Rise of the Forgotten - Scott Baron

   2021; 363 pages.  Book 3 (out of 6) in the “Warp Riders” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Space Opera; Science Fiction; Space Exploration.  Overall Rating: 7½*/10.

 

    First the good news.  Nobody’s shooting at Sadira Perez’s spaceship anymore; their galactic enemies, the Ra’az Hok, have been vanquished; and their former taskmasters, the Chithiid, are now their allies.  So they’re relatively safe for the time being,

 

    Now for the bad news.  Sadira’s ship and crew have been warped to who-knows-where, which has rendered their star charts useless.  Once you’re become lost in the universe you tend to stay lost.

 

    However, the ship’s AI reports that’s there’s a planet up ahead, and it’s inhabited.  Chances are the beings are either human or Chithiid.  Maybe they have star charts of this part of the galaxy, and if so, maybe they’ll let Sadira take a look at them.

 

    Yeah, and maybe Murphy, he of “Murphy’s Law”, won’t pay them a surprise visit, as he is wont to do.

 

What’s To Like...

    Rise of the Forgotten is the third book in Scott Baron’s “Warp Riders” series.  He’s written five series in this setting, 32 books in all, and has posted a useful timeline of these on his Amazon webpage showing the chronology of these series.

 

    This series follows the “Clockwork Chimera” one, which I’ve read and reviewed in its entirety over the last four years.  That one chronicled the war between the Ra’az Hok and the Humans; this series focuses on the aftermath.  Sadira’s crew is still intact, and includes a pleasant mix of humans, cyborgs, Chithiids, and gender-juggling AI entities. 

 

    Rise of the Forgotten is a fine example of both Space Opera and First Contact genres.  Making contact with this unknown planet is desperately necessary, but prudence is required.  Are they friends or enemies?  Are the Ra’az Hok truly eliminated, or do pockets of them remain on far-flung solar systems?  Might the inhabitants down there know how to get back to Planet Earth or will they shoot first and ask questions later?

 

    To no one’s surprise, Sadira’s "first contact" strategy rapidly gets derailed, with thrills, spills, and mayhem all rapidly ensuing.  I read the Books 1&2 in this series back in 2021 so I very much appreciated the first couple of chapters giving a recap of events in those volumes.  I also enjoyed watching the creation of the “disguises” to be used to infiltrate into the planet’s inhabitants and chuckled over the acronym “ASAFP”.

 

    The ending is decent but not very twisty; tense but not very exciting.  Good triumphs over Evil, but some of Sadira’s objectives remain unfulfilled.  Oh well, there are another three books in the series to deal with that.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 145 ratings and 14 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.43*/5, based on 76 ratings and 11 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “He’ll be okay, Cap.  Hel’s a pain in the ass sometimes, but he’s no fool.”

    “He ditched his comms, Moose.  And we have no way to find either of them now.  It’s thousands of Chithiid, all dressed the same, all packed in there, and even if we knew roughly where he was, we can’t even get a clear visual from up here because of the atmospheric issues.”

    “I know, I know.  But it’s like taking a kid riding without training wheels.  Eventually, you have to trust them and let go.”

    She raised an eyebrow sarcastically.  “Most kids crash the first time, you know.”  (loc. 1592)

 

    “Things don’t always go according to plan, but if anyone’s going to take a risky gamble, I suppose the AI superbrain that processes data a bazillion times faster than any of us meat brains can is about the best odds you can get.”

    “Did you just call me a meat brain?” Moose asked.

    “Well, technically, it’s neurons, glial cells, neural stem cells, and blood vessels in addition to fat, but I think the spirit of the comment is valid,” Hump said with a laugh.  (loc. 4698)

 

Kindle Details…

    Rise of the Forgotten sells for $3.99 right now at Amazon.  The other books in the series, including the Book 1&2 bundle, go for either $0.99 or $3.99.  Scott Baron has several other series in e-book format, both in bundles and as individual stories, and mostly priced in the $0.99-$4.99 range.

 

“Smoke me a kipper, I’m heading home.”  (loc. 738)

    I counted 11 instances of profanity in the first 10% of Rise of the Forgotten, which I’d call a moderate amount.  None of them were f-bombs, but a couple of those did show up later on.  I don’t recall any adult situations.

 

    There’s not much else to quibble about.  There were no slow spots in the storytelling, but it was a quick-&-easy read, ideal for a day at the beach.  And maybe it even suggests a subtle concept: that regardless of ethnic, cosmic, and/or gender varieties, when it comes to surviving in the Universe, we are all in this together.  Now onto Book Four, Pandora’s Menagerie.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing.  My favorite cosmic deity, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, gets a brief nod here, and as a loyal FSM follower, I found that greatly satisfying.

Brightside - Mark Tullius

   2012; 304 pages.  Book 1 (out of 2) in the “Brightside” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Dystopian Fiction; Psychic Suspense.  Overall Rating: 7½*/10.

 

    They call us Thought Thieves.

 

    The more common word is “telepaths”.  There’s a fair number of us living quietly among you normal people.  Mostly, we’re just trying to avoid revealing to you that we can read your thoughts.  Because if the authorities find that out, they will immediately take the thought-thief into custody.

 

    My name’s Joe Nolan.  I’m one of those detainees.  My own father turned me in.  Can you believe that?!  The Boots (that’s what we call the thugs that snatch us away) grabbed me and took me to a place called “Brightside”, somewhere way up in the mountains.  The shrinks there will neutralize my thought-thieving brain and gradually reprogram me.   I’ll be a happy resident here.

 

    If I don’t kill myself first.

 

What’s To Like...

    Brightside is a dystopian thriller that imagines a world where a portion of its humans can hear the thoughts of others.  It reminded me of a very old Outer Limits TV episode, set IIRC on an outer-space mining operation, where a mutant suddenly becomes telepathic, much to the chagrin of his fellow miners.  Google-image “Outer Limits” for pictures from this episode.

 

    I liked the limitations that Mark Tullius puts on this “gift”.  Not everyone is blessed/cursed with being able to listen in on others’ thoughts.  The range of telepathy is limited; at one point our protagonist is amazed that a fellow thought-thief can “hear” thoughts from as far as 50 feet away.  Also, there are ways to mask or nullify one’s thoughts so that they can’t be read.  It’s an important resource that even thought-thieves need to survive.

 

    The story is told from the first-person POV: Joe’s.  Two telepaths can use both speech and thoughts to communicate with each other.  Mark Tullius puts all thoughts in italics, which makes it easy for the reader to follow along.  I liked the nod to Dune via the quip “Fear is the Mindkiller”.

 

    The ending is exciting, nail-biting, with several neat plot twists thrown in to keep you on your toes.  The storyline stops at a logical point.  All the plot threads do not get tied up, but I’m certain that Book Two, Beyond Brightside, will pick up and continue the narrative.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 3.8*/5, based on 307 ratings and 122 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.52*/5, based on 350 ratings and 63 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Brightside required us to work.  It wasn’t for the money.  The government funded most everything.  But Brightside needed us to keep busy, to feel productive.  They started the jobs program after the first month.  Too many Brightsiders had jumped off the mountain, took the easy way out.

    Quotas kept us from living in our heads.

    Busy people don’t kill themselves.  That was the idea, at least.  (loc. 416)

 

    Listen.”  She closed her eyes.  “What am I thinking?”

    I zeroed in, but heard nothing.  No mantra, no hum, just silence, like Danny.

    “You’re too far,” I said.

    Rachel pressed herself against me.  I listened.  Still nothing.

    She stepped back, curtseyed.  “I learned it in The Cabin.  That’s why they let me out.  Nothing but a blank slate.”

    “How?”

    “Something about the pills.  I can just shut it off now.”  (loc. 3567)

 

Kindle Details…

    At present, Brightside sells for $3.99 at Amazon, as does its sequel, Beyond Brightside.  Mark Tullius is also the author of a 20-volume “Interactive Adventure” series called Try Not to Die, with the entries priced at either $3.99 or $5.99.

 

They call our town Brightside because, as they like to remind us, things could be worse.  (loc. 96)

    I counted 62 instances of profanity in the first 20% of Brightside, which extrapolates out to a projected total of 310 cusswords.  There were also three rolls-in-the-hay and a couple references to “adult situations”.  True, any dystopian fiction will inherently be bleak and brutal, but this was excessive.

 

    The typos were few: straightjacket/straitjacket; BMW’s/BMWs; duffle/duffel and girl’s/girls.  I thought barbequing was also misspelled, but it turns our that’s correct.  My biggest gripe, along with the excessive use of profanity, was the lack of page numbers and the lack of “time remaining” for each chapter. 

 

    Some reviewers thought the story’s tone was too dark.  Well, it is, but wouldn’t one expect this when reading dystopian fiction?  Paradoxically, the fact that readers were bothered by that means the author did an effective job of world-building.

 

    I think the main aim of Brightside was to show the reader what a terrifying world it would be if a portion of the population were telepathic.  Both the normal humans and the thought-thieves live in constant fear of being exterminated by the other faction.  Mark Tullius does a great job of creating a frightening world and I am eager to see how the storyline progresses in a second book.

 

    7½ Stars.

Lost Is The Night - Greg James

   2014; 174 pages.  Full Title: Lost Is The Night: A Grim Dark Fantasy Adventure.  Book 2 (out of 3) in the “Khale the Wanderer” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Dark Fantasy; Time Travel.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    Khale the Wanderer is a stranger in a strange land.  He seeks only shelter for the night, and if luck is with him, yon castle will take pity on him and let him sleep in the stable.  The castle guard that is approaching him will hopefully not try to kill him.

 

    “Master Khale, you are welcome to Castle Barneth.”  The guard somehow knows who he is?  Khale’s self-preservation reflexes go on full alert.

 

    “Come with me, if it pleases you.  The feast is begun and Lord Barneth awaits your company.”  Khale's jaw drops.  He, a lowly traveler, is on the guest list?  Surely this is a trap of some sort.  Can things get any weirder?

 

    “The feast is in your honour, and you are missed.”

 

What’s To Like...

    Lost Is The Night is the continuation of the journey of Khale, a sort of “Conan the Barbarian” protagonist.  It is the sequel to Under A Colder Sun, which I read a couple years ago, and is reviewed here.

 

    Despite the feast being already underway, there are priorities.  Khale is caked with dirt and foul odors from his journeying, and requests a bath, which the steward of Castle Barneth readily arranges.  The bathing amenities include Cacea, a beautiful maiden who will do the scrubbing of Khale.  We’ll let you guess whether other services are offered.

 

    The main storyline involves the subsequent adventures of both Khale and Cacea.  The book’s subtitle, “A Grim Dark Fantasy Adventure”, is quite apt.  The fantasy in this book, and indeed, this series, is not lighthearted, nor intended for kids.  Lord Barneth’s sigil is a red wheel with a crucified victim on it.  The tone of the book reflects that.

 

    I enjoyed the gradual evolution of Khale’s character.  He started out in this series a total anti-hero, but here we are seeing him learning to care about others and about the role he plays in the events unfolding around him.  Does he get to make his own decisions when Thoughtless Dark stands before him?  Or is he simply a meat-and-bones puppet on strings, being manipulated by a higher power?

 

    The ending is appropriately grim and dark, highlighted by an exciting fight scene.  None of the plot threads are resolved, but hey, that’s presumably what the next and final book, Hordes of Chaos, is for.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Goetic (adj.) : pertaining to black magic or necromancy.

Others: Xanthic (adj.); Foetor (n.); Benighted (adj.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.1*/5, based on 52 ratings and 16 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.82*/5, based on 38 ratings and 5 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Good evening, Master Khale.  I am Bartell, his Lordship’s steward, and I will attend to your needs.”

    Khale looked him over.  Dressed in blue-green silks, he looked, for all the world, like an over-embroidered cushion.  The wrinkles in his face wept dry tears of perfumed powder.  When the man smiled falsely at him, the Wanderer saw familiar signs of a life spent eating too many sweetmeats and loqma cakes.

    Rotten on the inside, fragrant as morning on the outside.

    He could taste the sin hanging in the air around this one.  (loc. 180)

 

    Murtagh was speechless as the nightmare thing before him finished pouring the last traces of itself from the bowl where it had been in repose.  The elongated mass rushed at him, a tide of black quicksilver moving across the chamber in a single, sinuous motion that consumed the space between them.  Its lipless mouth opened and continued to open, becoming a gaping wound that muttered to itself in the language of decayed silt and haunted mires.  (loc. 1638)

 

Kindle Details…

    Lost Is The Night sells for $2.99 at Amazon right now.  The other two books in the series go for the same price.  Greg James has several other series and standalone e-books available on Amazon, ranging in price from $0.99 to $2.99.

 

“Slow and predictable,” Khale mocked.  “You fight with too much honour.”.  (loc. 608)

    Surprisingly, I only counted eight cusswords in the first 25% of Lost Is The Night, although five of those were f-bombs.  There are several rolls-in-the-hay and references to three variations of the act of intimacy.  The experience on the red wheel is left to the reader’s imagination but not the outcome.

 

    The editing was good; I espied only one typo, “bows” instead of “boughs”.  As already mentioned, this book takes place immediately after the first book, and there are numerous back-references to events therefrom, so I’d suggest reading this series in chronological order and gearing up that you’re committing to reading all three books in the series.

 

    Finally, keep in mind the books in this series are all short.  The longest book is the first, at a mere 214 pages, and they get progressively shorter as the series continues.

 

    Nonetheless, I enjoyed Lost Is The Night.  It’s a fast-paced action-adventure tale with no slow spots, and the “grim dark fantasy” phrase in the subtitle let me know what to expect as far as R-rated material goes.  I’m curious to see how Greg James manages to resolve all the plotlines in a mere 163 pages of the final book, and will try not to wait two years to read the sequel.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing.  You’ll notice “time-travel” is listed as a genre for Lost Is The Night.  When you come to the end of the last chapter, you may, as I did, wonder where the heck the Time Travel was.  Not to worry, you still have the Epilogue to read.

Double Trouble - Mike Faricy

   2015; 231 pages.  Book 10 (out of 30) in the “Dev Haskell – Private Investigator” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Airport/Beach Read; Hard-Boiled Mystery; Private Investigator Mystery.  Overall Rating: 7½*/10.

 

    Business has been slow at Haskell Investigations.  Its owner and sole employee, Private Investigator Dev Haskell, has now been forced to take a second job: moonlighting as a collections agent for a Coffin Manufacturing Company whose customers sometimes default payments on what is going to be their final resting place.

 

    It only takes Dev one day to realize he’s not really cut out to persuade senior citizens to square away those debts for their death boxes.  But he likes the company owner, so on his way out, he recommends an old acquaintance who has experience in debt-collecting: Tommy Flaherty.

 

    Tommy is a “reformed criminal”, which is a nice way of saying he’s an ex-con.  He also has two sisters, Candi and Lissa, both of which Dev has slept with in the past.  During the same time period.  Until he mistakenly called out the wrong sister’s name at the height of passion.  But that was a while back, and it’s all water under the bridge, right?

 

    Oh jeez, Dev.  You still don’t know a thing about how the female mind works, do you?

 

What’s To Like...

    Double Trouble is the tenth book in Mike Faricy’s “Dev Haskell Private Investigator” series, which I’ve been reading in order so far.  It’s action-packed and a quick read.  Amazon says it’s 279 pages long, but it actually ends on page 227, with a bonus preview of the first eight chapters in the next book in the series, Yellow Ribbon, tacked on.  The tale is told in the first-person POV (Dev’s) and 57 chapters cover those 227 pages, so you’re never far from a good place to stop for the night.

 

    As is the norm in these tales, what starts out as an easy job—see the first excerpt, below—rapidly becomes more complicated.  Various items begin to disappear, such as coffins, ATMs (the whole machine, not just the cash), and some of Dev’s junk food supplies and t-shirts.  The police think someone even stole the license plate from Dev’s vehicle, but hey, it’s still there.

 

    It may be my imagination, but Dev seems to slowly be getting his act together.  He seems to spend a bit less time womanizing here (thank goodness Heidi is still around), and it appears he’s sharpening his Private Eye skills as well.  Even his bar-hopping seems to be curtailed a bit.

 

    Things build to decent, fitting, ending with a clever perp-revealing plot twist that I didn’t see coming, and with the baddies all getting their just desserts.  The final chapter is an epilogue, and adds one last comedic twist to the ending, which is appropriate for a Dev Haskell tale.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.3/5 based on 312 ratings and 72 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.14/5 based on 297 ratings and 20 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    “So, are you going to take the job?” Louie asked.

    “Sounds like I would be getting paid just to follow people around and see if anyone is into anything crazy.”

    “Sounds like a waste of time,” Louie said and sipped.

    “Probably, but now I’d be getting paid for wasting it.”

    “There you go, always looking at the bright side.”  (loc. 652)

 

    I called Leo, my locksmith, and told him I needed new front and backdoor locks.

    “Again?  Dev, didn’t we just replace those things about six months ago?”

    “Was it that long ago?”

    “You know, if you stopped handing out house keys to every woman who let you buy her a drink, you could maybe cut down on this.  I ought to put you on a monthly plan and just change the damn things every thirty days.”

    “You have a monthly plan?”

    “I was kidding, Dev.”  (loc. 1537)

 

Kindle Details…

    Double Trouble is currently priced at $4.99 at Amazon.  The rest of the books in the series are currently either $0.99 or $4.99.  Mike Faricy offers at least one e-book bundle of this series, and has several other series (Hotshot, Corridor Man, and Jack Dillon Dublin Tales) that have the same pricing structure.

 

“Want to come in for a glass of wine and stay for breakfast?”  (loc. 348)

    The profanity in Double Trouble is moderate; with 18 instances of a variety of "milder" cusswords in the first 20%.  There were zero f-bombs, which impressed me, although one showed up in the Yellow Ribbon preview.  Some “adult situations” were alluded to, but there was nothing lurid.  The tagline for this section is a good example.

 

    The typos are getting scarcer as this series progresses, but I still spotted about ten or so, including id/ID, discrete/discreet, Bout/’Bout, and skulls/sculls.  That last one made me chuckle.

 

    But enough of the quibbling.  Double Trouble is a fast-paced crime-mystery, chock full of humor and wit, over-the-top thrills-&-spills, and all-too-convenient timing of events.  Which means it’s an ideal book when you just want to be entertained and not have to cogitate too much.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing.  Late in the story, one of the characters is described as having an “egghead degree in chemistry”.  I happen to have a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemistry.  That description resonated with me.

Sprout Mask Replica - Robert Rankin

    1997; 350 pages. Book 1 in the “Completely Barking Mad Trilogy” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Humorous Absurdism; British Humour; Weird Fantasy.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    The butterfly effect is a famous component of Chaos Theory.  In a nutshell, it states that when a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, it in turn may be the cause of a tornado in Texas.

 

    The butterfly doesn’t realize this, of course, but it is intriguing to contemplate a small change in a system resulting in significant and unpredictable consequences down the line.

 

    But what if the inverse was also true?  A tornado forms in Texas, a butterfly in Brazil senses it, and instinctively flaps its wings to cancel out the disturbance.  Let's call him "the compensator”.

 

    Our protagonist here is such a compensator.  He has a pretty neat gift, eh?  Well, maybe not.

 

    Because what happens if/when the butterfly stops flapping its wings?

 

What’s To Like...

    Sprout Mask Replica is written mostly (but not completely) in the first-person POV.  The narrator’s name is not given, but he goes by many monikers, including “The Chosen One”, “The Compensator”, the “Mystical Butterfly of Chaos”, and “Dog Breath”.  Since one of his relatives is “Uncle Brian Rankin”, we may logically assume this is Robert Rankin writing his autobiography.

 

    The book is written in English, not American, so us Yankee readers will get weird spellings, such as plough and jewellery; as well as odd phrases, such as “bit of a kip”, “soldier of toast”, and the nifty word “niffy”, which is defined below.

 

    A number of Robert Rankin’s recurring characters are featured here, which you’d expect in his autobiography, including Fangio, Neville, Jim Pooley, John Omally, and the inscrutable “lady in a straw hat”.  And I think this is where Barry the Holy Guardian Sprout is introduced, who becomes a major recurring character.  A portion of his background is given in one of the excerpts below.

 

    In between (most) chapters, Robert Rankin includes some poetry, which I found to be quite entertaining.  I enjoyed sitting in on the “All Brentford Open Lying Contest”, chuckled at the mangled French, and was happy to see my favorite type of word puzzle, “acrostics”, get a brief mention.  The author’s music references are impressive, one of which, The Sonic Energy Authority, may set some sort of record for “most obscure” band ever.

 

    The ending is both witty and enigmatic, which is the norm for a Robert Rankin opus.  The Chosen One finishes his book and heads out for a swim.  A spaceship departs, but I have a feeling we haven't seen the last of it.  All historical paradoxes are repaired.

    Or are they?

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Niffy (adj.) : having an unpleasant smell (British slang)

Others: Sporran (n.); Micturating (v.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.3/5 based on 118 ratings and 30 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.70/5 based on 848 ratings and 21 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    In those days I had a lot of time for Fangio, although thinking back I can’t recall why.  Certainly the guy was fair, he never spoke well of anyone.  And when it came to clothes, he had the most impeccable bad taste I’ve ever encountered.  He suffered from delusions of adequacy and his conversation was enlivened by the occasional brilliant flash of silence.

    Once seen, never remembered, that was Fangio.  Many put this down to his shortness of stature, for as Noel Coward observed, “Never trust a man with short legs, brain’s too near their bottoms.”  (loc. 970)

 

    “I was supposed to be on the job.  Your Holy Guardian.”

    “He’ll forgive you, you’re one of his angels, after all.”

    “Well.”

    “Well what?”

    “Well, I never said anything about being an angel.”

    “You said you’re my Holy Guardian.  That’s an angel, isn’t it?”

    “Well, it can be.  For some people.  But there’s an awful lot of people on Earth.  More people than there are angels, in fact.  Look upon me as your little gift from God’s garden.”

    “What?”

    “I’m your Holy Guardian Sprout.”  (loc. 2483)

 

Kindle Details…

    Sprout Mask Replica currently costs $6.99 at Amazon.  Robert Rankin offers another 3 dozen or so “weird fantasy” e-books, generally in the price range of $2.99-$7.99, plus an autobiographical I, Robert, which costs $9.00.

 

“Run and waggle, chief, run and waggle.”  (loc. 3337)

    There’s very little profanity in Sprout Mask Replica; I counted just six “damns” in the first 50% of the novel.  Insertions of other cusswords are “cleaned up” via appropriately placed asterisks (example: sh*t).  A number of “adult situations” are alluded to, but there’s nothing lurid.

 

    Typos are rare: one gum/gym booboo and a couple of comma misuses.  The title reference occurs at 93% Kindle, although I’m still not sure what it signifies.

 

    Don’t even try to find a plotline for the first 20% of the book; there’s none there.  Fortunately, Robert Rankin still keeps you entertained with his wit, anecdotal asides, and wry British humour.  The plotline does show up later on.

 

    Veteran Robert Rankin readers will find Sprout Mask Replica satisfying, but if you’re never read any of his novels, don’t make this your introduction to him.  The Amazon blurb says this is the first book in the “Completely Barking Mad” trilogy; but I don’t think it’s necessary to read the books in order.  Robert Rankin is loose with the concept of “trilogy”—one of his contains only two books; another contains eight books.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last thing, a nice tidbit of the abundant wit in the story.  “My brother’s favourite number was 300.  Because if you turn 300 on its side it looks a bit like a bum pooing.”  It's true! Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

A Storm Hits Valparaiso - David Gaughran

   2011; 322 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Historical Fiction; War; South America.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    I don’t want to sound pedantic, but the phrase “American Revolution” is rather vague.

 

    For starters, it can refer to North, Central, and/or South America.  By the early 1800s, all those areas had experienced wars for Independence.

 

    The insurrections in South America were scattered throughout that continent.  Brazil was trying to gain independence from Portugal; everywhere else the European colonizer was Spain.  The most famous revolutionary leader down there was Simon Bolivar, and rightfully so.  Bolivia is named for him, and his “liberation area” includes territory from Venezuela down through Peru.

 

    In the lands south of there, Chile and Argentina, different leaders led the uprisings, most notably José de San Martin and an Irish dude named Bernardo O’Higgins.  You’ve probably never heard of either of them.

 

    A Storm Hits Valparaiso chronicles that part of the “American Revolution”, and will help you get acquainted with José de San Martin.

 

What’s To Like...

    There are six storylines to follow in A Storm Hits Valparaiso.  They focus on seven main characters, who are (along with their starting points):

    Catalina Flores (in Chile)

    Lord Captain Thomas Cochrane (in Scotland)

    Diego and Jorge Ramirez (in Argentina)

    Zé (in Brazil)

    José de San Martin (in Spain)

    Pacha (in Peru)

 

    Timewise, most of the story takes place in 1811-1822 CE, although the Epilogue extends that timeframe quite a bit, since it has a “whatever happened to . . .” format.  All of the main characters do a lot of moving around, which is not surprising since wars were underway throughout South America and Europe.

 

    The seven protagonists get more or less equal billing in the first half of the book, but gradually José de San Martin emerges as the primary one.  After checking in Wikipedia, I was pleasantly surprised how many real-life people and actual historical events get worked into the storyline.

 

    The text is delightfully sprinkled with Spanish colloquialisms, such as chica, puerca, aguardiente, campesinos, and claro; as well as some, erm, “colorful” terms, such as maricon, culos, bastardo, and putas.  We’ll let you look up the translations of those.  There’s also a smattering of Portuguese (quilombos) and French (Vive le Roi!  Vivent les Bourbons!), plus one English spelling (as opposed to American): offences.

 

    The ending brings closure to each of the six storylines.  Some of the protagonists are reunited; some have left South America; some have been laid to rest six feet underground.  Overall, things have changed in South America: the revolutionaries have gained the upper hand.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Scrivener (n.) : a clerk or scribe.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 3.6*/5, based on 189 ratings and 106 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.44*/5, based on 202 ratings and 49 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Let me make sure I’ve got this right.  Mr. Jackson has called a meeting with himself to see if he is going to increase the amount he is charging himself for such meetings."

    “If you want to put it like that, sir, but I assure you everything is above board.

    “We shall see.  Where is this meeting taking place?”

    “I’m afraid I’m not aware,” said the clerk.

    “Where is Mr. Jackson’s office?”

    “Which one?”

    “Either!”  (pg. 63)

 

    In the end, it didn’t matter; they didn’t care who he was or where he was from, as long as he signed up.  The recruiting officer gave Zé a short speech on the army and the war, which he only partly understood.  Spanish wasn’t that different from Portuguese, but everyone spoke so quickly, chopping words, running one sentence into the next.  Only one part was easy to understand.  The penalty for desertion was mentioned several times: muerte.  Death.  (pg. 117)

 

Kindle Details…

    It appears that A Storm Hits Valparaiso is no longer available in the e-book format I read it in.  The paperback version costs $25.59 at Amazon.  David Gaughran offers two other Historical-Fiction e-books at Amazon: Liberty Boy for $4.99, and Mercenary for free.

 

“A political priest is like a religious general; a castle with sails.”  (pg. 178)

    Profanity in A Storm Hits Valparaiso is a bilingual affair.  In addition to the Spanish words already mentioned, I counted eight cusswords in English in the first 50% of the book,.  There was one roll-in-the-hay later on.  That’s really pretty clean for a storyline chronicling the brutality of war in the 19^th century.

 

    A number of reviewers criticized the six different storylines in the book, finding it hard to remember who was doing what and where.  They have a point, but happily I keep notes while reading; so this was not a problem for me.

 

    I only caught a couple of typos, namely: back lads/back, lads, town?s/town’s, and reigned/reined.  Kudos to the editors, they did a fine job.  And although Valparaiso is one of many settings in the tale, it is not a major one, so I never did figure out why it rated being part of the title.

 

    But these are quibbles.  In World History classes in college, José de San Martin was for some reason my favorite South American revolutionary and I always wondered a.) why he didn’t get as much ink as Simon Bolivar, and b.) what ever happened to him.  Thanks to David Gaughran, I now have answers.

 

    Overall, I enjoyed A Storm Hits Valparaiso, primarily because it covers an important era in History that rarely gets any literary attention.  You might be a bit disappointed that, for most of the book’s fictional characters, the ending is not a “they lived happily ever after” scenario.  But that holds true for the historical characters here as well.  War is Hell.

 

    7½ Stars.  One last teaser.  At one point there is a “talking sword” in the storyline.  When’s the last time you read a Historical Fiction novel with one of those in it?

Daisy's War - Scott Baron

   2018; 366 pages.  Book 5 (out of 5) in the series “The Clockwork Chimera”.  New Author? : No.  Genre : Space Opera; Alien Invasion Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

 

    The first phase of the Great War is complete: Planet Earth has been liberated!  Now it’s time for phase two, the liberation of the Chithiid home planet Taangaar.

 

    The battle lines are drawn.  On one side are the Humans, the Cyborgs, and several AI’s operating spaceships.  Plus some Chithiid “rebels”, freed from their forced slavery when Earth was retaken, and ready to mete out some revenge.

 

    On the other side are the countless hordes of the Ra’az Hok bad guys plus a whole bunch of Chithiid “loyalists”, whose families are being held hostage by the Ra’az Hok.  Past experience has shown that the baddies will not hesitate to slaughter any and all captives for the slightest reasons.

 

    Both sides have some hidden resources up their sleeves.  Interestingly, some hidden assets of the good guys are even being kept secret from the rest of the good guys.  I wonder how that’s going to play out.

 

What’s To Like...

    Daisy’s War is the fifth, and final book in Scott Baron’s “Clockwork Chimera” series, wherein he faced a daunting task: to bring together a bunch of characters scattered throughout the galaxy (including the mysterious wunderkind Arlo), consolidate the forces of Good and then purge the baddies from two armed-to-the-teeth and hostile planets (if the Ra’az home planet can even be located), resolve the Sarah/Sarah dichotomy (say what?), and finally, give Daisy a much-needed rest.  Oh yeah, and accomplish this in less than 400 pages.

 

    Missions accomplished.

 

    It wasn’t easy.  It takes time for the armies and spaceships of the good guys to gather together into one cohesive fleet.  Warp drives can be persnickety and fragile.  AI’s may be super-intelligent but sometimes they're a bit lacking in common sense.  And while the Ra’az Hok may be slightly (but only slightly) behind technology-wise, they make up for that by having a decided numerical advantage in spaceships and fighting personnel.

 

    It was fun to see the Daisy/Sarah arrangement (cue the Pink Floyd lyrics “there’s someone in my head, but it’s not me”) finally be revealed to other interested parties.  Ditto for the Sarah/Finn relationship.  Several deceased characters for earlier books are surprisingly resuscitated, thanks to the AI smarts.  One of them plays a vital role in determining who wins and who loses.

 

    I enjoyed the tie-ins to at least three movies: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Terminator, and Back to the Future.  I have no doubt that Scott Baron's cinematic tastes are stellar.  The Fibonacci Spiral getting worked into the story was also a nice touch.  I’ll even look the other way about the one Hydrogen and two Oxygen molecules getting together to form water.  The ratio is the other way around, and they’re atoms, not molecules.

 

    Everything builds to a suitably exciting climax, where the tides of war swing from one side to the other a couple times before finally settling out.  The final chapter is in a “whatever happened to…” format, and I thought it was a fine way to end this saga.  The war is over, Earth begins to slowly rebuild itself, and some of the series' characters retire to start families.  Things close with a couple of heartwarming plot twists.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 446 ratings and 45 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.43/5 based on 369 ratings and 39 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Janky (adj.) : of poor quality; unreliable.

 

Excerpts...

    “You were dead, man.” Omar replied.

    “I know.  Bummer, right?”

    “So now you’re a computer?”

    “Technically, a one-of-a-kind AI, if you want to get nitpicky about it,” he replied.  “But there’s something I need to ask you all, and I need you to be upfront.”

    “Of course,” Sarah said.  “What is it, Gus?”

    Their AI friend paused for a moment for effect.

    “Be honest.  Does this ship make me look fat?”  (loc. 23121)

 

    “So how did you do it?”

    “Here’s the thing, Captain.  Sometimes, well, things just aren’t quite what they seem.  And other times, they’re exactly what they seem, but even then they might not be.”

    “I’m not following you,” he said, confused.

    By the expressions on everyone present’s faces, he wasn’t alone in that regard.

    “Okay, I’ll break it down as basically as I can, but forgive me if I slip into a tangent here and there.  It’s been a long day, and I’m wicked sleep-deprived.”

    “Aren’t we all?” Celeste said with a little laugh.  (loc. 24304)

 

Kindle Details…

    Daisy’s War is priced at $3.99 at Amazon right now.  The other four books in the series are all in the $0.99-$3.99 range, and there is a 5-book bundle, comprising the entire series, for only $7.99, which is the format I’m reading.

 

“Basically, you downloaded yourself to yourself just before you blew yourself up.”  (loc. 20003)

    The profanity rate continues its steady decline for the series, which is a plus.  I counted just 11 cusswords in the first four chapters (ergo, 10% of the 40 chapters) of the book.  Previous cuss rates for the first 10% were 15 (Book 4), 20 (Book 3), 15½ (Book 2, extrapolated), and 27 (Book 1).

    There were a couple typos, such as clean-off/clean off; they/the; and queens/queen’s, but they weren’t a distraction.

 

    My gripes were the usual for this series.  Clockwork Chimera is first and foremost a Space Opera series.  Yet too many pages are devoted to making plans and discussing relationships, particularly in the first parts of each installment.  Here, the first eleven chapters dragged for me.

 

    To be fair, once the plans are set and the attacks get underway, there’s action aplenty.  Alas, dei ex machina (the plural of deus ex machina.  I had to look that up.) arise all too frequently.  One unexpected miracle is okay.  Maybe even two.  Here there were six.  That’s way too many.

 

    But these are personal opinions only.  If you happen to like your Sci-Fi Adventure-Intrigue stories heavy on the Intrigue, you’re going to love this series.  Ditto if your heroes get rescued time and time again by incredibly-timed luck.

    So just put your thinking brain to sleep and enjoy a story about Daisy and her friends saving Planet Earth, Planet Taangaar, and the rest of the Universe to boot.  You'll still be entertained.  I was.

 

    7½ Stars.  Scott Baron has penned at least four other Sci-fi Space Opera series, and this is the first one I’ve read to completion.  Up next is the Deep Space Boogie series, which I started reading a couple years back, by getting drawn in by Daisy’s adventures.