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His Robot Wife, disappointing… His Robot Wife had the capability of being a decent story. It has some good components and given some external editing and feedback, it seems like it could have really gone someplace. Instead, readers are left with a barely evolved rendition of the first book. I held off on a review of this for a month, thinking my thoughts were a bit harsh. After a month, I still felt the same way, so my apologies to the author, but here is my unfiltered perspective. – Last year, I read the first novella in this series, His Robot Girlfriend. It was enjoyable and didn’t take much effort to go through. In fact, I enjoyed it enough that barring some inconsistencies and a far too gentle plot arc, I recommended it to other readers. I STILL recommend it to readers. In ‘Girlfriend’, there is some foreshadowing that leads you to think major shit-storms are on their way. After a very disappointing 2-3 page climax, you are left with a book that primarily describes what food the ro...

Review posted over on  BookCyclePDX  for ‘Secrets of a Fire King’ by Kim Edwards (author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter) (reposted here)- I am not one who normally invests time in short stories. It is not that I dislike them, more that I find them unsatisfying. I get involved and dedicated to an idea and find it cut short. This is expected as it is the intent of the medium. A result of this is that I either avoid them completely, or read them, and feel that my opinion is not a fair reflection of the work. So I rarely write reviews of collections like this. This stated, Kim Edwards? collection of shorts ?The Secrets of a Fire King? was excellent. Thirteen vignettes are carried here, and for the most part, each was impressive. They are almost elusive amorphous fables, each having a lesson to learn from, but requiring interpretation. Most center around personal evolution, both emotional and spiritual, but none are heavy handed enough to just say ?this novel is about XX?. Folks w...

Due to risk of wanting to shout out plot details, I am going to step away from the keyboard pretty quickly. Buy all three of these books and let me know what you think of them. They are worth the time, and are an excellent mixture of thriller/horror/military fiction. Often times, the sequel in a series of novels is difficult to get through. You are left thinking, “This was not as good as the first” or “this is not how I thought the characters would grow”. You get to the third in a series and hit the same road block, often times worse, and are left with an “Okay, but not great” feeling. King of Plagues is the third in Maberry’s Joe Ledger series, and it (as well as Dragon Factory) does not fall into this trap. They are friggin’ awesome. In a nutshell, The Department of Military Sciences (DMS) tracks is a black book organization in the United States that acts as the last line of defense on key/critical counter-terrorism issues. There are things that the public just doesn’t need to know. ...

I recently finished reading the third book in Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. Needless to say, discussion of plot or other varied book aspects is not something i would feel comfortable doing as a LOT happens in this book. Instead, let me share with you the emails i sent to my Bosses Boss requesting information regarding short term disability for when I read book 4 (A Feast of Crows) and Book 5 (A Dance with Dragons) which is slated for a July 2011 release. The mastermind behind a GRRM centric short term disability claim was a friend of mine, Shannon. At the same time as I was researching this in my office, she was requesting of her boss that her secretary be fired and replaced with a dwarf. Names have been changed to protect the innocent (below). Shannon is far from innocent so her name is intact (above). From:  Jason Sent:  Thu, 1:16 PM To:  BossManAlias Cc:  Mongo; FearlessLitre Subject:  Advice needed, could you assist? My Liege, BossManAlias- I have co...

I was recently standing in a New Seasons grocery store and found myself looking at “Dick and Jane and Vampires”, written by Laura Marchesani (and illustrated by Tommy Huntis). While my wife perused the cold cases of deli foods and chatted with her friend Ian, I stood there staring in surprised amusement. I have read all sorts of novels where the premise has been updated to include some garbage supernatural element. Jane Austen updated to include zombies was the first that caught my interest (as I am sure it was with many readers). Now these updated novels are rather meh. They are everywhere. I was in Powell’s bookstore a few weeks back and found no less than 3 new examples on top of the 5-6 existing examples. Needless to say, it is frustratingly played out. DJV was a different story though. It is a picture book, geared toward early readers. Anyone remembering back to their childhood can easily imagine the simplistic text “See Dick run, Run Dick Run!” and know that the memetic learning ...