Review: Hostile Contact by Nick Snape

The Book:

Finn is a troubled war-hero, overseen by an unyielding Commanding Officer while dragging his group of rookies through basic training. When an alien incursion lands in the middle of a patrol exercise, wielding powerful weapons and alien armour far beyond their own, he is forced to lead the remnants of Delta Squad in a desperate struggle for survival.

Utilising light-reflecting camouflage, the aliens go on the rampage, killing indiscriminately and capturing Finn’s CO before going on the hunt. Outgunned, and with the world’s armed forces helpless to act after a second incursion drops, Delta set out on a desperate rescue mission, only for the aliens to reveal a weapon that could change modern-day warfare forever.

Finding themselves in a battle for Earth's future, Delta Squad discover the aliens are more than they seem, and that alien technology can be just as deadly in the hands of humanity when they unearth a deadly secret ‒ the Weapons of Choice.

My Throughts:

As you’ve probably noticed I’m a big fan of Nick Snape’s books. They vary quite a lot, from fantasy to hard SF, and this one is the first in a series of military SF.

This book was a great read. A full on military romp. The actions barely stops for a breath as Finn finds himself and his squadron in an unprecedented situation, being caught up in the midst of an alien invasion.

This is the first in a series of military SF books and I enjoyed it immensely. It will be fun to see how the rest of the series pans out.

So if you like your SciFi hard and military, and action that leaves you breathless, then this could be the book for you.

Review: Icebreaker by Stephen William Hannah

The Book:

Inside their walls, the people are safe from exposure to the unnamed horror that broke the world long ago; but now Bear, the last scientist in Forgehead, takes a case that threatens to throw that safety into question. Someone has been terminally exposed to the phenomenon, despite never having ventured outside the walls. This has only happened once before - to Bear's father.

With the safety of Forgehead in question, and an opportunity to finally discover what happened to his father, Bear must leave the safety of the walls to unravel the mysteries left behind by the pre-cataclysm world; a task that will require him to join the Interloper Initiative, the team who crew the gigantic Crawler landships, the only vehicles that can roam the world outside the walls in relative safety. "Icebreaker" is the first entry in the Interloper Trilogy, a tale of horror and science charting the last days of a dying world, and humanity's endeavour to survive.

My Thoughts:

This is quality post apocalyptic science fiction, set in a future frozen Scotland - which gives it extra points from me!

We first meet Bear as he tries to investigate the case of a boy who has been terminally exposed to the mysterious Phenomenon. I was immediately drawn into the plight of these people, their future society on the verge of collapse, the unspeakable closing in on them.

Bear joins the team of Icebreaker, a giant crawling landship, and this is where things really get interesting. I loved the characters that we meet here, as well as the whole idea of the landships. There’s a lot of action, but also a lot of humanity, and Bear is a fascinating character who I really want to win!

Icebreaker is an excellent story. The concept is original, the characters memorable and the perilous world they live in is strangely compelling. Icebreaker is the first in a trilogy and I’m sufficiently hooked to want to read on, to see how everything evolves, and perhaps learn the truth behind what has happened to the world. At yet Icebreaker is a fully rounded story in itself, leaving just enough unanswered questions. The perfect balance.

A very good and enjoyable book which deserves to be noticed.

Eww - There's some Geology in my Fiction - preorder

 
Eww - there's some Geology in my Fiction. 

Coming soon - an anthology of Earth Science short fiction containing my short story Permafrost, which originally appeared in Issues in Earth Science.

The anthology will be released on May 13th but is available for pre-order now.

Find it HERE.

Review: Sisters of Mercy by Yuval Kordov

The Book:

Hannah-9 is a symbiote: a child of Heaven and Hell, bred in the bowels of the Last City. Implanted into an ancient, nuclear-powered war machine—a God-engine—she stalks the wastes with Rachel-3, her sister-in-arms.

Their mandate is absolute: to wage war against the Adversary, to purify the Earth, and to endure—until the radiation consumes them.

This is her story.

My Thoughts:

I came across this novella through the Self Published Indie Novella Competition (SFINCs) which is a sister contest to SPFBO (fantasy novels) and SPSFC (SciFi novels). Several reviewers were marking it down because they didn’t like that it included religious themes and some of the contestants were calling them out on their bias. So, always curious to see what the cause of all the drama was, I decided to read the novella and judge for myself.

Well I’m so glad I did for I would never have discovered this amazing author otherwise. This book is superb. Powerful and evocative prose mixes in with amazing worldbuilding and the two tragic characters at its core. My heart bled for Hannah and her sister Rachel, the world they had been born into and the tortures they had to endure. The spiritual aspect was their way of coping with their unfortunate lives, and certainly wasn’t overegged. It was in fact a powerful part of the worldbuilding and highlighted Hannah and Rachel’s inner vulnerability.

This a powerful novella that touches on some dark and disturbing themes. It challenges as well as entertains. It’s an excellent and beautiful bit of writing and I think a book that with time will recognise its own significance. The shorter length only adds to this impact.

You really need to read this book. It’s something quite special and I haven’t read anything this good or thought provoking in a long time.

I’d give it 6 stars if I could.

Review: A Dragon of the Veil (Warriors of Spirit and Bone Book 1) by Nick Snape

The Book:

Some lies are best left buried…

Science and magic are forbidden in Brandshold, where the Seven Gods' scripture dictates daily life. When spirit-magic erupts, disrupting an alchemical experiment, fear rolls across the realm and awakens the veil dragons buried deep beneath a forest, their existence struck from memory by the Gods.

Laoch, a veteran of the crusades, and Sura, an elf disowned by her tribe, stand as warriors of spirit and bone against the oncoming tide, while a queen shackled by the demands of the Gods’ Overseer, seeks to cut through his web of deceit and find the truth about her people’s past and the threat of the awakened dragons.

Drawn into a brutal world of soul-magic, forbidden alchemy, and divine weapons, together they uncover a terrible truth: the realm is held together by lies ‒ and they hide a far greater threat to their future. For the dragons are creatures that were built for the hunt, and their creators are hungry.

My Thoughts:

What a ride! And what an opening to what looks like an amazing new fantasy series.

I’ve already reviewed a few of Nick’s books on this blog – in fact I’ve become something of a fan - but this is the first of his fantasy that I’ve read. Suffice to say it lived up to my expectations.

The worldbuilding is superb, the characters compelling and as the action picks up pace I found myself being swept along in a thrilling chase. This was a thoroughly enjoyable book. But not without its moments of passion and sorrow. I became so involved with these characters that I felt their love, their tears, their terror as if I was right there with them. 

I particularly loved the mechanical dragons. What an excellent extra dimension. 

I thoroughly recommend this book and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

A solid 5 stars from me!

Review: Transition by Ian Patterson

The Book: 

Are you so sure you’re the painter, and not the painting?

Micah has a hangover, a looming deadline, and a very opinionated rat following him around the orbital station. No one else can see it—which is definitely not ideal.

Outside, the wealthy are fleeing Earth on seed ships. Inside, Micah’s team has days to perfect their gene-editing tech, or be left behind. On top of that, Micah’s unsure if reality is taking an extended vacation, or if his brain has finally short-circuited.

Equal parts absurdly funny, sharp-edged, and human, Transition explores the events that started The Narrator Cycle. Long before Nicholas, Dorothy, and Charon, there was Micah, a dying earth, a talkative rat, and a question—is reality such a fixed thing?

My Thoughts

Don’t worry if you haven’t yet read the Narrator Cycle. This book, which works as a prequel to those events works perfectly well on its own but I can guarantee after reading this one you will want to read the rest of them! You won’t be disappointed. They are all equally as good.

This is a relatively short read in itself but packs in so much. There are some interesting ideas at play here but for me it’s Micah who really makes it. He’s a compelling character and I loved spending time inside his head. It’s not often a character stays with you long after finishing the last page, but Micah is one of those people.

There’s a wonderfully surreal feeling to this book, not just the mutant talking rat, but I’ll leave it to you to find out what I’m talking about. 

All in all an excellent book which I thoroughly recommend.

Review: The Ocean Hugs Hard by Eric Avedissian

 The Book:

Surfside City, New Jersey. 1966. Cub reporter Harman Bass is cutting his teeth in the fast world of local journalism and getting out-scooped by the competition. Facetious, cocky, and always quoting Nietzsche, Harman isn't making any friends both in and out of the newsroom.

All that changes when the daughter of a prominent family is found dead on the beach, handing Harman the juiciest news story of the year. But she isn't any old beauty pageant queen; she's his high school girlfriend. Harman's dogged reporting into the young woman's death reveals pushback from the authorities and pulls the newshound into the resort's darkest corners.

After one of his sources is murdered, the routine story becomes dangerous and personal. Something watches Harman from the shadows, something ancient and hungry, worshipped by powerful men who kill to keep their secrets. Harman's job and life are soon threatened, and the once brash reporter must battle his boss, rival journalists, and his own sanity before filing what could be his last story.

My Thoughts:

The Ocean Hugs Hard is a wonderful genre mashup combining crime with horror in a 1960s American seaside resort setting. The claustrophobic small town atmosphere is really well described and the setting is immersive. The historic aspect added another great dimension although at times I felt Harman was viewing the world around him through a very 21st Century lens and as a result I wasn’t totally invested in the timeframe. 

Harman himself is a character with considerable depth and there was great poignancy to his recollections of his failed relationship with his teenage sweetheart who turns out to be the first murder victim. 

And then on to the horror aspects of the story. There was a distinct vibe very similar to British folk horror, which is a genre I love. I was pleasantly surprised to find this in an American setting. But I don’t want to say any more about this aspect of the story. You’ll just have to read it yourself to find out.

All in all a very enjoyable and compelling read.