Henry Baum | Self-Publishing Review

How I Made $3,200,000 from My Hobby By Michael Bernhart

Don’t let the title fool you: this isn’t non-fiction, you won’t find any get rich quick schemes here. But it does speak to how Bernhart’s lead character, the regally-named Maxwell Smythe Brown IV, doesn’t take much of anything very seriously. A funny and engaging voice, Brown has a very good knack for getting himself into trouble. He’s a pretty dynamic guy: a professor, an Air Force pilot, married to a difficult but beautiful student. And then Brown’s life takes a turn for the fantastic: a collector of antiquarian maps, he learns the location of a treasure from the 17th century […]

Henry Baum2015-08-17T07:05:24+02:00August 11th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Action and Adventure Book Reviews, Humor|

Review: Declassified Events: Predator Island (Volume 1) by Fouad Kazan ★★★★

Declassified Events by Fouad Kazan Declassified Events by Fouad Kazan is an action-driven science fiction/horror novel about cruel and unusual experiments being conducted at a research island – think The Island of Doctor Moreau – but the hybrid creatures are being turned into weapons. Criminal Chris Hopkins is stolen out of prison and taken to the aptly-named Predator Island. Hopkins must struggle to navigate this horrifying environment. He doesn’t just have to escape the creatures, but becoming one one of the creatures himself.

Chris Hopkins is a compelling central character. Convicted of murder, he’s not exactly a good guy, which actually makes the island seem […]

Henry Baum2015-09-10T06:30:10+02:00August 10th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Horror Book Reviews, Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Lucid Dreams and the Holy Spirit by Maria Isabel Pita

Lucid Dreams and the Holy Spirit by Maria Isabel Pita Lucid Dreams and the Holy Spirit by Maria Isabel Pita is a fascinating account of one woman’s experiences with lucid dreaming over many years. Describing over 50 dreams, Pita explores the imagery of each dream and the ramifications for her life both personally and spiritually.

The book is not necessarily a handbook on lucid dreaming – telling you how to strengthen your perception in your dreams on a nightly basis. Books about that subject have already been written, as Pita references early on. Instead, Pita goes through her dreams one by one and attempts to disseminate their meaning, often with […]

Henry Baum2015-07-30T04:02:42+02:00July 30th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Non-Fiction Book Reviews, Spirituality Book Reviews|

The Dark Side of the Window by J.N. Brown

The Dark Side of the Window by J.N. Brown The Dark Side of the Window by J.N. Brown is a riveting psychological horror novel about a man in his sixties who loses his wife to cancer and then begins to see images of her in apparitions and nightmares. That’s not the scariest part though: she’s not appearing to terrify him, just come to warn him of something even more terrifying living right next door.

On the surface, The Dark Side of the Window is a fairly straight-forward ghost story. However, the premise of the novel is the springboard for a richly character-driven suspense novel. The book is written in […]

Henry Baum2015-07-14T03:57:43+02:00July 14th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Horror Book Reviews|

Review: I Was A Champion Then by Alfred A. Meyer

I Was A Champion Then by Alfred A. Meyer

I Was A Champion Then: Twelve Stories About Quiet Injustice, Small Rebellions and Restless Hope is a collection of essays and short stories compiled by the author’s son, Christopher Paul Meyer. A book decades in the making, Alfred Meyer had 30,000 pages of unpublished work when he died in 2012. Alfred Meyer writes eloquently about baseball, childhood wargames, lovelorn women, race and other topics that seem at once deeply American and universal. Meyer writes about big American topics; he may not have completed the Great American Novel, but the tenor of these stories suggests he was well on his way.[…]

Henry Baum2019-02-11T09:25:49+02:00July 13th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Essay Book Reviews, Short Stories Book Reviews|

Emperor’s Shadow (Elite Book 1) by Yi Zhu

Emperor’s Shadow (Elite Book 1) by Yi Zhu is a very fine beginning to an exciting new fantasy series. The novel follows two orphans born into a strict caste system. To go up in class is a virtual impossibility in the Glorious Empire. Only those who graduate from the Academy are granted Highborn status. As with other unjust civilizations, revolution is not far behind…

Unlike other fantasy books, which work in their own self-contained fantasy universe, Emperor’s Shadow seems like a contemporary fantasy, a reflection of our current times, as well as past dynasties. This makes the book seem more […]

Henry Baum2015-07-09T11:30:36+02:00July 9th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews|

Insanity By Increments by Alaric Cabiling

Insanity By Increments by Alaric Cabiling Insanity by Increments by Alaric Cabling is a work of Gothic literary short fiction about people on the edge – isolated from other people, and from themselves.. No one acts predictably, nor does the world around them. It’s not just the characters who have dark impulses, the world they inhabit is just as sinister.

The collection is moody, cerebral, and ultimately very affecting. In each of the stories, men grapple with isolation and abandonment. Some of their lives are mundane and ordinary, while some are truly outcasts, but they all share a similar sense of alienation. The collection could have […]

Henry Baum2015-07-09T07:46:34+02:00July 9th, 2015|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Short Stories Book Reviews|

Review: In the Shadow of St. Anthony by Andrew Hernon ★★★★

In the Shadow of St. Anthony: Being a somewhat detailed account of the coming of age of Tommy Santalesa, the neighborhood wiseass is a hybrid coming-of-age novel about being in a rock band in New York City – and a chilling horror novel.

The novel follows Tommy Santalesa, the untalented bassist of the band Fly Trap, who are on the brink of possible stardom. When Frank – his talented bandmate – is found with mysterious marks on his neck, Tommy must face this supernatural force and save his friend. The book is an impressive blend of horror, character development, period […]

Henry Baum2015-07-20T03:54:19+02:00July 7th, 2015|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Horror Book Reviews|