The latest indie book reviews from Self-Publishing Review
Review: TZAK: How Time Travel Began by Cindy Shearer
TZAK – How Time Travel Began by Cindy Shearer is a futuristic novella about one girl’s experience with time travel in a post-apocalyptic America, set in Yucatan, Mexico.
Zola de Chichen, a Maya science student, tells of the times she has encountered time-travelers, and how she herself time travels once she reaches university, in a world where humans can breed their children with any kinds of looks or variants they choose. When a man from the twenty-first century accidentally gets through the portal with Zola, he has to adjust to life over three hundred years in the future.
One would […]
Art Lester’s travelogue is a fascinating and funny account of the author’s time in a tiny Spanish village in the mountains by the fictional name of Cantilla.
Blackcloak: A Man of his Sword is the first installment of the Bloody Tapestry of Kaef’re series. The book is set in the eponymous Kaef’re: a strange and exotic world reminiscent of, but not analogous to, ancient China, where the world is alive with the forces of nature, magic, and things far beyond true mortal comprehension. In this twisted realm, where dream and reality can uncomfortably intertwine, a young man sets out on a journey of self – against these forces, between mortal and immortal, and through the hands of the two who vie for his life and more. Observed […]
An Animal Life: A Chance to Cut is the second book in Howard Krum’s award-winning series about life as a vet. Part 2 follows a group of veterinary students in their second semester, focusing on Mike London, a cocky vet school senior who nearly ends a dog’s life and tries to rebuild his life. The phrase “A chance to cut” is a surgeon’s motto: “A chance to cut is a chance to heal,” so London tries to mend his life through medicine, humor and romance.
Elliptical: The Music of Meshell Ndegeocello by André Akinyele and Jon O’Bergh is the tribute to musician and songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello, and is purported to be the first comprehensive overview of her work. The bulk of the book is about André Akinyele’s personal experience discovering her music, while Jon O’Bergh contributes more factual information about her recording history.
Losing Heart by Donna Brown is a fast-paced novella that covers a wide range of emotions in a small number of pages. Helen is facing the most difficult of issues: she is in need of a heart transplant and has only five months to live. Cut to 6 months later and Helen is very much alive and isn’t quite worried about living life on the edge: she’s having an affair with her doctor, Jack, while her husband and the mother of the donor become more and more suspicious.
This nicely measured anthology of “pointy” poems by San Francisco-based writer and filmmaker James Mirarchi juxtapose the earthly, natural seams of life with sharp, irregular, unexpected parts to bring a fresh slant of light into word play.
Moscow Venture, by A. K. Celer, is a good old-fashioned spy thriller.