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Books at Midnight

It’s summer, and it’s hot. There are books I’d like to read and movies I’d like to see, and I need to get caught up on some book reviews for the blog, among several other things.

In other words, I’m taking a few days off from blogging. I’ll be back with new posts on Friday, July 1 — the release date for First Frost, a prequel e-story in my Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series.

Hope everyone has a good week. Stay cool!

Finished For Heaven’s Eyes Only by Simon R. Green. This is one of the books in his Secret Histories urban fantasy series.

Eddie Drood, aka Shaman Bond, is a member of the powerful and secretive Drood family. The Droods are secret agent-types who help protect the world from all kinds of nasty supernatural threats. So when Eddie, his friends, and his very large family start hearing rumors of a Satanist conspiracy and a big sacrifice that’s coming up, they quickly get involved and find out that the danger is real and much worse than they feared. But Eddie and his family are determined to stop the Satanists — no matter how high the price may be …

I’m a sucker for spy books, and I admit that the title on this one intrigued me. This book definitely had a spy feel to it — sort of an over-the-top, James Bond-type story mixed with the clever whimsy and slightly nonsensical characters of a Terry Pratchett book. It also has that very English feel to it.

There’s a lot to like in this book. The world building is clever and interesting, and I enjoyed seeing the inner workings of the Drood family and their headquarters with all of its magical and spy gadgets. I also liked Eddie. He’s a tough guy who’s determined to do the right thing, but he has some real regrets about some of the things that he’s done and some of the ones that he does in this book. The story moves along at a fairly nice clip, and the big battle scene at the end is certainly imaginative.

My only quibble is at times it seems like there’s more cleverness than substance to the story. There are a couple of plotlines and characters where it seems like the only point of them being in the book is so that Greene can say something witty about them. Also, Greene does a little too much with the world building at times. There are a couple of scenes that are very heavy on description that I thought would have read a little quicker if some of the description had been trimmed down a bit. Finally, there’s a long-running joke about nobody taking Satanists seriously that got a little old after the first few references.

Overall, though, this is a cool mix of spies and urban fantasy. If you like Terry Pratchett’s books, you’ll probably enjoy this one.

My grade: B-

Would I read this author again: Yes. I thought this book was a lot of fun, and I plan to read more books in the series.

Memorable quote: “There were some brief surges in the sixties, but it’s hard to get people excited about sin when nothing’s a sin anymore.”

“What about the eighties?” I said.

“No,” Molly said. “The Satanists weren’t behind that. It only seemed that way.”

Finished Virgin by Cheryl Brooks. This is a book in her Cat Star Chronicles erotic science fiction series.

Ava Karon is working in a bar on an obscure planet when she gets fed up with her abusive boyfriend and decides to return to her home world. Luckily, Ava manages to hitch a ride on the starship of sexy pilot Dax, along with several other aliens. Ava and Dax are immediately attracted to each other. Neither one is quite sure what to make of their intense feelings, but they decide to give their relationship a chance as they journey toward Ava’s home planet. What the couple doesn’t realize is that Ava is in possession of a powerful crystal that will either save or destroy her home planet — and that there are others out there who will do anything to get the crystal.

Science fiction isn’t my favorite genre to read, but every once in a while, I’ll try a sci-fi book just for a change of pace. Some of the characters were funny, like Waroun, Dax’s friend, and it was cool to see the starship passengers band together during the course of their journey. Also, some of the world building was interesting, especially Ava’s home planet, which is an oceanic world.

Unfortunately, I just didn’t think there was that much of a plot to the book. Ava and Dax are traveling to her home planet, but it seems like a lot of the book is just aliens talking about sex and how to have sex with other aliens. It takes Ava and Dax most of the book to get to her home planet, and once they do, it seems like all the problems are resolved pretty quickly. I would have liked the book a lot better if a little less time had been spent on the journey and more time on Ava’s planet and dealing with the situation there. I also think I might have gotten more out of the book if I had read the others in the series.

Overall, this book didn’t work for me, but science fiction fans may enjoy it.

My grade: F.

Would I read this author again: Maybe. I thought some of the world building was interesting.

Memorable quote: “He’d seen women who were far more beautiful — many of whom had thrown themselves willingly at his feet — so what was it that made this one so special? She was blond and perky, which was certainly appealing, but he’d never noticed that preference before. Yet, she was doing something to him, something extraordinary.”

So I finally have some cover art to share for First Frost, the prequel e-story that I’m doing for my Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series. Pretty cool, huh? And here’s the story description:

I am Gwen Frost, and I have a Gypsy gift.  It’s called psychome­try — that’s a fancy way of say­ing that I see images in my head and get flashes of other people’s mem­o­ries off almost every­thing I touch, even guys.

My gift makes me kind of nosy. Okay, okay, maybe a lot nosy — to the point of obses­sion some­times. I want to know every­thing about every­one around me. But even I don’t want to know the secret that a girl in my class is hid­ing or the ter­ri­ble loss that will send me to a new school — Mythos Acad­emy, where the teach­ers aren’t prepar­ing us for the SATs, but to bat­tle Reapers of Chaos.  Now I have no friends and no idea how my gift fits in with all these war­rior whiz kids.  The only thing I do know is that my life is never, ever going to be the same …

This e-story takes place before the events in Touch of Frost, the first book in the Mythos Academy series. You can click here to read an excerpt of the e-story.

The e-story will be released on July 1 (I can’t believe July is only two weeks away), and it’s now up for pre-order at Amazon as a 99-cent Kindle download. I’m not sure when it will go up at Barnes & Noble, but I’m guessing probably sometime in the next few days.

Please note that the e-story will be avail­able through Ama­zon and other online book­sellers, not as a free story here on the web­site. I know some folks might be disappointed by this, but more people look at Amazon and other book sites than visit my website. So I think releasing First Frost as an e-story is a good marketing opportunity and hopefully a way to reach new readers.

You don’t have to read First Frost to start or enjoy the series, but if you want to see exactly how Gwen winds up at Mythos Acad­emy, you might like it.