Aladdin’s Samovar

Genies are way cooler than vampires and a whole lot more fun.

Amber finds a genie named Jasper standing in front of her fireplace having just extricated himself from the samovar on her mantle. Think about that for a second. The book is full of stuff like that. Things go downhill from there in a hurry. Many of the world’s best comedians say that comedy is the hardest art form. Lauren Sweet has made it look easy. The book is funny throughout. She makes some of the jokes pay multiple times without their seeming tired. I laughed on almost every page. Some of the jokes work on multiple levels and pay on all of them.

The plot holds together well and I give it 4 ½ stars. The half star has to do with the number of times I thought “Tell me she’s not going there,” and she went there anyway. There were totally predictable parts and lots of surprises. It almost all worked. The bits that didn’t really didn’t matter.

I give five stars on characters. All the major characters are well thought out and intriguingly complex. Amber is the deepest with her conflicted emotions and shattered sense of reality. Jasper is nicely done as well. Indigo verges on stereotype, but she pulls away from the precipice in just the right level of insanity. Even the minor characters are clearly defined. To reveal any more would spoil the fun.

Style is four stars. Lauren has a habit of lumping action and dialogue together in the same paragraph. I find that confusing and sometimes it is hard to follow who is speaking. So, folks, I have just said the worst thing I can say about this book. How big a deal is that? Not very. If I were not also a writer, I probably would not have cared, but they asked my opinion, so there.

So the worst things I can say about this book are its paragraphs and its occasional obvious entanglements. For me that is high praise. I loved this book and recommend with only one caution. Do not drink coffee or tea while reading it. You will embarrass yourself.

My favorite quotes are at the end of the book, but to put them in the review would spoil the fun. Here is one from early on. Amber’s mother, Indigo, meets Jasper the Genie for the first time immediately after Amber has rescued Indigo from the police or the police from Indigo depending on your point of view.

“Stop cooking,” Amber said. Her stomach growled. Jasper remained focused on the gravy, though she thought she saw his lips twitch. “You have to get back in your samovar before someone sees you.” There were assorted thumps from the front stoop, and the doorknob rattled. “Right now!”

Jasper added flour and stirred. “I can’t go back in the samovar until you make a wish. I have to service you.”

“Service me?” Amber repeated, sure she had heard wrong. Her mind skittered off into various scenarios involving sculpted abs, adult themes and questions of whether genies were anatomically correct.

As if his clothes could read her mind, Jasper’s outfit suddenly grew smaller…and smaller… Amber watched in horrified fascination as it morphed into a stripper version of a tuxedo: jacket, bow tie, and thong. Yeeps. Amber thought she might be getting heart palpitations. She backed up another step. “Did you say service me?”

Jasper gave the gravy another stir and turned back toward Amber. She found herself staring at the front of his thong, which sported a red satin heart. Hot flash. Amber dragged her eyes to his face. “Oops,” he said, all innocence. “I meant ‘serve.’ My bad.”

“I don’t want you to service—uh—serve me!” Amber managed to squeak the words out while trying to find somewhere to look that wasn’t a satin thong pouch or nearly naked genie flesh. This was definitely not in the fairy tales. “My mother’s here, for God’s sake!” The doorbell rang. Impatiently.

“Excellent,” Jasper said. “We can ask her what she thinks you should wish.”

Not in a million years. Amber probably couldn’t even imagine the things Indigo would want her to wish for. Strike that. She’d just imagined a number of the things Indigo would want her to wish for. “Oh, no you don’t,” Amber said. “Serve—later. Go—now!” She pointed towards the dining room and the samovar.

“Can’t. That’s not the way it works.” Jasper half-turned, giving the gravy another quick stir. Then he leaned forward and raised the spoon to her lips. “Taste that.” She tasted automatically, realized that she was submitting to this ridiculous farce, and batted the spoon away. He tasted it himself, with a considering frown. “A little more salt, I think.”

“Go!”

Jasper put the spoon down. “Make your wish.”

“I’m not ready!” There was no way she could think under this kind of stress.

He shrugged. “Then I have to stay in your home and serve—” he drew out the word, silently adding the final syllable to turn it into ‘service’—“until you are.”

Amber stared at his lips, so mesmerized she didn’t hear the footsteps in the foyer until it was too late. She whirled around. Indigo was standing in the kitchen doorway, spangled caftan waving in the breeze from the front door, her hair wisping out like an aureole around her head. Of course. Why should a mere locked door stop the Mistress of the Universe? Indigo’s hands were clasped ecstatically to her breast, and she was gazing past Amber at Jasper, her mouth pursed in the same round ‘o’ of surprise and pleasure as when she first saw Amber at the police station.

Amber’s two worlds of insanity collided in her brain, causing synapse overload. She just kept looking from Spangly Mom to Stripper Genie and back again, mouth opening and closing, no sound coming out. How did one explain? Where did one start?

Indigo bravely stepped into the conversational breach. “A friend of Amber’s!” she exclaimed. “And a pot roast!”

Lauren will later make the “serve – service” pun work with a reference to the science fiction classic “Serving Man” in much the same fashion as she gets lots of mileage out of all the jokes.

And when was the last time you heard a vampire or a genie for that matter say “My bad.” And mean it?

I enjoyed the book. It is suitable for high school, but it is targeted at the mainstream adult reader. Read it on the airplane so everyone will wonder what’s so funny.

On a final note, I am so over vampires and it is nice to see the Genie angle work so well. In another era, this is what Barbara Eden should have been.

An electronic copy of this book was sent to me in response to a review request on the LLBook review site. I liked the book in spite of its flaws. The author posted the following teaser on LLBook:

THE 5 MOONS OF TIIANA is a kick-butt story and rollicking adventure.

Captain Rez Cantor is a diplomacy officer in the Imperial Army, and personal attaché to Princess Leanna, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the Emperor, and sole heir to the Melelan throne.

On the eve of a treaty signing ending the twelve-year-war between the alien-hybrid Relcor and the Empire, Rez Cantor learns that the Imperial family has been slated for death. Under orders from his Queen, Rez is given his final command–save the Princess at all costs.

Overcoming incredible odds, Rez abducts Leanna, and the two flee Melela along with others of the Imperial guard. Unfortunately, their ship is nuked as it enters warp creating an event horizon that sends the ship 128,000 light years across the galaxy to the Moons of Tiiana. It is on one of these moons that Rez awakens on a beach–injured and alone–without the Princess.

So begins the sojourn of Rez Cantor upon the Moons of Tiiana: Five moons stagnating from a 2000 year-old war that has left its alien races in limbo and decay. Five moons that crave a hero bold enough to lead its people out of the darkness. Five moons that hold the future of the Melelan Empire deep within the ashes of war.

I give the book four stars all around. Four stars for plot, four for characterization, and four for writing style although the technical execution was flawless. I found no typographical or spelling errors.

The story moves relatively well in spite of its frequently wordy and awkward sentence structure. It is a classic tale of the valiant good soldier rescuing the princess and saving the empire (can you say Star Wars?) but since it is told in the first person, it has a more personal feel than most space epics.

For those who follow the Joseph Campbell philosophy of plot structure, this is close but not slavishly adhered to the “hero” format. The story holds together as it moves from place to place and the hero faces one test after another. The tests make sense. The obstacles provide needed experience for the final outcome to work.

Characterization is erratic. Rez, being the first person narrator, is deep and well-thought through. While Princess Leanna is reasonably well drawn, I would like to understand more of her motivations. The line about Rez not understanding the thinking of a thirteen year old girl in love helps fill in her character, but it is not enough.

Let me digress to clichés. There are lots of them. How much do you care? Ahska, the wise old woman and Oolat, the Wookie-like companion, are classic characters. The Dolla are an analogue for the earthly dolphin. I guess I would have hoped for something more original. I lost track of how often “time was of the essence” at one critical juncture or another.

The character I most wanted fleshed out was Philip Golan. His character is tantalizing in the details given, but he remains an enigma even in the end. This is a very interesting complex character and I think he deserves more time than he gets.

The most serious failing in this story is its wordiness. The author uses too many passive sentences where active sentences would be better. The following quote is an example:

My hands were sore from climbing over piles of rock, but I was almost to the docks. I could hear the roar of the ocean, the waves beating against the shoreline–I wondered if I would find anything there. I was not overly optimistic. There had been nothing two years ago, why would it be different now? I ascended a hill of rubble, pulling myself up over the loose rock, hoping for a better view. Suddenly my attention was drawn to my rear. I heard an old familiar sound–a cascade of scurrying rat noise followed by low growls and yelps. I looked behind; it was like déjà vu. On the debris-laden streets below was a large pack of rodent dogs converging together into a cohesive unit. There were perhaps forty to fifty of the filthy, slathering vags following my trail. I pulled my blaster from my hip–I’d waited a long time for this.

 Without wasting a second I fired, centering my aim on the densest portion of the pack. I was eager to repay the disgusting wretched creatures a hundredfold for the pain they’d inflicted on me. My first shot obliterated at least half of them, and sent the rest scattering like leaves in the wind. I looked at the smoldering, burnt carcasses that lay in the dirt. Seeing the bulk of them dead felt good. I put my blaster back in its holster and made my way further up the hill–I knew the others would be back. I certainly hoped so. I wanted to kill every last one of them.

The best part is that I believed it. I believed in Rez and what he was doing. Except for the mass migrations toward the end, it retained my suspension of disbelief, and for me, that is hard to do.

I hope I have not dissuaded you from reading this book. I enjoyed it, but it’s not Azimov.

The Communion of Saints

Reviewed by Author Susan Anderson

A Gripping Story, an Entertaining Paranormal

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS: A THRILLER by Richard Stone is the first book in his Last Man thriller series. I found the story intriguing and the subterranean landscape entertaining, despite the fact that at first I had problems knowing where I was, distinguishing up from down, at times unable to tell who was saying what to whom. COMMUNION deals with the anguish of a man fighting the forces of change, his resistance on the road to belief, grace, salvation—whatever you want to call it. It deals with the agony of confusion.

The author tells the reader that the novel takes place in Grand Rapids. If so, it’s not the Grand Rapids I know. Matter of fact, apart from a rare nightmare and the odd hallucination, the story’s reality is not one with which I am familiar. But, okay, I thought, time to stretch the mind. So I picked up the book and soon could not put it down.

The story starts when Otto meets his friend, Thomas, in a bar. They bump into a weird cast of characters. Otto’s adventures begin.

Otto is overcome by, chased by, fights off wave upon wave of paranormal creatures, a huge cast of celestial beings who fight for the heart and soul of this man—angels, devils, super human men and women. They intrigue us with wings and scales and power. All the while, the reader wonders what’s going to happen to Otto. Which Otto, you might ask, for there are two—the Otto who has long been the “project” of his fire and brimstone friend, Thomas, and “Other Otto,” his erstwhile alter ego. Otto, it seems, is changing.

In his quest (or test), Otto revisits somewhat familiar territory now grown wild and distinctly other. But assuredly Otto is in an altered state of reality, a place called Underground. Being human, he is under the influence of devilish creatures. Along the way he meets former friends, new ones, and celestials—from seraphs to devils, all with supernatural powers. And he has guides—Constance (my favorite), Anna, Regina—and a father, Frank, who looks for him. Not only is the landscape Kafkaesque but the place itself is one of the main characters. Otto is constantly on the brink. In the end we find out that … but, no, I won’t spoil it for you.

THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS has a gripping storyline played out on a burnt-out stage, a set worthy of Orlando Furioso or Batman, but influenced by the traditional Judeo-Christian world view. It has a definite beginning, middle, and an end that will surprise. If you are a reader into paranormal thriller, you will love this book.

Presentation. That said, there are numerous typos and this edition could use a proofreading scrub behind the ears. And the ebook formatting isn’t perfect. Sometimes typesetter marks are used, other times, not.

My Rating: 4 Stars

About the Author: Richard Stone is a writer of supernatural/psychological thrillers. He can be found Underground. Out of appreciation to his readers and friends, the author will donate
 20% of profits from his work to Dégagé Homeless Shelter of Grand Rapids.

Snowybrook Inn

This book is set in a mysterious place called Snowybrook. Unlike what you may think, this fairy tale is for adults.

Everything in this little village centers on the inn that is run by Mikel Fairdawn. It seems to be the gathering place for all the residents where drink and food and conversation can be had around a roaring fire. Visitors come and go as well throughout the book.

I didn’t really realize it at first but this book is a few short tales all mingled together and centered on the life of Mikel Fairdawn who finds himself involved with fairies, goblins, witches, dragons and the like. Of course the soldiers are always hanging about too and no one in this little village trusts the soldiers.

The innkeeper feels it is his duty to keep everything running smoothly so he tries to intervene to fix any problems that arise, even trying to change the course of history at one point to protect the town from the soldiers. The tales that arise in this book are pretty ridiculous situations, but this is a fairy tale after all and that is what is expected in a good fairy tale.

Mikel does have two helpers at the inn, a fairy named Merrybright and a not-so-bright boy named Bubba. We soon learn that Mikel and Merrybright are in love and having an affair. They sneak off into the woods as time permits, leaving Bubba Boy in charge, which is a recipe for disaster. As I mentioned earlier, Bubba isn’t the sharpest tack in the box. His lack of judgement almost spells disaster for the inn and the entire vale at one point.

Once again Fairdawn comes to the rescue to intervene between the soldiers and to fight a dragon. At one point he even falls under a witch’s spell as he ties to return the sword of a fallen comrade.

Merrybright’s parents don’t approve of her relationship with the innkeeper but they can see it is true love and know she will not marry the fairy they had in mind for her. They finally accept Fairdawn, but in the end he has to prove his true love for her by yet another quest.

This book was interesting and full of crazy characters.

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

ABOUT:

A crew of astronauts fall through time to 1832 and are imprisoned by the autocratic Lord Desbois, who demands the secrets of their advanced technology – for Lord Desbois has seen the future and he is determined to prevent it at all costs…

REVIEW:

With all the meaty tidbits of Steampunk infused with a sci-fi beginning, Rise Of The Steampunk Empire is just that.

The story starts with Colonel Mitchell and his crew orbiting in space when an anomaly happens and sucks them back into time. The team crash-lands their space craft only to find themselves without all the conveniences of modern-day technology.

They are given an unwelcoming greeting by a group of people from 1832, as the story is told first person by Sarah Phillips, the only female among the crew. Sarah learns quickly that racism and sexism still run ramped, and the group has appalling accusations hurtled at them.

Once the crew is taken to Lord Desbois, they are stripped of their knowledge once Desbois obtains a palm computer from Sarah, which contains the world’s history. Lord Desbois is aghast at what he finds out about what he believes is a godless path for the history of the world. Desbois is determined that God has sent the crew as a sign, and he exploits their engineering education to build monstrous machines to invade other countries, and put a stop to what is to come.

The story is well written and fast paced, and almost a little too fast paced at times. The author gives us a look back in time to the thought processes of the 19^th century, and how people from then would view our world today. The book is a great novella, and a fast read for anyone looking for some Steampunk.

By Jaime Hypes

The Last Way Station is a speculative fantasy novella chronicling Adolf Hitler’s time after his suicide. Reisfeld gives us a world where Hitler is stuck in a kind of purgatory, unable to move on until his ‘caseworker’ finds him fit to do so. Hitler is forced to relive the atrocities he inflicted upon others- from his victims’ perspective, as he is placed into the bodies of each and every person he affected.

His caseworker finds him to be the most difficult charge yet, as the results are not what are expected. It quickly becomes clear that Hitler’s beliefs run deeper than anyone could have imagined, and his lack of empathy is astonishing. The question of how far one can be pushed until surrendering mentally is explored in a whole new way, and the motive behind one’s convictions may be the key.

The exploration of the psychology of evil, the importance of empathy, and what one feels they must do to survive are themes throughout The Last Way Station. With an angle that is different than other works based upon Hitler’s life, this provides a true ‘what if?’ approach. It is not as though the events in the book will change anything in reality, but we are able to explore the reaches of evil and the importance of being held accountable.

The only shortcoming of this novella is exactly that: it is too short. The Last Way Station is an amazing and entertaining (although disturbing) read, but just as it starts to build momentum, it is over. It leaves hope that maybe Reisfeld will expound on his ideas and characters and give us a full-length novel in which to immerse ourselves.

ABOUT:

Before the economic downturn, James Scottsdale did all the right things: he went to school and studied the right things, he had all the right friends, he had the love of a good woman and the support of his family. And then the economic crisis began and his secure life was suddenly not so secure.
Now, age 25, he lives on his mother’s couch, in debt and brokenhearted. All of that changes when The Boston 395 train line appears in his living room. The Boston 395 is like no train you have ever seen. Each stop exits into James’ life, revealing truths he would rather not deal with. Guided by The Conductor and populated by a colorful cast of characters, The Boston 395 will take James – and the reader – to places they never expected.

THE BOSTON 395 is a novella, sitting in the literary arena of magical realism/fantasy. The book follows its own rules and weaves an interesting world for the reader to get lost in, and to wrestle with.

REVIEW:

Jason Derr’s novella, The Boston 395, started off as a very captivating read with sharp wit and vivid details that really piqued my interest.  I’ll try to leave out all locomotive puns since the book is about a train, but by the end it had lost a lot of steam for me.

As stated in the blurb, James is down on his luck with no job and no love interest, and moving back in with his mother until things get better. All of a sudden, a train shows up in his mother’s living room, picking him up and transporting him back in time where he has to revisit different events that have taken place in his life – mainly the events responsible for how he got into his current situation.

While on the train, James encounters other passengers going through their own “trip” on the train, along with a peculiar train conductor.  Curiosity abounds as James and the fellow passengers explore the train and try to learn its real purpose and meaning. Unfortunately, too much time is spent trying to answer these questions and very little detail is revealed to James or to the reader by the end.

I also felt the events from James’s past just weren’t as awe-inspiring as I wanted them to be outside of the death of his father, but even it was an event he had missed when he left his father’s bed side to take a shower. One would hope a book being described as “magical realism/fantasy” would have more elements to develop it outside the sole plot line of a train pulling up in someone’s living room. While yes, that’s a major part of the story, it’s not enough to make up for where the rest of the story suffers.

One of the best attributes to the train is that it has a unique library of book that were never written like a part 2 to Treasure Island.  There are also books of dreams and random thoughts composed from the minds of people James knows.  But like everything else, the purpose or explanation of the library is never truly revealed.

There’s also no obvious distinction between the scenes of where James is on the train and when he is gone to a flashback, other than a hint by the change in narrative and the obvious change in scene usually directed by dialogue . The scenes are smashed together with no clear segue.  I would have almost liked to see the conductor leading James off into one of the train cars, a puff of smoke, or some wavy dream-like blur as a harp is strung and both the reader and James magically appear back in the past.  Instead, it just sort of happens in a blink which made the past and present story lines a bit rough when connected.

With James’s lackluster life pulling down the narrative and denying the reader of scenes that could have made this a much more engaging read, the book comes to a screeching halt that, dare I say it, is not a stop you want to get off at.  By the end, much like James, I was just frustrated.

Even the author relies on a pun with the Little Engine That Could by filling the page with the words “I think I can I think I can” off and on for more than a chapter, and even playing with the placement of text despite not having done it earlier in the story. And even then, we still don’t get a clear picture, and neither does James, of what the heck this train business is all about anyway.

Overall, The Boston 395 is a novella that clearly showed promise in the beginning but lacks a certain culmination of events and climaxes by the end.  Derr has a clear finesse for detail and characterization,  but denies his reader the answers to the real questions they’ll derive from the story line.

There Goes the Galaxy

Review by Bob Cherny

Brevity is the sole of wit and my dogs are tired.

Plot: Three stars
Characters: Three stars
Formatting and technical execution: Five stars
Humor: Two stars

This was pitched as a humorous take on a science fiction story and while parts of it are very funny and have a nice bite to them, the story goes on way too long. I had a lot of trouble finishing the book and put it down several times. The only reason I finished it was because when I requested it from LLBooks I pledged to review it. In order to keep my pledge I came back to it and eventually finished it. Fortunately, most of the last half of the book is pretty good.

There are flashes of brilliance like this passage:

Rollie leaned in. Bertram leaned in. Yes, there was definitely something small out there. One smallish thing where Rhobux-7 used to be.
So Rollie tossed himself into the pilot’s chair and moved the ship in closer. He directed the ship’s scopes to focus in. A magnified area formed in the window-screen. “It appears to be …”
“Yes?”
“… A sign.”
And the sign read:
You have reached the former location of Rhobux-7.
Sorry our planet’s not able to come to these coordinates
right now, but leave us a message at our Uninet site—
uninet.seersofrhobux.rbx.7.q1.gcu—
and we’ll be sure to get back to you.
For metaphysical emergencies,
visit our fellow prophets in the Nett star system.
Thanks for stopping by!

And then there are lengthy passages of parodies of instruction manuals that alternate between brilliant and boring. This is my favorite:

Peace Guard Nak cleared her throat. “‘Now that you finish install of Klinko LK-31 Prisoner Confinement System, kindly ready yourself to enter a very exiting new realm of inbreakable security. Please to welcome to the knowledge that, in proper use, the Klinko LK-31 will be always having for you a highest level of safety comfort with even your most dangerful apprehensions. It has specials super sensor to detect movement in confinement cell area. Also, it measure heart rate of cell occupant (if occupant is containing heart organ), as heart rate rise may indicate suspicious activity and nervousness in many lifeform. Klinko LK-31 Prisoner Confinement System is unharmable to hand-laser shooting, flame, and extreme weather condition if outside in its placement…’”

Zlotni grunted. “Are you using Translachew on that at all?”

“Look,” said Nak, “that’s what it says.”

“Skip a little,” Zlotni told her.

Bertram opened an eye and could make out some blurry uniformed beings standing in the narrow hall on the other side of the bars. One was leaning over a technical manual roughly the size of a mini-fridge.

“‘To begin good use of Klinko LK-31 Prisoner Confinement System, you are first to be finding the Klinko Prisoner Confinement System keypad.’”

Nak looked up as one of her fellow Peace Guards motioned toward the shiny new keypad.

“Good,” she continued. “‘Once it is to be in your eyeball-looking, find yourself pushing the green Start button.’”

Wezzag reached over and depressed a button on a keypad mounted on the wall. A bulb embedded in the hallway ceiling went green, bathing the cell block in a weird, slimy glow. “Next?”

“‘… But only after you to push the blue Clear button for clearing system …’”

Grumbling, Wezzag presumably pushed “Clear” and then the green button, which re-lit the hall light. “What now?”

“‘Now enter sixteen-digit number code which you choose.’” Nak looked up. “Anybody got a number in mind?”

But even it goes on much too long from there.

Bertram Ludlow, one of life’s basic archetypical sci-fi loser-heroes is kidnapped from his bedroom by a intergalactic miscreant, Captain Rolliam Tsmoorland. I am sure there is a pun in the name, but I have no idea what it is. He is quickly informed that his mission is to save the Earth, but from whom, from what and why are left mysteries.

Bertram’s meeting with the “seers” who inform him of his mission the “seers” are constricted by a dialectic that should be funny, but only serves to slow the action down.

The entire business with the real estate agent should be funny, but it goes on too long. Too much time is spent on the description of the real estate agent’s head. Okay, we got it the first time. The descriptions of the various corporations who are the potential buyers the agent is courting as might be quoted in their stock holder reports do not work and should be eliminated or drastically shortened.

The concept of the “Translachew” gum is quite good and provides the potential for pointed humor, but the humor takes too long to set up and once the punch line is reached, it is no longer funny.

The protest movement Bertram creates with its fall-out and the final conflict almost work. The narration in that critical scene is inconsistent and erratically paced leading to an ultimately unsatisfying ending.

This book would work well if it was two thirds its current length. I would expect a book like this from a first time author, but this author has won several prestigious awards. Maybe there is something here I am not seeing, but I do not know what it is.

A friend sent me a link to Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s Blog, because she wrote a post comparing traditional and indie publishing. She was also mad at her publishers and editors.

On her Blog, Rusch wrote, “In the past two days, two different editors have told me that I don’t know how publishing works. One deigned to explain to me how something in book production worked when I questioned a scheduling problem in the publishing house. The other told me I had no idea how to write a good book in my genre.”

I then discovered that Rusch was a bestselling, Hugo-award winning editor and writer. Her novels have made the bestseller lists worldwide and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages. Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award.

I’ve never read anything from this author before, never even heard of her and she was debating with herself on her Blog the benefits of leaving traditional publishing and going independent. At the bottom of her post [link in the first paragraph of this review], she lists all the pros and cons.

Curious about Rusch’s work and fascinated by one of her plots, I ordered Diving into the Wreck from Amazon. It’s been years since I’ve read science fiction but occasionally if a story idea intrigues me, I’m hooked.

“Diving into the Wreck” is the first in a series. The second book is City of Ruins and Boneyards, the third in the series, will be out January 2012. Other than this series, Rusch has written too many books to count.

The main character is known as “Boss”, and she only has interactions with others when she feels it is necessary and operates everything on the job mostly by the book, since the few times she made exceptions and took risks, she lost people and the losses haunt her.

Boss makes her living scavenging wrecked spaceships and space stations, and studies some of the older ones for historical reasons. She also earns money taking tourists out to safer wrecks with historical value. Boss’s profession is similar to deep sea diving with its claustrophobia, dangers and no room for error. The only difference is instead of drowning, the slightest puncture to a space suit spells death in the vacuum of space.

The plot revolves around Boss’s discovery of an ancient 5,000 year old starship called a Dignity Vessel from an earlier earth culture, and the ship may have dangerous stealth technology on board that could change the balance of power in the that sector of the galaxy, which is a long ways from earth.

To find out, Boss hires a trusted team and leads an expedition to the ancient starship. She is extremely good at what she does and puts perfection and safety above being liked by others.

Once Boss and the team arrive at the Dignity Vessel, a string of events is set in motion linked to her childhood and the death of her mother, which is connected to the ancient stealth technology. That traumatic childhood event becomes the driving force of the novel.

I found the idea of diving into an ancient earth star ship with lost technology dating back thousands of years appealing and plan to read the second and third books in the series.

Thursday Thistle: A Fairy Tale

4 out of 5 Stars

Reviewed by Author C.V. Hunt

ABOUT:

Lethe: le the noun ‘le-the

1: A dark, forgotten land from which all of our fairytales originated.

2: A post-apocalyptic realm of twisted, magic wielding royalty locked in battle with a race of technologically superior Guardians (who seek to snuff out magic forever).

3: The world Thursday Thistle has journeyed to in order to locate Princess Monday, one of seven paranormal princesses each named after a day of the week.

In a world where speaking with “wise men” is more like dealing with tech support and romance can be deadly Thursday will have to contend with: the wicked cannibal queen, a zombie grizzly bear, wee werewolves, robot laser-shooting mermaids, a steampunk tortoise, and a Zen archer monkey.

Additionally, she will meet the Schumacher Hound and find a haunted Halloween cuckoo clock temple and that’s just the beginning in this tale of whimsical wandering in the dreamlike tradition of Alice in Wonderland.

Review:

Thursday Thistle is a teen girl living with her loving widowed father, and two ungrateful step-sisters that treat her badly. On a night when she is left alone in the house, she is visited by a strange two headed mouse that beckons her to follow without delay.

She had twisted and turned across a countless number of streets only to reach this place. A place where the streetlight oozed down, a greasy yellow spot on the asphalt and the two-headed mouse, which resembled a swirling oil slick, hurried across the lighted spot and down the hill. It went down into hell. No, that wasn’t right. It was colder, quiet, an unknown journey into the bowels of the world, down into long forgotten places where nobody walked, but sidewalks still remained.

Once Thursday has entered into this strange new land he is greeted with a nursery rhyme every time she tells someone her name:

Me-O-My Monday is missing and Thursday had come again.

With what scarce information she can gather, there are seven princesses in this new land, and Monday is missing. She takes it upon herself to seek out what has happened to Monday in the hopes of find answers.

Along her journey she is runs into an assortment of strange creatures and characters including: a cannibal queen, a nymphomaniac princess, zombie bears, and insane wise men, just to mention a few. Beyond battling these creatures to find answers, Thursday finds herself battling strong sexual urges in the presence of the princesses when she meets them.

August V. Fahren does a wonderful job assembling a strange and horrifying world that gives Alice in Wonderland a run for its money. My only grip would be that there were areas that seemed left out, as if the author expected the reader to already now certain information, and it left me slightly confused in an already maddening world. Thursday seemed to know things without being told in other areas, but overall I think the story was great and very imaginative.

Thistle Thursday was an odd collage of every fairytale, mixed with horror. This is definitely not a fairytale I was told at bedtime, but my morbid fascination kept me wanting more.