Book Reviews

The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Foundry: Dianis, A World In Turmoil by Frank Dravis

The Foundry: Dianis, A World In Turmoil by Frank Dravis

There is a certain appeal to sci-fi that bridges both time and space, with the genre containing relatable characters, as well as fantastic elements of which humans can presently only dream. In The Foundry, author Frank Dravis has constructed a marvelous new sci-fi and fantasy adventure, perfectly in balance between reality and imagination, establishing a rich new universe in this genre-bending series.

Dianis is a small, out-of-the-way planet, easily overlooked on the galactic scale, but what it holds within – an incredibly rare and valuable mineral – puts it on the front line of an all-out war for domination […]

2020-02-17T12:04:16+02:00July 9th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: |

Review: The Perfectionist: Peter Kilham and the Birds by Larry Kilham

The Perfectionist: Peter Kilham and the Birds by Larry Kilham

A paean to a father by an admiring son, The Perfectionist: Peter Kilham and the Birds is a remarkable chronicle of invention, exploration, and a lifelong search for perfection.

Author Larry Kilham’s childhood was idyllic, living on a homestead with his parents and siblings. His father Peter ran a thriving business, Tekton, designing and selling innovative metal furniture to wealthy clients. When his products began to be supplanted in the 1950s by mass-produced items like aluminum-tubing lawn chairs, Peter switched to the manufacture of metal-bending machines, on which he held significant patents.

Peter Kilham concentrated so minutely on the perfection […]

2019-01-22T11:37:39+02:00July 8th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: , |

Review: The New Holy Warriors by Alice Sandoval

The New Holy Warriors by Alice Sandoval

An international thriller based around the events of September 11, 2001, The New Holy Warriors combines a rich mix of fact and fiction.

Just two days after the horrific happenings of 9-11, a California-based Mexican-American lawyer, Marc Bravo, gets word that his physician father and nurse mother have been missing for three days in Mexico, where they were working as volunteers for Doctors Without Borders.

Shaken by the attack on the US, Bravo is doubly unnerved when he hears this news and quickly enlists the assistance of his younger brother Richard, an archeology student, and an old friend, Paul Levy […]

Review: A Smuggler’s Path by I.L. Cruz

A Smuggler's Path by I.L. Cruz

A delightfully creative adventure, A Smuggler’s Path by I.L. Cruz stands alone in a very crowded fantasy genre, boasting a youthful, energetic spirit and a wonderful new world to explore for readers of fantasy.

The Enchanted Isles are the place where magic fled when the world of men became too dangerous for mages. When the fires of the Spanish Inquisition burned, it was time for the magic-wielders to find safer shores. However, after struggles and violence arose between the three founding sisters of the isles, the freedom of this magic disappeared. It once more became a sacred thing, something to […]

Review: Tell Me When I’m Dead by Steven Ramirez

Tell Me When I'm Dead

The zombie genre has exploded in recent years, and unfortunately, so many similar stories have begun to run together, making it less of a desirable avenue for both writers and readers. However, there is still hope for this genre niche in the form of Tell Me When I’m Dead by Steven Ramirez. The first book in a trilogy, this slow-burning thriller does far more than simply promote an everyman into a zombie-killing hero, introducing readers to a uniquely compelling protagonist.

Leading this novel from start to finish is Dave Pulaski, who is not the type of character you’d expect to […]

Review: Dead is All You Get (Tell Me When I’m Dead Book 2) by Steven Ramirez

Dead is All You Get

A stellar sophmore installment to the Tell Me When I’m Dead series, Dead is All You Get ups the ante considerably, avoiding so many of the common clichés in zombie tales, for an original and well-rounded work of zombie fiction.

The first book in the series largely focused on the outbreak and the battles that our unlikely alcoholic antihero must fight to protect his new family and make it out on the other side alive. This second installment takes this basic plot and expands it into something truly shocking.

The zombie contagion was actually a covert government operation […]

Review: Even the Dead Will Bleed (Tell Me When I’m Dead Book 3) by Steven Ramirez

Even The Dead Will Bleed

Finishing a trilogy always comes with a certain amount of pressure, as the disparate narrative threads must all come back together, and if loose ends are left untethered, it can often seem anticlimactic for a loyal reader. Fortunately, Steven Ramirez didn’t struggle at all with this challenge, and delivers a knockout final installment with Even the Dead Will Bleed, the last book in the Tell Me When I’m Dead series.

As with the prior two novels, the action is carried not only by a stunning unique protagonist – flagrantly flawed Dave Pulaski – but also by a plot that […]

Review: Heirs of Nimeya (Conquerors of Nimeya Book 2) by Kelvin S. Douglas

Heirs of Nimeya (Conquerors of Nimeya Book 2) by Kelvin S. Douglas

In Heirs of Nimeya, Book 2 in the Conquerors of Nimeya series by Kelvin S. Douglas, readers are welcomed into a fantasy universe, but there are strange parallels between this fictional land and the world we know, adding a fascinating layer of reality to this work of fantasy fiction.

Captain Duncan Shay is the focal point around which this story spins, and despite being a ship’s captain that must often bend the rules – or break them entirely – to keep his crew happy and fed, he is ultimately a good man and a hard worker. His normalcy is […]

2018-08-01T07:26:02+02:00June 26th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |
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