Sometimes Fatal Events Have Occurred by John L. Sheppard
Review: The Authority (The Charismatics Book 2) by Ashley R. Carlson
★★★★★ 
In The Authority, the second book by Ashley R. Carlson in the Charismatics series, steampunk, science fiction and fantasy collide in an unforgettable adventure of magic, intrigue, destiny, and a potentially collapsing universe.
Picking up directly where the first book left off, readers find themselves amid the wreckage of the dirigible crash where Duchess Ambrose and her rag-tag bunch of compatriots are choosing what to do next. Each has a special skill set, a particular ability based on Charisma, ranging from the ability to fly, becoming invisible, affecting the mind of others, seeing past facades or creating fire, […]
Review: Reverence by Joshua Aaron Landeros
Reverence by Joshua Aaron Landeros is a suspenseful work of dystopian science fiction about a not-too-distant future. In an action-packed novel that touches on many of the issues of the day, readers are dropped in the near future (2065), where a new empire has risen to power, the United Nation Republic, leading the world and dominating all who threaten their security with a cyborg army.
Will, the protagonist of the novel, is one of these enhanced cybernetic soldiers, and his incredible abilities are put on display before the end of the first chapter. The premise reveals itself in a very […]
Review: Time is for Dragonflies and Angels by J.M. Erickson
★★★★ 
Time is for Dragonflies and Angels, the new book from sci fi author J.M. Erickson is a collection of short stories in the tradition of the classic science fiction writing compendiums, evoking well-loved writers such as Aldous Huxley and George Orwell, with clear influences from other giants of the genre as we go along.
This is more directly apparent in some stories over others, such as Neurogenesis which is a riff on the ending of Flowers for Algernon, or To See Behind Walls using The Secret Life of Walter Mitty as its key inspiration. It gives the […]
Review: Blowback ’07 by Brian Meehl
★★★★½ 
Blowback ’07 by Brian Meehl is a stunning start to an exciting new series.
Time travel is a popular theme in fiction – YA and otherwise – and Blowback ’07 stands out immediately within the sub-genre for its original plot and charismatic heroes, Arky and Iris. The context of the story is revealed rather quickly, and we soon learn that Iris is in possession of a family heirloom – the Jongler cor anglais – a musical instrument with unknown powers that their mother left to the twins before she disappeared.
Arky and Iris don’t always get along very well, […]
Review: Explosive Decompression by John L. Sheppard
★★★★ 
Explosive Decompression by John L. Sheppard is an intense, wry and wonderfully written novel.
From the very start of Explosive Decompression, author John Sheppard welcomes readers into a fantastical new world, hundreds of years into the future, and proposes a unique premise – a dystopian Earth that has experienced and persevered past the Great Collapse, a period of nuclear war, environmental disaster and global chaos. Canada, an unlikely national hero, has become one of the strongholds of humanity, and has now extended into what was once the United States of America, ravaged by soaring sea levels and rimmed […]
Titan by Michael Van Cleve
The core to any post-apocalyptic tale is not necessarily the environment, but the sympathetic resilience of its characters, and on this front Titan excels. There is also plenty of brutal imagery to spare, and thought-provoking exposition about man’s […]
Review: The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver by Shawn Inmon
★★★★★ 
The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver by Shawn Inmon is a gripping story of the ultimate “What if?”
The time travel genre is populated by a number of standard premises, meaning that multiple authors have discussed many of the same philosophical and ethical issues over the years. In The Unusual Second Life of Thomas Weaver the classic time-traveling tropes are present, but they seamlessly weave between highly developed characters and an emotionally gripping story line that makes readers forget that they’re reading fiction.
Thomas Weaver has not had a particularly good life, and after 55 years on the […]