Upstream Reviews Presents…!
Tagline: Books, books, and more books!
Ah, November! The cider is hot, the water for the cocoa is on the boil, while the marshmallows for the cocoa are laid out and ready. All that’s missing is…a little entertainment.
Hmm, but what to choose? There are so many options these days – and the days are growing shorter and darker by the minute. They are also getting colder as the snow falls or the temperatures drop.
Lucky for you, though, Upstream Reviews has some suggestions to offer! Give the list below a scan and/or check out the books we have reviewed and see which one hits the spot. Then you can curl up with it on the couch while you sip from that hot cup of cider (or hot chocolate) and keep warm as you read.
Military SF
From the grim to the ridiculous and back again, if you want some Military Science Fiction action, check out these novels!
A Grimm Decision (Grimm's War Book 6) by Jeffrey H. Haskell
It's not the war he wanted.
Commander Jacob T. Grimm is eager to get back in the war, but when an ambassador to a nothing planet called Cordoba pulls strings, Interceptor is the convenient puppet.
Assigned to escort the ambassador, a company of Marines, and participate in wargames with Cordoba, Jacob fears the only action will be against boredom.
He couldn't be more wrong.
A coup is brewing on Cordoba and Interceptor and the Marines of Bravo Two-Five are caught right in the middle.
Betrayed on every side, Jacob has to come up with his most daring plan yet, if he's going to save his crew and his ship.
What Jacob doesn't know, though, is an old enemy is in league with the coup. An enemy that wants Commander Jacob T. Grimm's head.
Trapped between a rebellion and invaders, Jacob can't see a way out. There may be no victory he can achieve. Attack or defend someone will die—and only Jacob can decide who.
Grab your MP-17, strap into the Corsair, and prepare for A Grimm Decision.
Space Traipse: Hold My Beer, Season 1: A Science Fiction Comedy (Space Traipse Hold My Beer) by Karina Fabian
If you love Star Trek and parodies... If the Orville and Galaxy Quest give you as much joy as Wrath of Khan... If you believe (as Tumblr users do) that humans will rule the galaxy because we are the only species crazy enough to tie two warp cores together, reverse the polarity and toss them into a star just to see what will happen....
....then this is the book for you. These are the voyages of the HMB Impulsive. You know the mission. Let’s meet the crew:
Capt Jeb Tiberius: A good ol’ boy from Texas whose religion requires firm buttocks.
First Officer Commander Phineas Smythe: His uncanny ability to win Rock-Paper-Scissors-Redshirt-Alien means he can pick his away missions.
Chief Engineer Commander Angus Deary: The first person to reverse the polarity by 90 degrees.
Xenologist and Ship’s Sexy, Loreli: A plant-based life form with a perfect figure, she keeps up ship morale – and ratings.
Chief of Security, Enigo Guillermo Ricardo Montoya Guiterrez LaFuentes: Raised on the UGS The Hood, where gang war is a cultural right, he’s not afraid to shoot a fellow crewman. That’s what stun is for!
Ops Officer Ensign Ellie Doall: Fresh from the HMB Mary Sue, she can so just about anything all on her own – and often does.
Transporter Chief, Dolfrick Dour: By the manipulations of technology, he reduces people to their most basic elements and rematerializes them elsewhere. Is it any wonder he’s 23rd Century Goth?
Based on the popular blog series (seven fans and rising!), Space Traipse: HMB Series 1 offers the first four episodes (plus a never-before-seen bonus) in editorially remastered binge-able format. Join the author as she reverses the polarity on clichés, breaks the fourth wall and has a rip-roaring time. But it’s not all slapstick. The stories just might touch your heart as well as tickle your funny bone. Don’t believe her? Get the book, pop open a cold one and read!
Stand Alone: Wolfhounds - Book One by John Van Stry
Chase had it all planned out, do a little time in one of the emperor's jails, say a four year stretch for getting rid of some trash that no one would miss, and when he got out, the path to the leadership would be wide open. It wasn't enough to be one of the gang's rising stars, or better lieutenants, he needed jail time, serious jail time — not that juvie crap or just going to county, to garner the respect he needed and deserved.
Unfortunately his bastard of a father, the same one that left his mother to die in poverty and him to run wild on the streets took an interest. Seeing him sitting on the bench when his case went to court was a shock. But not as big a shock as being sentenced to ten years in the Imperial Navy.
That's just the first of Chase's nasty surprises as he finds himself among the Emperor's Own - The Wolfhounds. How, and why, his bastard father sent him there is a secret that only the base AI knows the answer to. When that same AI decides to use Chase to fulfill its own orders, Chase soon finds himself in a situation where if he doesn't die honorably in combat due to the enemy, his own side will arrange those circumstances for him.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, Chase is proving to be just as tough of a bastard as the man who sent him there.
Fantasy
Need something deliciously dark to go with your hot cocoa or coffee? Check out these fantasies and see if they have the same blackness as that found in your drink!
Doomwalker (The Paladin Trilogy Book 1) by Kathryn Zurmehly
Dark powers are on the move in a world on the brink of chaos… Paladin Valen has hunted the broken remnants of the dead elven gods all his life. Now he is tasked with delivering a warning from his goddess. Called ‘Doomwalker’ for reasons he does not understand, Valen makes his way toward the great capital city of Crownshold with a sense of duty and foreboding. He crosses paths with the elf Maryx, a spy for the doomed kingdom of the elves. She is bound to him through childhood oaths that connect her to the terrible destiny of the ‘Doomwalker’. War is coming to the land and it is hard on their heels. Accursed warriors stalk the woods and an army moves towards the city with no sign of their passing but burning villages. Valen and Maryx’s fate looms over them, though just what that fate will be, neither can tell.
Iron Chamber of Memory by John C. Wright
The small island of Sark in the English Channel is the last feudal government in Europe. By law, no motor vehicles run on the road, and no lights burn at night. Only the lord of the island may keep hounds.Into the strange, high house of Wrongerwood wanders Hal Landfall, penniless graduate student at Magdalen College, looking for his missing friend Manfred Hathaway, who has just inherited the lordship, the house, and the island. What he finds instead is the lovely, green-eyed Laurel, a beautiful girl from Cornwall who is Manfred's wife-to-be.
There is said to be a haunted chamber in the house, erected by Merlin in ancient days, where a man who enters remembers his true and forgotten self. When Hal and Laurel step in, they remember, with fear and wonder, a terrible truth they must forget again when they step outside.
John C. Wright is one of the living grandmasters of science fiction and the author of THE GOLDEN AGE, AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND, and CITY BEYOND TIME: TALES OF THE FALL OF METACHRONOPOLIS, to name just three of his exceptional books. He has been nominated for the Nebula Award, and in 2015, he was nominated for a record 5 Hugo Awards.
YA/Middle Grade Works
Christmas is approaching. Do you need another gift under the tree? Consider these options for the young adult and teen readers in your lives (or your own inner YA reader or teen).
Debris (The Rise of the Discarded Series Book 1) by Caroline Furlong (NEW RELEASE!)
Strength has many facets….
Lost in thought, Ayar’s mind was on his invention that would allow premature griffin cubs to survive. He had no inkling he would rescue a creature that he suspected might be rational. Who would put one of their own out to die like that?
Rhys Callahan wanted to avoid a point of known pirate activity. Then he flew directly into one, and his ship was shot out of the sky. He managed a terrifying crash-landing on the nearest planet only to find himself among regressed humans who thought he was a god. When they realized he wasn’t, they became angry. Then they chained him to an upthrust boulder as a sacrifice to their local deity.
Neither Ayar nor Rhys ever expected to meet one another. But now that they have, maybe together they can fight for both their kinds. First, though, they need to learn how to communicate – and hope that neither of them is killed before they can get their enterprise off the ground!
Welcome to the first book in the Rise of the Discarded series!
(Amazon has a glitch. The paperback copy is available here.)
Jennifer the Damned by Ullo Karen (Warning, this one is graphic.)
When a sixteen-year-old orphan vampire adopted by an order of nuns matures into her immortal, blood-sucking glory, all hell literally breaks loose. Yet with every rapturous taste of blood, Jennifer Carshaw cannot help but long for something even more exquisite: the capacity to experience true love. As she struggles to balance her murderous secret life with homework, cross-country practice, and her first boyfriend, Jennifer delves into the terrifying questions surrounding her inhuman existence, driven by the unexpectedly human need to understand why she is doomed to a
life she never chose.
Bridging the gap between the literary tradition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the modern teen vampire romance made popular by the Twilight series, Jennifer the Damned reexamines the legendary monster as a conflicted and complex being. Jennifer is at once the quintessential vampire, embodying an unholy union of life and death; yet she is also a sympathetic young woman full of spiritual anxieties, gifted with a limitless sense of ironic humor, and possessed of a beautifully persistent hope in the love she yearns for.
(Another glitch - paperback copy is available here.)
Non-Fiction
Everyone wants something to amuse themselves, but sometimes, fiction is just too much. With that in mind, check out these non-fiction works and see which one will help you relax this winter!
AI Is Love by Nathan C. Brindle
The Japanese word Ai (愛) means "love". The English acronym AI means "artificial intelligence." But they both use the same two Roman alphabet letters...and the author loves making puns.
Thus, AI 愛 is Love is a collection of 65 images made using Artificial Intelligence tools and methods. Each image is the author's loving re-imagination of his wife at various stages of her life, using old photographs and digital models and post-processing software, not to mention plain old-fashioned skull sweat coming up with prompts to feed the MidJourney AI in the first place. While the author cautions his readers that his wife actually doesn't look entirely like the lovely ladies depicted (mostly because they all have long straight or wavy hair), he does wish to make clear that all of his love for his beautiful lady wife has been poured into the present book, which he humbly recommends for your consideration.
On the Valiant Woman (Translated) by M.S. O'Brien
This classic early medieval commentary on Proverbs 31:10-31 is both a Bible study and a call to action in our everyday lives. If Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is His Bride, what can we learn about her from the Valiant Woman, the ideal businesswoman, household manager, and wife? As part of Christ and His Church, how do we take the initiative is using our talents for other people’s good?
Born only a few generations after England's conversion to Christianity but known as the greatest Bible scholar of his day, the Venerable Bede writes with great feeling for the interweavings of the Old and New Testament. He also knows and quotes texts from the Fathers. However, his focus is always on teaching the ordinary Christian reader.
This is the first ever English translation of "De muliere forti." It is also found as the final section of In Proverbia Salomonis, Bede's commentary on the entire Book of Proverbs, which has never been translated into English. Includes footnotes, Bible citations index, and a bibliography. No DRM.
MEDAL KNIGHT COLORING & ACTIVITIES BOOK
Follow along in your favorite Medal Knight adventure with this 24-page coloring and activities book! Perfect gift for a younger Medal Knight fan!
Sites & Links
Looking for something a little shorter to read? Try these links and see if there’s something which would interest you below!
https://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/
https://www.associationofishtar.com/
https://studiomatters.com/
https://bwspotlight.com/
