Book Reviews

The more self-published books I read, the more despondent I get over the state of what now appears to pass for “writing” in general. With some (OK, most) of these books, you are sometimes forced to wonder if it isn’t a case of reader bias brought about by shoddy packaging. It seems that it would go without saying for a self-publisher to go out of his way to make sure that he spends just as much effort on the design and layout of his novel as he has supposedly spent on writing the prose. But as any of us who […]

The concept that “Writers should show, not tell,” may be a bit  overused. The basic premise of show don’t tell is that you can better inspire empathy for a character if you shows what a particular moment feels like, rather than just saying: He was sad.  That sentence will convey nothing if there’s no context illustrating that sadness.  However, if a writer is too strict about showing and not telling, there’s the potential to only write around a subject, and this is not necessarily an accurate reflection of how people think or act. It can actually add some unreality to […]

There is nothing that separates this book from a book on a small independent press. Nothing. The cover is exquisite, the writing is crisp, well-edited, and moving. It’s not perfect, but none of my criticisms have anything to do with the professionalism of the book. When this book was sent to me, I wrote to the author that the cover evoked to me string theory and quantum foam – especially when coupled with such a lofty title as The Principle of Ultimate Indivisibilty. I was imagining a book that did for fractals what William Vollmann’s novel, The Atlas, […]

I was fully prepared not to like Within a Sheltering Darkness. The cover had that dubious computer-generated look, the title was vaguely embarrassing, and the first two chapters gave every indication that this would be a self-satisfied yawner. But damned if it didn’t turn out to be an interesting read!

Alex Boten is an astronaut, or anyway he wants to be, but he narrowly failed the tests that would have allowed him to become a mission pilot. Instead, he’s called upon to field-test a prototype spaceship, which malfunctions spectacularly on what appears to be a routine maneuver, and blam, […]

The cover blurb on this novel says, “…one of the most interesting and well-written books I’ve read in sometime [sic] – Sort of like The Da Vinci Code and just as disturbing. A ‘must read’ for anyone…” – Kaye Trout’s Book Reviews. Despite the typo in the blurb – which is unfortunate and the sloppiest thing in the book (check those blurbs, writers!) – the description of The First Atheist by Eric Polfliet is accurate. The novel does for Hinduism what The Da Vinci Code did for Christianity.

First off, it should be said that this is not really […]

Winter Games is a thriller, a “gripping tale of military cover-ups and international crime,” according to the description on the back cover. The novel blurs the edges between science fiction and thriller with the use of a female, and very helpful, robot named Sarah who comes to the aid of the human protagonist, Tim Sutton.

I read a lot of thrillers and mysteries written by such authors as James Lee Burke, Val McDermid, Michael Connelly, Craig Johnson, and others, so I was looking forward to reading Winter Games. I have to confess to not being gripped.

The back-cover plot […]

Sam Moffie’s No Mad (get it?) is (unfortunately, because I really was ready to like this novel) a perfect example of why self-published books are generally given a bad rap. This book is a mess. I suppose it could be left at that and No Mad could just be tossed onto the pile of the myriad other self-published tomes already littering the internet, but by the same token, it can also be said that having a strictly bad review on a site such as this one can, if nothing else, quiet any critics who seem to believe that self-published material […]

One Fine Season is a deeply felt novel of faith and the afterlife. And baseball.

The readers who will enjoy this book most may well be those who liked The Shack by William P. Young. Like that extremely popular novel, One Fine Season features lengthy conversations about religion, God, the universe, and spirituality. And baseball. Lots of baseball. Michael Sheehan has obviously given much thought to the nature of things, and he knows and loves baseball. So on several levels, the novel has a great deal going for it.

In order not to completely give away the story, I’ll quote […]