BOOK: The Gallowglass

by benmweilertNo Comments
The Gallowglass Year: 2019 Author: Jason Henry Evans Length: 337 pages In trying to expand the genres that I read, I ventured into historical fiction with The Gallowglass. Set in Ireland in the late 1500s, this book was quite educational for a time and place about which I knew very little. Sure, it has modern morals thrust into a historical context that makes them seem out of place, but that conflict between what we know as right and what the majority would have done is part of its charm. The action is intense and the details are impeccable, but the proofreading needed some work. The Gallowglass doesn’t shy away from the adult nature of war and romance in this era. Its injuries are brutal and the sex is somewhat explicit. Racism and sexism are also on full display, as you’d expect of the English from the 16th century. The realism felt authentic, and the clearly researched details of everything didn’t seem to impede the story...
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BOOK: Expeditions of the Mantis (2019)

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Expeditions of the Mantis Year: 2019 Author: Jim Henderson Length: 260 pages Sequels are interesting creatures. While the onus of the first book of a series is to lay out some ground rules of the universe and introduce us to the main characters, any follow-on books should dive a little deeper into the characters and explore some of the conflicts that drive the universe. Expeditions of the Mantis attempts a bit of the latter when compared to Jaunts of the Mantis, but ends up falling into old patterns by the end of the book. If anything, I have more questions about this universe now than when I started, since Expeditions of the Mantis only scratched the surface of some fascinating topics. Unfortunately, while the crew of the Mantis was the most interesting aspect of Jaunts of the Mantis, the dynamic didn’t work as well in this sequel. If anything, the inability to add in a strong “third character” (a role held by the preacher in the previous book) highlighted how one-dimensional these characters...
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BOOK: The Bridge (2018)

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The Bridge Year: 2018 Author: Jim Frishkey Length: 240 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY*** I’ll be honest when I say that I entered the giveaway for this book based on the attractive cover and the premise. Unfortunately, the book delivered on neither (it says it’s a “mystery,” but it had none of that either). There are too many amateur mistakes in this book for me to take any of it seriously. Some of these mistakes are so frustrating that I can’t honestly recommend this book to anyone. It’s a bit sad because a story featuring the spawn of Hitler would probably be pretty interesting. Maybe these interesting stories were in the previous four books, but judging on the errors in this one, I don’t want to read them. Let’s start with the formatting: it’s a mess. Right-aligned text, odd gaps in the paragraphs, and even some text that’s gray for some reason. Moving on to the proofreading errors, they are sprinkled enough...
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BOOK: Time of Destruction (2015)

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Time of Destruction Year: 2015 Author: John C. Meyer Length: 386 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE AUTHOR*** Having written a time-travel novel myself, I can understand how difficult continuity can be to ensure the story makes sense. In Time of Destruction, the continuity of events is certainly there, but it lacks in so many other areas as to make it almost unreadable. While the continuity of the timeline was well thought out, the continuity of details was not. From limiting the “time bubble” to 30 minutes of air, then allowing an antagonist to exist in the space for a full hour, to inconsistencies in the spelling of minor characters’ names (even on the same page), Time of Destruction has a good story buried deep within a mess of simple writing errata. Right from the start, the format of the book highlights the author’s lack of quality control. From the right-hand pages having the page number in the gutter margin to the right-aligned text to...
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