Bouncer by Kipling Peterson

After beginning this blog, I was asked by one of my boyhood friends if I would review his book.  I wrestled with this request because when I looked for his book, I found it for $17.99 on Amazon.com.  This was a lot more than the mission statement of this blog allowed, so for several months I mulled over how I was going to get his book to read it and give a review.  Luckily I searched Amazon.com again a few weeks ago and found the paperback price had dropped to $1.28.  This made my decision to purchase the book an easy one.  Before giving my review and as a matter of disclosure, Kipling Peterson and I are friends.  We grew up together and we remain in contact today.  I asked him when I started this blog to read my reviews and provide me feedback and he has provided me comments via email.

Bouncer is in the fictional genre of fantasy set in the current day.  It is the story of Georgell Butler who has worked several years as a bouncer and at the outset of the book is the head bouncer at Club Momentum.  Because of a tragic trauma at this club, he develops the ability to see apparitions which he coins guardians and protectors.  These apparitions can be either good (protectors) or evil (guardians).  He also finds out that a former bouncer from Club Momentum and his friend has come under the influence of one of these evil guardians.  The story tells of Georgell's attempts to learn more about his ability to see these apparitions and to understand how these apparitions work.  The story is further colored by the scrapes and fights associated with bouncing at clubs, and dealing with evil guardians when they appear at his club.

While reading this book, I had some nostalgia because I recognized traits of characters derived from people I knew and grew up with.  I also saw elements of setting from our childhoods.  The story was filled with colorful descriptions that set the mood of night club life and the bouncers that work in it.  The author has a knack for bringing as many senses into the telling of the story as possible.  His sensory descriptions filled my mind with the locations he was describing.  Further the characters were well developed and I felt I knew them and some of their concerns in their lives.  I had a good feel for each main character's personality.  While the plot has religious overtones, the author doesn't try to push personal religious beliefs on the reader.  He frames the story as a battle of good verses evil.  I heartily recommend Kipling Peterson's first foray into writing and look forward to his next novel.

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

Once again I found a book to read at my favorite location, from the giveaway rack at my local library.  I was surprised to find this book there since it was made into a movie recently.  Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter is vampire fantasy fiction mixed with historical fiction.  It is set just prior to the American Civil War in the 1800's.  It is written as if a researcher is describing Abraham Lincoln's life from secret journals he has been provided.  It begins in Lincoln's childhood and proceeds through his life until his assassination.

In Lincoln's early life he experiences several tragedies which drive him to hunt vampires. Namely the death of his mother and the death of his sister.  He later finds from his father that these acts were perpetrated by vampires and thus vampires become his mortal enemies.  During his second kill of a vampire, he is nearly killed by his intended victim, but he is saved.  His savior happens to be a vampire who nurses him back to strength.  This vampire is Henry and he and Lincoln forge an alliance to kill vampires.  Henry provides names of vampires to Lincoln and Lincoln dispatches them.  As the story progresses, Lincoln discovers how vampires assisted in the founding of America, but becomes convinced that they must all be destroyed.

I whizzed through this book in a couple of days.  It was a easy read and I really enjoyed the first and second parts of the story.  I like the development of Lincoln into a killing machine.  The third part is Lincoln's presidency.  It is a necessary part of the story, but it is not as exciting or fund to read as the first two parts.  The writing is good with the author providing commentary to the journal entries in third person.  The journal entries are of course in first person having been "written" by Lincoln.  There are only a couple instances where the author mixes this up and provides the commentary in first person and journal entries in third person.  I found very few other grammatical errors.  The introduction provides the story of how the author came into possession of the journals.  I found the introduction tedious.  It didn't build into the story and it isn't necessary to read it.  I recommend you do not.  I recommend the first two parts of the story.  It is fun to read about a president in his youth galavanting through the countryside killing the undead.  You will probably, like me, read the third and final part of the book like I did.  It isn't bad, but it isn't as fun as the earlier parts.  Overall, as a story that portrays one of America's beloved presidents as a ruthless vampire hunter, I recommend this book.

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The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien

It has been quite some time since my last entry.  I haven't had many occasions to read since the holidays, but I came upon The Children of Hurin while exiting my local library and saw it in the giveaway shelf.  I am a big fan of J.R.R. Tolkien having read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring series as a teenager, so there I was with a free book from an author that I like.  Who could ask for more?

The Children of Hurin is a story written by J.R.R. Tolkien and it is referenced in his other published works.  His son Christopher Tolkien is the literary executor of his estate.  Christopher Tolkien edited the work for publishing as he also did with The Silmarillion, The Unfinished Tales, and The History of Middle-earth.

This story is set in Middle-earth; the same setting as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  This story predates these stories.  It is a story of the son of a human lord who fights the evil Morgoth and is captured in a great battle known as The Battle of Unnumbered Tears.  The story follows the life of Turin, the son of the lord Hurin, and his trials, adventures, and heartache.  Turin shows great capacity to lead and fight, but his good qualities are countered by his brashness.

This story is a tragedy.  It was great to read something that doesn't necessarily have happiness and good luck for the protagonist throughout the story.  The beginning of the book was very difficult to read.  The story doesn't have the same feel of Tolkien's other more famous works.  Thinking about it, the closest experience I can equate reading it to is reading the Old Testament.  It had several paragraphs describing genealogies.  There were also times that use of pronouns were confusing.  These things were all tools in the development of the story and I thought it fit the story well.  Some readers will get tired of this though.  This said, I recommend this book.  Know that sticking it out for a couple chapters will be worth it in the end.

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Spinward Fringe Broadcast 2 and 3 (Resurrection and Awakening) by Randolph Lalonde

The second and third editions of the Spinward Fringe story, Resurrection and Awakening, were combined to make this novel.  It is set again in the distant future, in the Milky Way Galaxy.  This story opens with us following what seems to be the hero from the First Light Chronicles, except Jonas Valent has lost all his memories and now goes by the name Jacob Valence.  Jake is the captain of a bounty hunting and reclamation ship.  In the beginning of the story it is discovered that Alice has freed him from stasis and set him on his journey.

This story is written in the third person narrative making it, stylistically, different from the first story.  It is a good change because this story is slightly darker than its predecessor.  This gives you the impression of a slight distance from the lives of the characters.  Again, I enjoyed the character interactions as much as the first novel.  Following the life of a space bounty hunter was new and exciting.  The concept of behemoth corporations continued, and several concepts were introduced that added to the story.  Concepts such as artificial and biological intelligence and their differences and the morality of working without question were present.

This book had slightly more grammatical errors than the previous book.  I also noticed a time or two where the author slipped back into first person narrative.  For me these errors were within acceptable limits.  None of these errors detracted from the story or my reading experience.

I enthusiastically recommend this book.  I purchased this book from Amazon.com for $2.99 which is its current price.  It can also be found on Smashwords.com for the same price.

Origins (Spinward Fringe) by Randolph LaLonde

Origins (Spinward Fringe) is a science fiction story set in the Milky Way galaxy in the distant future (I estimate 500-2000 years in the future).  It was originally written as three novellas (Freeground, Limbo & Starfee Port) and comprised the First Light Chronicles.  It is the story of a starship crew on a secret intelligence mission to go into the galaxy and collect, purchase, or steal advanced technology.  They also have an added mission of forging alliances with helpful governments if the occasion presents itself.

The liked the perspective used by the author.  The story is written in first person and this gives the feeling of being in the main character's shoes.  The story is set in a galaxy where corporations are the main forms of government.  The corporations own planets, solar systems, and entire sectors of space.  The story provides an example of corporate evolution and some of the problems posed through entities controlling large areas of space with profit as the main driver for decisions.  I really enjoyed this viewpoint and I liked the challenges this caused for our protagonists.  The story was full of action and the opening of the story brought us into the action from the very beginning.  Additionally, the story was full of suspense.  I generally knew that the story would continue because there was more book to read, but it had enough twists to keep me guessing how it would continue.  I loved the characters; I sympathized with the protagonists during their difficulties and hated the antagonists as they set about trying to harm the heroes.  I also enjoyed the difficult decisions and follow on actions taken by the heroes to get out of difficult predicaments. 

One reason I like reading science fiction is author descriptions of how technology works.  The description of technology was cursory, but sufficient to understand its purpose and use.  The author placed more emphasis on the development of characters and scenes over the description of technology.

This is one of my favorite books.  It brought me to one of my favorite series - the Spinward Fringe series.  I purchased this book from Amazon.com for $0.00 and this is the current price.  You can also get this book and other books from this author on Smashwords.com listed as Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins.  I fully recommend this title and its sequels.