The Cestus Concern by Mat Nastos

Link to The Cestus Concern  on Amazon

Malcom Weir wakes up on an operating table. The last thing the army ranger can remember is going down in a helicopter in Afghanistan. He immediately realizes that he has been turned into a cyborg, full of self-repairing nanites, with  super-human strength and speed and metal arms that can transform into any configuration of blades. He escapes the secret government facility that created him, but the government considers him their property and would rather see him killed than go free.

You might feel like you’re heard this story before. The whole thing is pretty Hollywood movie. There weren’t any particularly original characters or plot twists. But it’s very well written, so it was a fun adventure.

This book is currently $3.99.

Proxy by P.S. Power

Link to Proxy on Amazon

Brian Yi is a college drop-out, couch potato, and video-gamer.  In his world, there are people called the Infected, who have superpowers but are afflicted with psychological drawbacks. One day Brian teleports, taking the place of a woman who is about to be murdered. The Infected thug trying to kill her beats Brian, who reappears in his apartment only for his roommate’s girlfriend to call the police, who take him away.

I love that the main character is a couch potato in the beginning of the book. He’s not good-looking, he’s overweight, he failed his over-achieving Asian parents… he’s just an average guy. His “superpower” is terrifying. He doesn’t have super-strength or anything to help him out, but he keeps getting thrown into situations where people are trying to kill him.  The fact that every superpower comes with some kind of psychological disorder makes a lot of sense to me.

There are a lot of really wonderful things about this book, and a lot of flaws, too.  The first part of the book was really strong, and I was going to give it a rating of 4 cupcakes, but I had to bring it down for several reasons. The first reason is the spelling and grammar mistakes. Some of them were just typos, such as using the word “grim” instead of the word “grime”. The author also makes grammatical errors, such as “your” instead of “you’re”. It kind of broke my heart. This book has so much potential! Why isn’t it proof-read properly?

The second reason is that this book is just too long-winded. There was a point when I thought the story was neatly wrapped up and coming to a close, and then I noticed I was only 26% into the book. I don’t have anything against long books,  but in this case it didn’t work. There are long sections in which Brian is just working out, and he spends about half of the book in the hospital. I really like that the author includes these things, so that he doesn’t just instantly get into shape or never gets hurt, but it’s too much. This book seems like a lot of shorter stories and problems put in a row, instead of one long story arc. The author could probably split it in two or even three separate books.

With more proof-reading and some careful editing down, this could be fantastic.

This eBook is currently 99 cents!

Shadewright by Dean McMillin

Link to Shadewright on Amazon

The strongest thing this book has going for it is the concept, which I liked. The main character Phantist is a Shadewright, which means he can touch shadows and animate them into shapes and stories. His goal is to be a master artist like his idol, Lasander. There aren’t very many fantasy books where the main character just wants to be an artist.

My main problem with this book is that it doesn’t seem to go anywhere. It sets up the scene and the characters and describes Phantist’s childhood. There is a villain, whom he has several encounters with, but nothing is resolved in the end. I know that the author is setting up for a series, but there wasn’t enough hook to keep me reading.

My other problem with this book was a scene in which the villain skins a cat and hangs a little girl. Being both fond of cats and little girls, it really bothered me and I almost stopped reading. So sections of the book were not enjoyable to read.

This eBook is currently 99 cents.

Haven by A.R. Ivanovich

Link to Haven on Amazon

Wow. So I’ve been reading countless eBook samples, trying to find a book that had that certain spark, and I finally found it. The first thing that caught my interest was the beautiful cover, but there is a great story behind it as well.

Katelyn Kestrel can find anything. All she has to do is want it, and she walks straight to it. She lives in isolated Haven Valley, where everybody has silvery eyes and first and last names that start with the same letter. The people of Haven have hidden from the outside world, but why? What is out there? Nobody will answer her question, so she sets out to find the forbidden path that will lead her out. Not even threats that looking for it will get her arrested can change her mind.  On the other side she finds a young man, Rune, who is dying alone from his wounds. Rune is a Dragoon, a person with magical Ability who was drafted into the War of the Princes. Katelyn can save him, but does she dare bring him into Haven? Or should she venture into the outside world for help?

This book reminds me of several best-sellers, for instance Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (which I absolutely love), and even The Hunger Games. My only complaint is that we don’t get to see more of the world than we do, but I love the ending.

This eBook is currently only 99 cents.

Under the Stairs by John G. Stockmyer

Link to Under the Stairs on Amazon

John (the main character’s name, as well as the author’s) is an English professor with no family and few friends. He buys a run down house and restores it, only to find out that his house is considered haunted, and that cats have a habit of disappearing if they get inside. When his cat, Cream, disappears into the storage area under the stairs, he comes to the  conclusion that she has crossed into another dimension. So what does he do? He decides to rescue her, of course. (Have you ever heard of better character motivation? I would follow my cats to another dimension to rescue them, too.) So John ends up in Stil-de-grain, a country of magic where he is mistaken as a powerful mage.

I could tell immediately from the first page that Stockmyer was a good writer, but I was in suspense to see if the story would be good too. The one thing that I did notice was that he really likes exclamation points! For instance, he will write a whole paragraph where every sentence ends in an exclamation point!

So my conclusion? This is a pretty good book, though not the most original. The story of a regular person stumbling into another world or dimension where they become somehow powerful is not a new one. I was reminded strongly of L.E. Modesitt’s Spellsong Cycle, which is a great series, though there are countless other examples. What I did like about this book was the sci-fi aspects of it. The magic comes from light and static electricity, and the world is build out of “bands’ of color. I won’t be reading the next book in the series, mainly because while John himself is a likable character, there just weren’t any characters in Stil-de-grain that he had any kind of connection with. Even John himself doesn’t really care which world he’s in.

This eBook is currently free to download. At the end of this book the author offers the second book for free as well.

Hmm. Two and a half cupcakes? No, I’ll round up to three.

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson

Link to The Emperor’s Soul on Amazon

Can we talk about Brandon Sanderson for a minute? Brandon Sanderson is one of my absolute favorite authors. You’ve probably heard of him, but if you haven’t, he finished the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan after the author’s death (which I haven’t read, actually) and his own work has been best-selling as well. I love his books Elantris, Warbreaker, The Mistborn Series, The Way of Kings, as well as this novella, The Emperor’s Soul. This won’t be the last time you’ll see him on my blog. I’ll definitely be reviewing more of his books, though they fall into the “Full Price but Worth It” category. He builds amazing worlds and always comes up with unique systems of magic for them.

I’m starting with The Emperor’s Soul because at $4.99, it’s priced lower than the other books and is novella length. So if you want to dip your toe in, this is a good place to start.

Shai is a thief and a Forger, which means that she can change the nature of something or create a perfect replica – of furniture, priceless treasures, or even people, though it’s forbidden. When she’s caught in the Palace replacing the Moon scepter with a copy, she discovers that the Emperor has been attacked by an assassin and left comatose. His advisors need her to replicate his personality and stamp it back onto his body. If she can’t do it, she’ll be executed. If she does by some miracle pull it off, they might execute her anyway…

Click to see larger!

Also, how about this cover? Who is the artist of this? It’s amazing. I can’t figure it out, does anybody know?

Howl’s Moving Castle Series by Diana Wynne Jones

Link to Howl’s Moving Castle on Amazon

I bought the kindle version of this book for $1.99. I know what you’re thinking – Howl’s Moving Castle for $1.99? That can’t be! Well, you’re right. I went back and checked and it’s now $7.99, so it must have been some kind of promotion. But whatever. They had no business giving this book away so cheap. It’s a classic. If you haven’t read it, you should.

What is this book about? A F*CKING MOVING CASTLE. And witches and wizards and fire demons. I was surprised how different it was from the movie. If you’ve seen the movie and you think you know the story, you don’t (though I never did fully understand that movie… I got confused when they start chasing falling stars and Howl sprouts feathers and flies around fighting things in the air. The book explains things better).

Quick Summary: Sophie, who works in a hat shop, runs into the Wicked Witch of the Waste, who turns her into an old lady. What does she do? She packs her bags and meanders off into the Waste where she runs into the infamous Howl’s Moving Castle and barges in to become his cleaning lady.

If you have read Howl’s Moving Castle, but not the sequels, they are also fantastic.

The Castle in the Air is about a carpet merchant who buys a magic carpet and falls in love with a princess, only she is stolen by a Djinn.

The House of Many Ways is about a girl who takes care of her Uncle’s house, only he’s a wizard and the house if full of magical doors. That book also has freaky creatures called the Lubbock which look like giant insect people and they can lay eggs in your body by just touching you. Um… yeah.

On a side note, there are many great Diana Wynne Jones books available as eBooks on Amazon. I’ve been reading my way through them.

Five cupcakes? Can I give more cupcakes?

Enrcypted by Lindsay Buroker

Link to Encrypted on Amazon

So I mentioned in my last post that Lindsay Buroker has another series I like, and I thought I should make a separate review for the first book Encrypted. I’m not as manic about it as am I am about the Emperor’s Edge books, it is still awesome. Set in the same world as The Emperor’s Edge, it shows the same Empire, but from an outsider’s point of view. Tikaya is a code-breaker that turned the tide during the war between the Turgonian Empire and her own country. The Turgonians eventually show up and kidnap her to use her intellect to solve their own problems. The romance is strong in this book, between Tikaya and another prisoner, a disgraced Turgonian officer,  but I actually like it.

By the way, I love female authors that leave put their full name on their books, and don’t hide their gender. What’s that all about, J.K. Rowling?

Lindsay Buroker wrote a short story that comes right after the book, called Enigma. I also read that she’s working on the sequel, and that it will come out before the next Emperor’s Edge book.

This eBook is currently available for $3.95.

The Emperor’s Edge Series by Lindsay Buroker

Link to The Emperor’s Edge on Amazon

Okay, so I might be a little bit obsessed with this series. I might have read all of the additional side stories (it’s so awesome that she writes those).

I’m not into romance novels, at all, so I like it when there is very subtle romance. And believe me, this is SUBTLE. It takes several books before you even realize there’s a relationship going on. But I love it… Sicarius and Amaranthe! The assassin and the ex-cop (or the book’s version thereof). Extra bonus– a love triangle with Sicarius’s son.

But mainly this series is about action, and hilarious characters (Maldynaldo the butt-kicking male escort) , and steam-punkiness, though the author says she didn’t know what steam-punk was when she wrote it. I give her that one. I wrote a story when I was younger that is totally steam-punk, before I’d ever heard of it. Not that I’m any good at writing steam-punk. You have to have some mechanical understanding to write good steam-punk. Me? Not so much.

Quick Summary: Amaranthe is an enforcer (cop) who accidentally stumbles into the middle of a plot against the Emperor. The Emporer crushes on her so his advisors send her out to seduce Sicarius, an infamous assassin, in an attempt to get her killed. Instead she recruits Sicarius to help the Emperor.

Here’s the whole series so far: The Emperor’s Edge, Dark Currents, Deadly Games, Conspiracy, and Blood and Betrayal. There’s one more coming. I can’t wait for the last book! She also wrote several novellas that fit between the books: The Assassin’s Curse, Shadows Over Innocence, and Beneath the Surface. I just finished Beneath the Surface and if you don’t read it, you’re really missing part of the story. I’m not quite sure how she can put such important plot points into something that isn’t one of the main novels. How is that going to work with the sixth book? Will she tack it onto the beginning, or do a recap? Or just casually mention “Oh yes by the way these two side characters have had sex now. It happened after the fifth book and before the sixth, you may have missed it.”

I also enjoyed her other book Encrypted, to which I’m awaiting the sequel.

The Emperor’s Edge eBook is currently free to download!

Five kick-ass cupcakes!!!