John Staughton, Senior Reviewer

Review: C Square by Paul Barone & Bear Kosik

★★★★

Imagining what the world will be like in the future is the core of science fiction writing, and while those possibilities are not always pleasant to face, they are always based – in part – on the direction our society is currently moving. In C Square, the world has certainly evolved beyond what we know now, but it is not so distant to be unbelievable. Authors Paul Barone and Bear Kosik delivers a thrilling story of genetic perfection.

Normal people are known as Organics in this world, while Chosen are those that have been partially genetically engineered with […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2017-05-19T11:18:37+02:00April 18th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: The Ishtar Cup (The Bart Northcote Series #1) by Murray Lee Eiland Jr.

★★★★★

As far as private investigator novels go, there are certain expectations and traditional themes that seem to always pop up. There is usually a mysterious femme fatale, a gruff PI who marches to the beat of his own drum, and enough twists to keep a reader tearing through the pages.

In The Ishtar Cup, Book 1 of the Bart Northcote Series by Murray Lee Eiland Jr., some of these commonalities seem to appear almost instantly, but with a flavor all its own. While there is comfort in convention, this book also offers a different tone and a more […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2020-12-23T05:49:06+02:00April 4th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Crime Fiction Book Reviews, Detective Fiction Book Reviews, Noir Book Reviews|

Review: Once Upon a Lie by Michael French

★★★★½

In Once Upon a Lie, author Michael French takes a long, hard look at the binary universe in which we live – rich or poor, black or white, woman or man – and explores how those ideas change and grow within two young people on the cusp of adulthood. It’s a timely and powerful tale of race and love.

These two characters, Jaleel and Alex, couldn’t be more different than one another if they tried, and the early chapters paint starkly different portraits of their lives in the same overlapping bubble of a city. The marvelously detailed and […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2017-04-04T10:24:10+02:00April 4th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Literary Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Shredded by Charles O’Donnell

With a splash of Orwellian dystopia and a frighteningly timely plot, Shredded, the new novel from Charles O’Donnell, challenges the creature comforts we have come to love in our newly digitized world, and poses a terrifying question: What if privacy could be completely erased? In the not-so-distant future, the safety of anonymity has been eliminated, thanks to the introduction of the Worldstream, the near-perfect catalogue of every life and event available through the Internet of Things. Essentially, the Worldstream is social media, Big Brother and live-streaming all rolled into one, making anyone’s most intimate details vulnerable to invasion.

In […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2023-04-03T08:54:07+02:00March 30th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Dystopian Fiction Book Reviews|

Review: Skip’s Legacy by Edward “Skip” Biron

★★★★

It is the dream of most people to live a life worth writing stories about. In Skip’s Legacy, a memoir by Edward “Skip” Biron, readers are introduced to a remarkable man and his fast-paced, spontaneous and impactful life. The details that the author remembers from more than 5 decades of life make for an exceptional read, as though this were a journal, rather than a memoir. The small points of humor and philosophic musing also fill in the gaps and give readers time to reflect on a life truly well-lived.

After serving in the Navy as a radioman, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2017-05-02T08:40:23+02:00March 23rd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir Book Reviews|

Review: P.O.VEE (The Chronicles of VEE Book 1) by Denis Jay Klein

★★★★★

There are many things we disagree about here on Earth, but the fact that we are in a period of rapid technological advancement isn’t one of them. Human beings are doing things every day that would have seemed like something out of far-flung science fiction fifty years ago.

In the cleverly titled P.O.Vee by Denis Jay Klein, readers are flash-forwarded two decades into the future, when android technology is beginning to find its footing, and the first real attempts at artificial intelligence are being fleshed out. Klein is a masterful storyteller who paints the future in completely believable terms, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-04-29T12:16:52+02:00March 22nd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Science Fiction Book Reviews|

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, […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-04-12T14:17:18+02:00March 15th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, Science Fiction Book Reviews, Steampunk Book Reviews|

Review: The Diary of an Immortal (1945-1959) by David J. Castello

★★★★

In The Diary of an Immortal, author David J. Castello shows his skills as a wordsmith and creates an unforgettable narrative that looks at immortality from every possible side.

As a main character, readers can hardly ask for more from Steven Ronson, who begins as a hapless but heroic young man who stumbles upon something unimaginable – a formula that allows him to live forever. Readers are quickly taken away from the battlefields of WWII, but the fight is far from over. Ronson soon learns that chasing his every dream, without fear of failure or fatality, is not […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-01-24T19:47:01+02:00March 1st, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Fantasy Book Reviews, Historical Fantasy Book Reviews|