intelligence analysis. Let’s just say that this is Victor Davis Hanson’s Carnage and Culture in action.

Oh yes, and the Tokyo Rose bit was awesome.

The politics

Much of this is pragmatics. “How can we get X thing to work.” What’s left is libertarian. How libertarian? There is a fleet of fighters that is all privately owned and paid for by the local militia. You can’t kick someone off of their own ship.

Content warning

The worst content of the book involves Corwynti justice for treason and sabotage... which involves stripping an entire clan naked and shoving them into a pre-chummed sea. If you’re not a fan of the death penalty, you might want to skip that part.

Who is it for?

This section is for the reviewer to compare the reviewed novel with other comparable novels.

Honestly, there isn’t anyone who is as good as Karl Gallagher at what he does.

Imagine all of the the cultural imperatives and world building that David Weber did in Honor of the Queen with his “Grayson” culture. Then take all of the logistics of a John Ringo novel. Add to that all of the space combat of the Baen library. He can balance intelligence, civilian political control and military strategy and tactics all at the same time.

Karl fits all of that into Seize What’s Held Dear.

Why read it?

You’ll want to pick this up because it’s some of the best science fiction you’ve ever read or ever will.

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Among them, I can vividly remember F. Paul Wilson’s The Keep, an epic fantasy that starts like Dracula and ends like Lord of the Rings.

And then, there is Vertical Run, which is the thriller to end all thrillers. It’s even the first book I ever reviewed. But when I bring it up, few seem to ever know of it, since the author died in 2005.

I’d like to rectify that.

Buy Vertical Run

The Story

David Elliot gets up to go to work. He kisses his wife good bye, has breakfast, and jogs to work. After getting to his office on the the 45^th floor of the 50 story tall office building and uses the private shower in his office, he gets dressed for a casual day at work.

Then Elliot’s boss comes into his office with a gun, trying to kill him.

And that’s the first chapter of Vertical Run.

After that, it seems everyone is trying to kill Elliot. His fellow employees have been clear out of the way, and mercenaries armed to the teeth are out to get him. Hans Gruber wishes he had his many gunmen. His wife seems to have turned on him. His son seems to have turned on him. They have control of the building. Everyone he knows seems to want him dead, and they just do not stop coming.

But the gunmen have two problems. They think Elliot is easy prey. But Elliot had been in the jungles of Vietnam. He’s not Rambo, but he’s not going to roll over and die.

Every moment is spent with Elliot on the run, or trying to figure out why he’s being hunted. Why would anyone want to kill him? And who could hire this army of gunmen after him.

Garber keeps you on the edge of your seat until the last word on the very last page. Because the reason they’re trying to kill Elliot is just as deadly as the mercenaries themselves are.

Thirty years later, writing this review from memory, Vertical Run is the action novel that I compare any other action novel to. The pacing is relentless. Our hero is smart, thoughtful, and innovative. If it took more time to dwell on events, and take a breath, I would even call it a true novel, like Year of the Locust or Living in Times of Dragons.

But truly, Vertical Run goes so fast you won’t even notice the passage of time. As I said, I started and finished it in one night. The story is pure suspense and doesn’t stop for anything.

The only thing that pisses me off about Vertical Run is that Joseph Garber died after writing only four novels—two of which aren’t in print anymore.

The Characters

Garber tells you the story from the viewpoint of the hunted. He’ll show you how Dave thinks and his creativeness under pressure. He even describes past experiences that gave David the instincts that will keep him alive.

The World

This is very much our world. Maybe the world of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. There are plenty of flashbacks to Elliot’s time in Nam and training that even brings that era to life as well.

Politics

None. Really, none.

Content Warning

I’d call it rated R, probably for language and violence.

Who is it for?

If you liked Die Hard, or Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X, you’re going to enjoy Vertical Run. It is fast, tightly written, and just excellent.

Why buy it

This is still the thriller I compare all other thrillers to, 30 years after I read it.

Buy Vertical Run

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Submitted for your approval: A new feature for our paid subscribers. While your paid subscriptions have gone to pay our reviewers, it occurred to us that, hey, most of us readers are also writers or publishers. Why don’t we give you some of our work for your troubles.

Today we continue with Richard Paolinelli’s Of All The Gin Joints In The Universe. We hope you like it as much as we did.

~The UR Team

One detective. Two suspects. A conspiracy big enough to kill them all.

In the 25th Century, Galactic Justice upholds the law across the Milky Way. They use the HALO to extract confessions from the guilty. For the most heinous of crimes, the guilty are erased and a new personality is uploaded in their place.

Samuel Archer Spade is a private detective on Space Station 1964 on the far edge of the galaxy. He’s a former GalJus Inspector whose conscious couldn’t square with using the HALO. Spade is at his usual spot, his unofficial office on Norma, when a knockout blonde in a red dress, walks into The Galaxy’s Edge, the station’s bar. She’s on the run from an unwanted admirer.

But when the man arrives on the station, he’s looking to hire Spade himself. He’s claiming she has stolen something from him, As Spade tries to sort out who is telling the truth, GalJus arrives looking for both of his clients for a murder committed on another planet.

Trying to find the truth will lead Spade to discover a dark secret. Some elements within GalJus are using the HALO to frame innocent people. Even worse, they’re programming people to commit murder.

That’s a secret GalJus is willing to kill for and both Sam, and his clients, are right at the top of their list.

Here’s where to buy the book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F98C56KY

Here are our reviews of the book:

Here is Chapter 2:

Read more

This is why the “tide-tiers,” where the water drops and then rises as the tide retreats from the islands and then returns, are the most dangerous places to be on Vann’s World. There are three tide-tiers full of native plant and wildlife that can and will eat humans. Smart colonists stay out of the tide-tiers when the tide returns.

Young Skut Harkkson is smart. But today has been Too Much to deal with, so he escaped to the tide-tiers because it was as close as he could get to the life he left behind. Now the tide is coming in and he has minutes to get back to land or he is dead.

Then a small, wordless voice calls for help….

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The Story

Skut and his parents used to live on their own island farm, but when the Ghats from the planet of Ghatistan started a war, they and the other outlying farm families were repatriated to Highpoint Island for safety. Highpoint is the closest thing Vann’s World has to a capitol city but its main purpose is to be a tourist trap, so what bureaucracy the planet has as a result is strongest here. With so little land to live on, Vann’s World is sparsely populated, and the war has made tourism scarce.

This has not slowed the bureaucracy at all. Two rules implemented by the bureaucracy since the Ghat threat began directly effect Skut and his family: First, all children on Highpoint must go to public school. Skut and the other farm children used to be homeschooled, but on Highpoint, they are all mandated to be in public school. This puts Skut at the mercy of a female teacher who hates him and holds him back while letting the girls his own age bully him.

Second, because the bureaucracy has mangled the local economy to benefit themselves, Skut’s family and others are struggling financially. Kids Skut’s age are not allowed to work or have jobs that might help alleviate this burden; they must be in school, or else. Many farmers have left Vann’s World as a result, with the Harkksons among those who have remained, determined to go back to their farms when that is finally allowed.

Normally, Skut simply endures the bullies’ mistreatment, but today they have gone too far. So he has run off to the tide-tiers to clear his head. Having grown up around the tide-tiers, Skut knows how to navigate them when they are safe. They are not safe now, however; the tide is coming in and he needs to get out – yesterday! When a small voice that isn’t quite speaking words begs for help, though, Skut automatically diverts to offer aid. Who can leave anyone calling for help to die in the tide-tiers?

The creature who summons him is a small blue dragon that discharges electricity defensively when he and Skut meet a local predator. With help from Skut’s small gun, the two defeat the predator and make it to the surface safely. Skut chooses to hide the dragon lest the authorities find and destroy it. He takes it home but realizes he can’t keep it there for long, since his family can barely feed themselves. If he tells them about the dragon, they will make him put it back for this reason, despite the fact that it is too small to survive alone. Someone needs to protect it and care for it, but doing that with the bullies breathing down Skut’s neck is going to be a problem.

Soon, though, a new friend arrives to help with that issue. Ted “Podge” Green and his family are refugees from Metheglin, a world which was taken over by the Ghats. Highpoint was supposed to be their new start, but they find no more welcome here than Skut’s family has received on the island. Brought together by circumstance, Skut and Podge bond over the dragon and start finding ways to improve their families’ lives despite the bureaucratic red tape.

Then trouble comes to Vann’s World from the stars. Backed into a corner with time ticking down, the boys need to make a decision: do they fight for their world, their families, and their friendships? Or do they let the invaders take another planet hostage?

The Characters

Skut is a boy trying to keep sane in a world meant to drive him crazy. Continually penalized for being smart, he needs friends to help him stay on the right path. When those friends bring enough punch to make the bullies think twice and buy them all breathing space, Skut starts to flower into the level-headed farm kid he would have been from the start, if not for Highpoint’s smothering strictures.

Podge has seen the Ghats up close and personal, since they captured his family and killed his dog. Bullies are neither going to scare nor stop him; he has been scared by professionals. If he has to find a means to work around bureaucrats then he will, and he will manage to play innocent while he does it. Afflicted by post-traumatic stress, he nonetheless comes through for his friends and family when they need him most.

The Harkksons and Greenes are not stupid adults blithely going about their business, unaware that their sons are struggling. Rather, they are harried, worried parents – particularly the Harkksons – who cannot help their children because they have little time and less money to keep up with all the problems. They are holding on by their fingernails, and if they had to handle One More Thing, the entire house of cards would collapse. Once they have the help they need they are there for their sons at once, encouraging and protecting them with love and well-earned pride.

The World

Vann’s World is alive with danger and wonder. Mr. Freer’s background as a fisheries biologist makes his worldbuilding more realistic than most, creating a memorable and enjoyable experience. The manner in which he demonstrates how political decisions trickle down to affect children as well as their parents ought to earn him an award, as this is something many writers have lost sight of over the years. Add in the fantastic elements, and Storm-Dragon has enough meat on the bone to appeal to adults as well as children.

Politics

The inspiration for the Ghats is easy to recognize, as is the bureaucratic stupidity that puts the dragon and Vann’s World in danger. If you do not like reading about terrorists or the government corruption which emboldens them, you are better off skipping this book.

Content Warning

People die. Their deaths are not narrated in detail, but they do die. A dog was killed in the past but its death is not described in any notable manner. Other than that, the book is so PG it does not even graze the 13 part of the rating, making it accessible for very young children.

Who is it for?

Boys are the specific target audience, since Storm-Dragon was one of the first books that Raconteur Press released in their Boy’s Adventure line. Any parent struggling to find something for their son to read would be wise to pick up Storm-Dragon for him, as would any grandparent, aunt, or uncle who wants to encourage a grandson or nephew to begin reading. Boys are an under-served audience and Raconteur seeks to meet their needs, so if you want to help in that mission, consider asking your local library to purchase this juvenile novel. For older sci-fi fans and readers looking for a good story, the book is pure adventure fun that is not seen enough anymore, and it will hold an adult’s attention as well as a child’s. Fans of Dave Freer would be remiss if they did not buy and read this novel, or offer it to someone who has never read his work whom they wish to convert into a fan. Last but not least, those who want something fun to pass the time should purchase Storm-Dragon, especially as summer descends upon the Northern Hemisphere. What better book to bring to the beach than a story about boys rescuing a small dragon on an oceanic world?

Why buy it?

It is exciting, deeper than it looks, and it makes you think. The young at heart as well as the young in fact will enjoy it immensely. Why not buy it and add it to your collection today?

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But in SAVING THE DODO, writer Garrett W. Vance takes a different angle: could you save a species from extinction?

Set in Eric Flint’s Ring of Fire universe, birdwatcher Pam Miller—a 20th Century woman catapulted into the 17th—has a narrow window in which she can ostensibly sail from Germany to Mauritius and preserve one of history’s most notorious extinct species. But since there’s sailing involved, it won’t be easy…

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The Story

At first the story seems pretty straightforward: sail around the Horn of Africa, land on Mauritius, and find a dodo bird, drop it in a greenhouse. Pam Miller’s adventure is anything but simple: she’s in her forties, a divorced mother of an adult son who doesn’t like her, and she’s had to reinvent herself over the past few years ever since her town of Grantville, West Virginia was catapulted four hundred years back in time. Saving a species from extinction would give her some fulfillment and accomplishment that have been missing from her life.

The story quickly develops into a rather classical adventure novel: Pam figures out the learning curve on the ship she takes to Mauritius, which is manned by Swedish sailors. She makes friends with the men and one of them even brings his wife along. (The names are all extremely German or Swedish, so they’ll hit the eyes of the average English-reader kind of hard, but you’ll get the hang of it before too long.)

The crew deal with normal challenges like having a bad cook aboard ship, getting shipwrecked on an island, encountering pirates, coming up with an escape plan, and more. I enjoyed those elements of it the most.

That said, there was one part around the middle of the book that had me screaming—it’s a classic case of “a man writing a female character the way a man would.” Pam and her friend Dore (a German farmwife) have to seduce a crew of Chinese pirates away from their junk (ship) so that the Swedes can steal it. They do so by stripping to the waist and dancing like drunk sorority girls at an SEC school. Every new description of it is somehow worse than the one that came right before it. I try not to snipe at other authors in reviews but holy crap, haha…Vance, you’re killing me, man. Rough scene.

But again, let me reiterate: this is a good book, and I liked the story.

The Characters

Pam was likeable and competent; I feel like a lot of modern authors try to reinvent the wheel in this area, and Vance wisely chose not to. Instead we get a woman who’s had a bumpy go of things in life, but in the right situation she becomes indispensable and can accomplish great things—though not without challenges.

The support cast of Swedish sailors kind of blended together, though individuals stood out, including the captain, and a love interest for Pam. They’re good at making enough of an impression individually to stand out here and there, and that helps the story along.

The World

These Ring of Fire novels are like, 5% sci-fi and 95% historical fiction that walk you through another era, showcasing the technology, the geopolitics of the world, and the potential impact of future humans on past societies. It’s recognizably our world but presented in a way that teaches the reader something new every few pages.

Politics

None.

Content Warning

A handful of F-bombs and some combat violence. Sexual references, like the above-mentioned scene.

Who is it for?

Fans of Ring of Fire will not be disappointed. Also, if you’ve ever read up about the Kon-Tiki expedition of 1947, this book reminded me a lot of that voyage.

Why buy it

Blending high-seas adventure, wry humor, and the fierce hope of ordinary people changing history, SAVING THE DODO delivers a classic feel-good tale about a modern woman who gets stuck in the past, and tries to do something exceptional for the future.

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After trying three other books that wasted my time and spent over a third of their time running on a hamster wheel, doing absolutely nothing with characters, world-building, or plot, I felt particularly bloody-minded. Especially since we don’t write negative reviews. At times like these, I feel like making an exception, but it feels too much like bait-and-switch.

This book just sat in the TBR pile, some 500 page doorstop that I felt ready to tear into, write off, and move on.

It didn’t go according to plan.

Buy Living in Times of Dragons

The Story

Roger Rommel is an American ex-patriot and a widower who has been in witness protection for two years. He’s finally returned to South Africa to put away a local mafia boss and topple his empire.

Then a dragon smashes through the courthouse wall and chases Roger through the streets of Pretoria.

What follows is a complex maze of dragon politics, thousand year old secrets, ancient conspiracies, unicorn exfiltrations, alternate worlds, with some redemption arcs and thriller action pieces thrown in for fun.

Because Roger Rommel is a reluctant chosen one … except he’s been chosen by the enemy in order to destroy the world. But this is one chosen one who isn’t going to play nice, and he’s going to go down swinging if he has to.

I admit, I did not see Living in Times of Dragons coming. It starts off like an action thriller, playing tag with a ten ton lizard that breathes fire, sends our hero down a rabbit hole of secret history fantasy brought into the open, and literally finds Roger needing to 1v1 several dragons, repeatedly. There are enough pauses to allow the reader to catch one’s breath.

The pacing is solid. Even when the high speed chases stop, the threat is constant. We have threats from enemy dragons, threats from technically allied dragons, threats from human allies who are jerks, threats from villains from another dimension … literally. By my count, this is at least a six-sided chess game, with shifting allegiances, surprising allies, more surprising threats, some of them from within.

And one has to give props to Pretorius for his writing chops. He has plot moments leading to character moments, but even the character moments turn out to be major plot points. There is no navel gazing that leads nowhere. There are no speeches that drag on for hours.1 There is no irrelevant hamster wheel chapter where we all frantically run around getting nowhere.2 Everything fits together into this grand tapestry of a plot. Every character is important or relevant. Almost every character has a full biography, with the exception of some late additions to the novel near the end.

Despite all of these dire circumstances, we do have characters with a sense of humor that will get a laugh. When the first dragon attack happens, Roger wonders about the police response: “What did the radio operators say to them? Terrorist attack, or giant lizard attack? Did the police have a Godzilla contingency?” I found it funny. Also, make certain to read the “about the author” section.

For the record, my copy had some minor editing issues scattered throughout. But my edition is so old, it has a different cover. Take that how you want.

Here’s the bad news. This does end on a little bit of a cliffhanger. The main threat has been addressed and is contained to this novel, but the solution leads to other obvious plot threads, so I didn’t feel like throwing the Kindle across the room. Good news: there is a book two out already.

The Characters

Living in Times of Dragons is from the first person perspective of Roger Rommel, so we spend most of the entire book in his head. And I must say, Roger Rommel is one of the best developed characters I’ve seen in a few months—and it used to be years between reading characters this well developed. From what I could tell, Roger has at least five different novels worth of backstory here: one for his life growing up as an orphan, a second for his live as an NYPD officer, a romance novel for meeting his wife and winning her hand, a fourth for working with a PMC, and a final one for his friend the serial killer.

Yes, our hero has enough skeletons in a closet to fill a morgue. And … let’s just say that even his enemies tell him, “You’re too hard on yourself.” We should put this man in the same room with Brendan Murphy from Fallen, by , they can compare notes.

Again, along the way, almost every character gets a full biography—even some characters we don’t even get to meet in the book. Every character has motivations. Most of them are understandable. Some of the motives are very Dilbert bureaucracy. Some of them are very … Final Fantasy villain, but that seems to be going the rounds. Some have the “greater good” in mind, and others are acting purely on personal loyalty.

Dear George RR Martin, take notes. You can have multiple factions of multiple characters of a variety of motivating factors, without needing your book to be nihilistic sludge, you fat f**k.

The World

Living in Times of Dragons doesn’t have world building. Pretorius built at least three worlds— the secret history of dragons in our world, the history of dragons in their original world, and a third world on top of that.

And there’s enough local color for South Africa that you get a good sense of the landscape there. Perhaps Pretorius and should get together sometime.3

Along the way, we have Dragon-eye notes about their history and their world. There may be enough for year another novel just on backstory. I am not trying to give John Pretorius more work, but if he wanted to, he could.

The best part about the world building is that none of it is superfluent. It’s all relevant to the plot, delivered as needed, to fill in the missing puzzle pieces.

Politics

While there is politicking between dragon parties, if you can find modern politics in this book, seek medical help. There is a hint of eco-terrorist nonsense, but even that turns out to be a smokescreen for a real threat.

Content Warning

There may be enough harsh language for a hard PG-13 rating, but if so, it’s probably in another language.

Who is it for?

For any fans of classical epic fantasy—dragons, actions, some faith thrown in for good measure. Think of it as Flight of Dragons expanded out to a Terry Goodkind or a Robert Jordan, only with better editing. And if you don’t mind a touch of religious reflection on par with Graham Greene or Walker Percy, this should be right up your alley.

Why buy it

Dragons smashing up South Africa, going toe to toe with dragons in single combat, great world building—epic fantasy at its finest.

Buy Living in Times of Dragons

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