Book Reviews 2014 (very long)
Sorry for the long delay with these, I was working on several things at once, including the Kickstarter reward art, so it took me much longer than usual. These are all books that I read in 2014. A lot of them were published this year, but a number weren’t, so if you have any doubt about how current something is, check it out on Amazon. A lot of these books reside in multiple genres (most of the furry books could count as SF or fantasy, for example), but I tried to put them in the genre they’re most identified with. As usual, these are strictly my opinions, so your mileage on any particular book may vary.
ªªªªª Excellent-one of the best
ªªªª Very good, would recommend to anyone
ªªª Good, solid (if not exceptional) entertainment
ªª Readable, but with major flaws
ª Sucks
Furry or animal-related
ªª Otters in Space by Mary E. Lowd
On a future earth controlled by dogs, cats are a discriminated against underclass, and otters have made their home in space. Kipper is a worker-drone cat who hears vague rumors about a cat haven city in space, and when her sister suddenly vanishes Kipper decides (without a lot of evidence) that she went to the cat have city and decides to follow her. This wasn’t a bad book by any means, but I had some trouble with how easily the protagonist finds people to help her even though they have no strong motivation to do so. There was also a bizarre sequence where the cat has to spend weeks immersed in oxygenated water without any apparent ill effects. Even if you can breathe, being immersed 24-7 would have nasty side-effects on the skin. But still, not a bad book, it just has some issues.
ªªª Five Fortunes by Various, edited by Fred Patten
I generally don’t read anthologies because I like a longer story, but since I got a copy of this for free, why not?
Phil Geusz : Chose People: Okay, I’ll be honest and admit that I couldn’t finish this particular story. I just couldn’t buy the whole premise of people turning themselves into anthro rabbits, and that regular humans resent them because only the rich elite can afford the procedure. This could easily be read as a statement about obstacles faced by gays, Jews or any other successful minority. If you enjoy social commentary you might enjoy this, but it did nothing for me.
Renee Carter Hall: Huntress: A young lioness decides to become one of the elite group of huntresses that supply the tribes with meat. An interesting story exploring the lion’s savanna culture and the sacrifices the huntresses’ need to make for the greater good.
Watts Martin: Going Concerns: Set in the Ranea universe of humans and furries, this follows a wolf accountant who gets mixed up in criminal activities when her accounting uncovers some irregularities. A flirty tomcat detective helps her try to get to the bottom of things, which become more hazardous the deeper they go. Although I’ve enjoyed the author’s other works, I felt this one had too much talking and not enough stuff going on. However, if you like character studies and lots of dialogue, you might enjoy this.
Mary E. Lowd: When a Cat Loves a Dog: The story I enjoyed the most in this anthology. Set in the Otters in Space universe, a pug comedian marries his cat girlfriend, to the general disapproval of both families and society in general. Attempts at adoption are met with unyielding prejudice and rejection, and then the couple finds out about an experimental procedure that will allow mixed-species couples to have children. The research and the couples involved in it are on the receiving end of violent opposition by conservative factions.
Bernard Doove: Piece of Mind: Set in the Chakat universe (Star Trek with furries), this is follows a Caitian (lion-like alien) with forbidden psychic powers, who tries to find a new life on the Chakat-controlled planet Chakona. As often happens, falling in love with a Chakat fixes all problems.
ªª Grounded & ªªª Elevated by Emily Matthew
An interesting couple of books (first two of a promised trilogy). Birds live on a giant floating island (ala Laputa) and have no contact with ground-dwelling mammals. Keereet, a young bald eagle, is hatched with deformed wings and can’t fly. Rather than shame his family or become one of the despised flightless slave class, he still tries to fly, and ends up crashing into the sea. He’s rescued by a friendly fisherman otter, who tries to integrate him into his village. But most of the mammals view him as an evil being, and he’s forced to flee with his otter friend and a mysterious vixen. They travel to a squirrel-controlled tree city searching for information on avians, and discover a religion that views them as messengers from the dragon gods. Will definitely be getting the final volume.
ªªªªª The Given Land by Thomas Allen
This was a great find. A civilization of birds in New Zealand vs. invading stoats. There’s a few odd things about the setting-the birds apparently have an iron-age type society, complete with buildings, agriculture and smithing, but not all birds are intelligent (sentience is referred to as ‘The Burden.) Exitinct birds are featured as characters (moa and huias) so this could only take place pre-human contact, but stoats had no way of getting to New Zealand except by humans. In any event, overlooking that, this was still a wonderful read. An elderly kakapo and his kiwi friend have to reach the capital city to warn about an impending stoat invasion, but find that things there are more complicated than they anticipated. Not a book as complex as others, but it was a fun read, and one of the books I enjoyed the most this year.
ªªª The Prince Who Fell From the Sky by John Claude Bemis
In a familiar “humans have mysteriously vanished and the forest animals have gained sentience and have their own society” setting, a spaceship crash-lands with one survivor, a human child. A lonely female bear adopts him, but if forced to flee as the ruling wolves try to hunt down and kill the child. Aided by a rat and a dog (dogs call themselves The Faithful, and are the only ones who still revere humans) the group has an interesting journey across the ruined cities trying to find a safe place for the human. This is aimed at younger readers, but is still enjoyable.
ªª The Third Book of the Dun Cow: Peace at Last by Walter Wangerin Jr.
For those who had the misfortune of reading the second book of the Dun Cow (Book of Sorrows) it would be completely understandable if they avoided this series forever. But a sense of morbid curiosity compelled me to get this third book. Apparently the author made extensive changes on The Book of Sorrows, and it’s now called The Second Book of the Dun Cow: Lamentations. No, I’m not going to read it. For those unfamiliar with the series, it is a religious parable written by a pastor, who evidently has some serious ‘issues.’ This third book is very disjointed, with split stories of Chaunticleer’s wife Pertelote and the various survivors from the first two stories wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, and the evil wolf Eurus and his pack. It has the common trope of carnivores being evil due to needing to eat meat (even though God apparently made them that way!), and the ‘good’ carnivores get by on berries and insects. Even eating carrion is portrayed as evil! I’m not sure who this book was aimed at, with cute animals like the Wee Widow Mouse, interspersed with descriptions of maggots, parasites, starvation and wolf sex with multiple mentions of ‘swollen vulvas.’ I was also completely confused by the ending. So yeah, not recommended except for completists.
ªªªª Wild Children by Richard Roberts
This was a very unusual book of 5 related stories, that borrows some themes from Peter Pan and Pinocchio. In a vaguely 18th century setting, ‘bad’ children are sometimes turned into ‘wild children,’ transformed fully or partly into an animal, to remain perpetually a child for a normal human lifespan. Wild children no longer are considered human, and are bought and sold like animals or pets. The transformation can be as little as having donkey ears and a tail (like Pinocchio) to a full animal form, and everything inbetween. We see (mostly) donkeys and wolves. “Wicked children become wolves, lazy children become donkeys.” We also meet a rare cat-boy, and doves. Although there’s no sex shown or even hinted at, it’s hard to dismiss the thought that a world where you can buy perpetual children who have no rights (even if they might have donkey ears) wouldn’t be a pedophile’s dream world. But this is not a book out of furry fandom, and being turned into a wild child is not shown to be something positive. The church figures heavily in the book (and not in a good way) so there’s probably levels of allegory here as well. This story would not be to everyone’s taste, and it’s a challenging read, but I really enjoyed it.
ªª ½ Human Rights by S.L. Armstrong
A gay romance very similar to the I was an Alien Cat Toy reviewed last year. Humans are kept as ‘pets’ in a mixed society of big cat and canine furries. Ewan is a young man who’s been left in the pound, after having outgrown his cute childhood and teen years. But he is adopted at the last minute by the too-good-to-be true white jaguar Sir Jiat, who is secretly involved with a human rights movement. The story has some tension because of the dire penalties involved with animal/human relationships, and for this genre was not bad. I wish there’d been more exploration of the story’s background (how did humans end up slaves? Are the furries extraterrestrial or genetically engineered?) But that may be asking too much of what is a simple forbidden romance book at it’s heart.
ªªª The Hunt for Elsewhere by Beatrice Vine
A talking animal book in the vein of Watership Down. A young fox is separated from his family and (rather oddly) is adopted by an inexplicably friendly crow. The fox, Saxon, is raised to be the opposite of the selfish, solitary fox, so much so that he can’t interact with other foxes any more. Saxon and the crow eventually decide to head back to the crow’s birthplace to reconcile with his (the crow’s) family. Many trials and adventures follow, particularly after Saxon acquires a wolf companion. A lot of the animal behavior deviates considerably from the way real animals act, but if you can accept some suspension of disbelief, it’s an entertaining read.
ªª Aviara by Jeffrey Dean Doty
A standard ‘unlikely hero’ saga set in a bird civilization. A swallow messenger questions orders given to her by the usual evil king, and eventually manages to rally a rebellion by uniting various bird factions. I felt that she was able to get everyone to agree to help her much too easily (a problem that cropped up in several books I read this year), and the king is SO evil that it was cliché`. It wasn’t a horrible book, just nothing surprising about it.
ªªª The Northern Approach (Fall of Eldvar #4) by Jim Galford
The fourth book in the series that began with Into Wilder Lands. This volume is mostly a ‘get the characters from point A to point B’ saga, and finally all the major players (Estin the lemur, Raeln the wolf, plus several other characters whose names I can’t recall) are traveling together. They encounter a lot of problems along the way (to put it mildly). If you liked the first 3 books, then you’ll like this one.
ªªªª Dolphin Way (Rise of the Guardians) by Mark Caney
Luckily this dolphin book (mostly) avoids the cloying mystical spiritual dolphin trope that seems to be so common in any book with dolphin or whale characters. A major plot point is declining fish stocks causing conflict among the dolphins-one faction blames other dolphins for taking too much, while the more traditional faction looks for answers in their traditions
ªªªªª The Last Eagle by Daniel P. Mannix
Daniel P. Mannix was one of the absolute best writers of ‘realistic’ animal stories, and I was thrilled to see his works made available on Kindle. The only one I hadn’t read was this one, so I quickly rectified that! I can’t say there’s much of a plot per se-the book is simply the life history of a bald eagle on the eastern seaboard. But if you like realistic animal stories, this is the author to read. The book was written in the 1960’s (I think) so some of the background descriptions are a bit dated, but that does not detract from the story at all.
ªª The Three Trespasses by Will Kenyon
How often does one find a story using an old Genesis song as an outline? Fans of old (old) Genesis should remember the song White Mountain, about wolves battling over a lost crown. This is only a short story (maybe a novella), and it’s lacking any real background about the wolves’ society. It doesn’t even really make clear if they’re 2-legged anthro wolves or not (they live in dwellings, for example). So, not great reading, but sure to pique the curiosity of any fan of classic Genesis.
ªª The Awareness by Gene Stone
This was one of those books with a fascinating premise but a mediocre execution. All mammals suddenly gain sentience (unexplained) along with the ability to talk. For some reason they immediately start going to war with humans, but that is only touched on. The book follows a domestic dog and cat, a pig in a factory farm, and a circus elephant. Things that could be interesting, like the conflict between domestic and wild animals, is only discussed a little bit, and the author seems more interested in making a statement of some sort. This only realized a fraction of what could’ve been done with the premise.
ªªªªª The Bees by Laline Paull
Another great book from this year, this follows a single worker bee, born late in the season, and how she navigates both treacherous hive politics and a multitude of dangers outside. Not much more I can say without giving spoilers, but I will say this book gets my highest recommendation.
ªªªªª Rise of the Red Shadow by Joseph Lallo
Another excellent book, a prequel to the author’s later Book of Deacon trilogy, but you do not need to read that to enjoy this. Lain is a fox “malthrope” (anthro fox), a type of creature so despised they’re killed on sight. Captured as a youngster and sold into slavery on a plantation rather than being killed, he’s raised by a sympathetic blind slave into adulthood. This is another book that I won’t say too much about due to spoilers, but I did like this so much I immediately read the main trilogy that follows it (see that review under the “Fantasy” heading.)
ªªªª Bad Elephant Far Stream by Samuel Hawley
A young elephant is taken from the Indian jungle while a calf, and brought to America in the late 1800’s to work in a circus. Far Stream grows up in the circus, experiencing all the kindness and cruelty of the various people she has to deal with over the years. In some ways the elephants get better treatment than the workers, because they’re so valuable, but they also suffer some pretty barbaric practices in the name of ‘discipline.’ A talking-animal story that does not pull its punches or overly romanticize its subjects.
Dystopian
ªª Meritropolis by Joel Ohman
Someone trying to cash in on the Hunger Games craze, this book borrows (or swipes) from similar stories, including Wool. From the book blurb: In Meritropolis everyone is assigned a numerical Score that decides their worth to society and whether they live or die. From Wool it takes the idea of people being sent outside the city to die, as well as the people in the city believing they’re the sole remnants of humanity. Charley is a very high-scoring teenager who’s vowed to take down the system due to his younger brother being sent outside when they were children. His high score lets him (literally) get away with murder, which does stretch the suspension of disbelief. The most interesting thing about the book are the bizarre and improbable hybrid animals living outside the city, including bison/lions, Rottweiler/boars, and snipe/ticks. And we don’t see enough of them.
ªªªª Sand by Hugh Howey
By the Wool author himself, this time a post-apocalyptic world that is covered by a vast desert of sand a mile deep. Humanity manages to survive in small towns, eking out an existence while constantly battling the encroaching sands. Sand Divers are an elite group, able to use special suits that allow them to swim and dive through the dunes in search of buried salvage. The book follows a family of sand divers, and their battle with treachery, the elements and each other. An excellent book in the genre.
ªª Silo Submerged by W.J. Davies
It’s kind of scary that I don’t remember anything about this book, other than it was another in the Silo saga. So it must not have been that good.
ªª The Man Who Ended the World by Jason Gurley
A reclusive and misanthropic genius zillionaire decides to orchestrate WWIII, with himself as the sole survivor in a vast underground bunker. Two children and the bunker’s AI try to thwart his plans. I had a lot of trouble with the kid’s motivations-that the boy would just be willing to abandon his family, knowing they’d die in a horrible nuclear holocaust, and that tempered being able to believe the rest of the story.
ªª Lockdown: Escape from Furnace #1 by Alexander Joseph Smith
Yet another YA dystopia book, this one has a premise that was so ridiculous I couldn’t even accept it, which made the rest of the book kind of pointless. A rise in juvenile crime spurs the construction of Furnace, a super-secure juvenile prison a mile deep underground, where no one is ever released. (the financial logic behind this is hard to figure) Guards that are not quite human regularly terrify and brutalize the inmates, and occasionally prisoners are arbitrarily dragged off in the middle of the night to a fate worse than death by scary monsters. Alex, who was framed for a murder and sentenced to life in Furnace, where he has to survive and attempt to escape. This was the first part of a multi-volume series. It just didn’t do it for me.
ªªª The Book of Matthew (Greatfall) by Jason Gurley
An epilogue of sorts to the silo story Greatfall, following the fate of Silo 23 and the main villain of that story. A satisfying conclusion to the saga.
Fantasy
ªª Night of Wolves (Paladins book 1) by David Dalglish
A light Paladin (following a healing God) and a dark Paladin (following a harsh God) develop an unexpected friendship while defending a village against a horde of werewolves. This book was mostly a set-up introducing the two Paladins and laying the groundwork for the series that follows it (which I probably won’t read)
ªª The Stolen Crown (Mithgar) by Dennis L. McKiernan
As much as I liked the earlier Mithgar books, I think the author has run out of steam. Both this one and the previous one were ho-hum. Mithgar is Tolkien lite, with elves, dwarves, humans, etc. When the kingdom falls a young prince is secreted out and raised under a false identity, only to try and reclaim his kingdom when he comes of age. Very much a ‘been there, done that’ feel to this story.
ªª Shards by James V. Viscosi
Another entry in the “person from our world pulled into a fantasy world they have to try and save” genre. Not bad, but not nearly as good as Dragon Stones from the same author. This is the first in a series, but volume 2 has not been released, so buyer beware.
ªªªªª Book of Deacon 1-3 by Joseph Lallo
At first glance this seems to be yet another fantasy book with the standard trope of a team of ‘chosen ones’ who have to save their land from Evil. Yes, this is that, but it was well-written enough to rise above the standard fair. I read all three books in a row, I enjoyed it that much. A war has been raging for decades, sapping the vitality and population of the land. Myranda is a young woman orphaned by the war, and the first of these chosen ones. Others are Lain the fox malthrope, Myn the young dragon, and Ether the elemental. The villains are suitably horrible and seem impossible to overcome, and their true nature and motivation is not known until late in the series. Tons of action and interesting characters keep everything moving at a good clip. Great series.
ªªªª Jade (Book of Deacon) by Joseph Lallo
A novella that is an epilogue of sorts to the main trilogy, that takes place quite a while after the events covered there. A girl is cast out by her unpleasant guardians, and reluctantly looked after by a dragon. The why of the dragon’s odd behavior is revealed later, and eventually it’s revealed how everything ties into the first series.
SF
ªªªª Dawn of Dragons by James Maxey
A prequel to the excellent Bitterwood trilogy, this introduces some of the characters in that book (the amoral Jazz and her robots) and reveals the origin of the dragons, and the start of Atlantis. A must-read for anyone who enjoyed the Bitterwood series.
ªªªª ½ Brilliance & ªªªª ½ A Better World by Marcus Sakey
The first two books of the Brilliance Saga, these are excellent near-future thrillers, but some people may be put off by the rather heavy-handed parallels between the events in the books and current and past real-world events. Starting the in late 80’s, 1% of all humans are born ‘brilliant,’ with savant-like abilities. Some of the abilities are not particularly useful, like being able to instantly guess the correct number of objects in a container, but others are devastating: being able to read body language so well no one can lie to you, or find the variations in the stock market so you can become a trillionaire overnight. “Normals” fear and hate the Brilliants (or “Twists”), so they take any children who test as brilliant and put them in abusive boarding schools, and push to have every Brilliant implanted with an ID chip and tracker. Naturally the Brilliants don’t care for this, so the country lurches towards civil war. Nick Cooper is a Brilliant working for the government to take down rogue Brilliants, who soon begins to question whom and what he’s really working for. This is an excellent and disturbing series.
ªªª Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler
Unexpected, because Ms. Butler sadly died some years ago. She was not very prolific (but made up for it by quality), so we are lucky to have these two old stories from early in her career. One is a long prequel to her novel Survivor (a book which she actually disowned!), about a humanoid alien race where castes are genetically determined, and the leadership caste is so rare that when a young male is found on a rival tribe’s land, they’re willing to cripple him to force him to stay. The other story is a near-future tale about the government tracking down and recruiting telepaths, and one ex-agent’s attempts to help the minority children with developing powers avoid that fate. This story seems a warm-up for her Patternmaster series.
ªª Vessel by Andrew J. Morgan
A mysterious alien vessel wrecks havoc on the international space station, causing the astronauts to go crazy, or simply vanish. A journalist tries to break through the official wall of silence, while a (brilliant, beautiful and single) female scientist is given a crash course in space flight and shipped up to the station. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when the author decided to skip over most of the space flight training! Unfortunately this is one of those books where if the characters simply came clean to each other, a lot of problems (and plot complications) could’ve been avoided. And after all that, there’s no good resolution. Color me disappointed.
ªªªªª Defenders by Will McIntosh
The Earth is invaded by hostile aliens (a sort of telepathic starfish) whose ability to read minds makes them unbeatable. Rapidly losing the battle to the invaders, scientists manage to engineer giant-sized super-soldiers, without the brain chemistry that makes them vulnerable to the aliens. Unfortunately, the cure to the starfish invasion rapidly becomes worse than the disease, and humanity has to figure out what to do with the monsters they created. An excellent military & social SF adventure.
ªª The Walk Up Nameless Ridge by Hugh Howey
A short story. Some guy decides to try climbing the tallest mountain in the universe, that no one has managed to climb. I’m still not sure if he managed to do it.
ªªª The Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones
A group of hapless customers and employees at a coffee shop inadvertently get transported back into the time of dinosaurs. Much carnage and character attrition happen as they race to get back the device that will return them to modern times. I found it kind of difficult to believe that researchers doing sooper-secrit work on time-travel would have their lab in a building above a coffee shop, but you just gotta except some things in fiction.
ªªª The Serene Invasion by Eric Brown
Overly benevolent aliens (The Serene) come to earth, solving all our social and environmental ills. One of the solutions is to make humans incapable of any violence, to each other or to yourself. Naturally there’s some humans who don’t like this development. One character, (a former arms dealer who went broke) goes to increasingly desperate length to commit suicide, until he’s contacted by enemies of the Serene who want to return humans to their former wicked ways. Other characters who have been helped by the Serene try to stop him. One of the funny things about this book was how offended some people got when I described the ability to commit violent acts being taken away, so clearly the premise of this book is not for everyone!
ªªª ½ Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax)by Robert J. Sawyer
The final book in the trilogy where the modern human world and a modern Neanderthal world intersect. The story is partly about a romance between a human female scientist and a male Neanderthal scientist, and all the culture shock involved with that (male and female Neanderthals live apart for most of each month, and are expected to have same-sex mates for the time when they’re not with the opposite sex.). The other part of the book is about how certain factions of humans are scemeing to take over the Neanderthal world, which is unpolluted and unspoiled. The series will not be for everyone-people of certain political bents would consider a lot of it environmentally preachy, and there’s an overt anti-religious plot theme. But if that doesn’t bother you, then it’s an interesting series.
ªªª The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
An old classic. Somewhat dated by the old technology and the militarism, still interesting. Alien parasites try to take over humanity, and soon the only way to make sure someone is not infected is for everybody to go around naked. Scandalous at the time the book was written, now just amusing. This was interesting for the portrayal of the agency fighting the invasion as being run by people that are actually very smart and competent. In fiction where I’m used to seeing the plot kept moving by people doing stupid things, this was refreshing.
ª The Shell Collector by Hugh Howey
What I thought was going to be an eco-thriller turns out to be a sappy romance. In the near-future, oceans have become so acidified by climate change that seashells are extinct and intact ones command huge prices. Maya is a reporter and shell collector, who recently wrote an expose’ on the family of a reclusive oil magnate. When she’s unexpectedly given an interview with the magnate, the FBI gets involved, claiming the guy is making fake shells to flood the market and cause prices to crash. This all sounds much more interesting than it is. The book mostly focuses on the internal conflicts of the reporter, and I really didn’t give a shit about any of these characters.
Thriller
ªªª Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson
Hallucinating genius Stephen Leeds is back in this novella, where he’s hired to track down a missing body and the biotech it may have secreted inside it. His ‘aspects,’ imaginary people that only he can see and talk to, each one an expert in a particular field, are starting to reveal hidden lives outside his knowledge, worrying him that he may be losing his tenuous hold on sanity.
ªªª Revival: A Novel by Stephen King
The somewhat rambling tale of Jamie, who we meet as a young boy in an extended family, and minister Charles Jacobs. The two pass in and out of each other’s lives over the course of several decades, as Jamie deals with tragedy and drug addiction, and minister Jacobs changes the course of his own career after a devastating event. This book doesn’t really have a driving plot or even a villain per se, unless you count the ills and frailty of the human condition. What it does have is King’s excellent prose, which makes it worth reading even without a strong plot. In the end, this is a book about what happens when you mess with things that should not be messed with, and that miracles will come with a very steep price.
ªª Vengeance from the Deep (books 1 & 2) by Russ Elliott
This could be one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ stories. Some isolated natives on an island off South Africa worship a giant kronosaur, occasionally feeding it “white devils” as they become available. A nerdy scientist and his Rambo-esque escort inadvertently free the Kronosaur and really piss off the (literally) spear-chucking natives. The typical scenario follows of the kronosaur wandering around the South African coast eating people, and none of the authorities will believe it’s really a kronosaur and not a shark. There’s the ubiquitous gorgeous and single scientist woman, various experts, a precocious kid, and lots of people being eaten. Not to mention the angry natives pursuing the White Devil who desecrated their island. It’s all very silly but I’ve read worse. It's worth noting that the covers on both volumes are very striking, and it turns out that the author is actually a graphic artist and designer. The covers were much better than the actual books.
ªªªªª The Last Town by Blake Crouch
The final book in the Wayward Pines trilogy. Describing the plot won’t make much sense unless you’ve read the other two books, but suffice to say that if you liked those books, you’ll like this one. The one caveat is that this one is even more violent than the first two (hard as it is to believe) so this is not for the faint of heart. Seriously. And the epilogue! He sure better follow up on that!
ªª The China Dogs by Sam Masters
Dogs start going berserk in Florida. An albino (!) policeman teams up with an eccentric pierced and tattooed chick to try and solve the mystery before it’s too late. The plot eventually encompasses evil Chinese authorities, the president of the United States, North Korea, and everything but the kitchen sink. This is marginally better than the other killer-dogs story I read last year (see below) but that’s damning it with faint praise. I found the ending in the hospital particularly unbelievable.
ªªª Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
A Mercedes piloted by an unknown driver plows into a crowd of people waiting outside a job fair, killing and injuring many. He is never caught, and the case still haunts retired detective Bill Hodges. When the killer unexpectedly contacts him, it starts a series of escalating events as the game of cat and mouse between the detective and the killer becomes deadly. Not King’s best work, but still an engaging read.
ªªª The Neighbor by Dean R. Koontz
A short story. When their elderly next door neighbor dies and his house is abandoned, a 12 year-old boy and his older sister get a lot more than they bargained for when they decide to explore it. It is true that you can never completely know what goes on behind closed door.
ªªª Dinosaur Lake II by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
The dinosaurs are back at Crater Lake, and they’re hungry. This time they can fly. That’s about all that needs to be said.
ªª Jezebel by Gordon A, Kessler
Dogs in a small town suddenly start going berserk. The animal-control officer (the cliché` haunted Vietnam vet) has his hands full with that, as well as a beautiful deputy that inexplicably seems obsessed with having sex with him. This story is just stupid, particularly the big reveal of what’s happening with the dogs, and the protagonist’s illness, just made me roll my eyes.
ªª Snapper by Felicia Zekauskas
A giant snapping turtle lurks in a lake by a small town for many years, biting off the occasional appendage or making the odd fisherman vanish. A beautiful single writer renting a cabin teams up with a handsome local guy to uncover town secrets and end the menace of the snapping turtle. Unfortunately, the book author doesn’t seem to know anything about reptile biology, because there’s scenes of the snapping turtle swimming around in a frozen -over lake, and attacking people in the snow. Not gonna happen.
ª Zoo by James Patterson
While I’ve enjoyed some of James Pattersons’ books, this was not his best effort. Animals start going berserk and attacking people. When the reason for it is finally discovered, it doesn’t even make sense. Honestly, nothing anyone does in this story makes much sense. A book with a similar theme I read a couple years ago (Animal Kingdom by Lain Rob Wright) was also kind of dumb, but still handled the premise a lot better than Zoo.
ªªª Invasive Species by Joseph Wallace
An unknown species of wasp from deep in the African jungle suddenly begins turning up in populated areas. They can apparently parasitize any large mammal, like Alien, and removing the parasite will kill the host. You might as well do that anyway, since the host dies (also like Alien) when the parasite matures. They’re also really smart, and hold a deadly grudge if anyone kills a larva or adult. While it was not a bad book, I felt humanity didn’t put up a decent fight. I mean…they’re bugs. Use Raid or something.
ªªªªª Excellent-one of the best
ªªªª Very good, would recommend to anyone
ªªª Good, solid (if not exceptional) entertainment
ªª Readable, but with major flaws
ª Sucks
Furry or animal-related
ªª Otters in Space by Mary E. Lowd
On a future earth controlled by dogs, cats are a discriminated against underclass, and otters have made their home in space. Kipper is a worker-drone cat who hears vague rumors about a cat haven city in space, and when her sister suddenly vanishes Kipper decides (without a lot of evidence) that she went to the cat have city and decides to follow her. This wasn’t a bad book by any means, but I had some trouble with how easily the protagonist finds people to help her even though they have no strong motivation to do so. There was also a bizarre sequence where the cat has to spend weeks immersed in oxygenated water without any apparent ill effects. Even if you can breathe, being immersed 24-7 would have nasty side-effects on the skin. But still, not a bad book, it just has some issues.
ªªª Five Fortunes by Various, edited by Fred Patten
I generally don’t read anthologies because I like a longer story, but since I got a copy of this for free, why not?
Phil Geusz : Chose People: Okay, I’ll be honest and admit that I couldn’t finish this particular story. I just couldn’t buy the whole premise of people turning themselves into anthro rabbits, and that regular humans resent them because only the rich elite can afford the procedure. This could easily be read as a statement about obstacles faced by gays, Jews or any other successful minority. If you enjoy social commentary you might enjoy this, but it did nothing for me.
Renee Carter Hall: Huntress: A young lioness decides to become one of the elite group of huntresses that supply the tribes with meat. An interesting story exploring the lion’s savanna culture and the sacrifices the huntresses’ need to make for the greater good.
Watts Martin: Going Concerns: Set in the Ranea universe of humans and furries, this follows a wolf accountant who gets mixed up in criminal activities when her accounting uncovers some irregularities. A flirty tomcat detective helps her try to get to the bottom of things, which become more hazardous the deeper they go. Although I’ve enjoyed the author’s other works, I felt this one had too much talking and not enough stuff going on. However, if you like character studies and lots of dialogue, you might enjoy this.
Mary E. Lowd: When a Cat Loves a Dog: The story I enjoyed the most in this anthology. Set in the Otters in Space universe, a pug comedian marries his cat girlfriend, to the general disapproval of both families and society in general. Attempts at adoption are met with unyielding prejudice and rejection, and then the couple finds out about an experimental procedure that will allow mixed-species couples to have children. The research and the couples involved in it are on the receiving end of violent opposition by conservative factions.
Bernard Doove: Piece of Mind: Set in the Chakat universe (Star Trek with furries), this is follows a Caitian (lion-like alien) with forbidden psychic powers, who tries to find a new life on the Chakat-controlled planet Chakona. As often happens, falling in love with a Chakat fixes all problems.
ªª Grounded & ªªª Elevated by Emily Matthew
An interesting couple of books (first two of a promised trilogy). Birds live on a giant floating island (ala Laputa) and have no contact with ground-dwelling mammals. Keereet, a young bald eagle, is hatched with deformed wings and can’t fly. Rather than shame his family or become one of the despised flightless slave class, he still tries to fly, and ends up crashing into the sea. He’s rescued by a friendly fisherman otter, who tries to integrate him into his village. But most of the mammals view him as an evil being, and he’s forced to flee with his otter friend and a mysterious vixen. They travel to a squirrel-controlled tree city searching for information on avians, and discover a religion that views them as messengers from the dragon gods. Will definitely be getting the final volume.
ªªªªª The Given Land by Thomas Allen
This was a great find. A civilization of birds in New Zealand vs. invading stoats. There’s a few odd things about the setting-the birds apparently have an iron-age type society, complete with buildings, agriculture and smithing, but not all birds are intelligent (sentience is referred to as ‘The Burden.) Exitinct birds are featured as characters (moa and huias) so this could only take place pre-human contact, but stoats had no way of getting to New Zealand except by humans. In any event, overlooking that, this was still a wonderful read. An elderly kakapo and his kiwi friend have to reach the capital city to warn about an impending stoat invasion, but find that things there are more complicated than they anticipated. Not a book as complex as others, but it was a fun read, and one of the books I enjoyed the most this year.
ªªª The Prince Who Fell From the Sky by John Claude Bemis
In a familiar “humans have mysteriously vanished and the forest animals have gained sentience and have their own society” setting, a spaceship crash-lands with one survivor, a human child. A lonely female bear adopts him, but if forced to flee as the ruling wolves try to hunt down and kill the child. Aided by a rat and a dog (dogs call themselves The Faithful, and are the only ones who still revere humans) the group has an interesting journey across the ruined cities trying to find a safe place for the human. This is aimed at younger readers, but is still enjoyable.
ªª The Third Book of the Dun Cow: Peace at Last by Walter Wangerin Jr.
For those who had the misfortune of reading the second book of the Dun Cow (Book of Sorrows) it would be completely understandable if they avoided this series forever. But a sense of morbid curiosity compelled me to get this third book. Apparently the author made extensive changes on The Book of Sorrows, and it’s now called The Second Book of the Dun Cow: Lamentations. No, I’m not going to read it. For those unfamiliar with the series, it is a religious parable written by a pastor, who evidently has some serious ‘issues.’ This third book is very disjointed, with split stories of Chaunticleer’s wife Pertelote and the various survivors from the first two stories wandering aimlessly in the wilderness, and the evil wolf Eurus and his pack. It has the common trope of carnivores being evil due to needing to eat meat (even though God apparently made them that way!), and the ‘good’ carnivores get by on berries and insects. Even eating carrion is portrayed as evil! I’m not sure who this book was aimed at, with cute animals like the Wee Widow Mouse, interspersed with descriptions of maggots, parasites, starvation and wolf sex with multiple mentions of ‘swollen vulvas.’ I was also completely confused by the ending. So yeah, not recommended except for completists.
ªªªª Wild Children by Richard Roberts
This was a very unusual book of 5 related stories, that borrows some themes from Peter Pan and Pinocchio. In a vaguely 18th century setting, ‘bad’ children are sometimes turned into ‘wild children,’ transformed fully or partly into an animal, to remain perpetually a child for a normal human lifespan. Wild children no longer are considered human, and are bought and sold like animals or pets. The transformation can be as little as having donkey ears and a tail (like Pinocchio) to a full animal form, and everything inbetween. We see (mostly) donkeys and wolves. “Wicked children become wolves, lazy children become donkeys.” We also meet a rare cat-boy, and doves. Although there’s no sex shown or even hinted at, it’s hard to dismiss the thought that a world where you can buy perpetual children who have no rights (even if they might have donkey ears) wouldn’t be a pedophile’s dream world. But this is not a book out of furry fandom, and being turned into a wild child is not shown to be something positive. The church figures heavily in the book (and not in a good way) so there’s probably levels of allegory here as well. This story would not be to everyone’s taste, and it’s a challenging read, but I really enjoyed it.
ªª ½ Human Rights by S.L. Armstrong
A gay romance very similar to the I was an Alien Cat Toy reviewed last year. Humans are kept as ‘pets’ in a mixed society of big cat and canine furries. Ewan is a young man who’s been left in the pound, after having outgrown his cute childhood and teen years. But he is adopted at the last minute by the too-good-to-be true white jaguar Sir Jiat, who is secretly involved with a human rights movement. The story has some tension because of the dire penalties involved with animal/human relationships, and for this genre was not bad. I wish there’d been more exploration of the story’s background (how did humans end up slaves? Are the furries extraterrestrial or genetically engineered?) But that may be asking too much of what is a simple forbidden romance book at it’s heart.
ªªª The Hunt for Elsewhere by Beatrice Vine
A talking animal book in the vein of Watership Down. A young fox is separated from his family and (rather oddly) is adopted by an inexplicably friendly crow. The fox, Saxon, is raised to be the opposite of the selfish, solitary fox, so much so that he can’t interact with other foxes any more. Saxon and the crow eventually decide to head back to the crow’s birthplace to reconcile with his (the crow’s) family. Many trials and adventures follow, particularly after Saxon acquires a wolf companion. A lot of the animal behavior deviates considerably from the way real animals act, but if you can accept some suspension of disbelief, it’s an entertaining read.
ªª Aviara by Jeffrey Dean Doty
A standard ‘unlikely hero’ saga set in a bird civilization. A swallow messenger questions orders given to her by the usual evil king, and eventually manages to rally a rebellion by uniting various bird factions. I felt that she was able to get everyone to agree to help her much too easily (a problem that cropped up in several books I read this year), and the king is SO evil that it was cliché`. It wasn’t a horrible book, just nothing surprising about it.
ªªª The Northern Approach (Fall of Eldvar #4) by Jim Galford
The fourth book in the series that began with Into Wilder Lands. This volume is mostly a ‘get the characters from point A to point B’ saga, and finally all the major players (Estin the lemur, Raeln the wolf, plus several other characters whose names I can’t recall) are traveling together. They encounter a lot of problems along the way (to put it mildly). If you liked the first 3 books, then you’ll like this one.
ªªªª Dolphin Way (Rise of the Guardians) by Mark Caney
Luckily this dolphin book (mostly) avoids the cloying mystical spiritual dolphin trope that seems to be so common in any book with dolphin or whale characters. A major plot point is declining fish stocks causing conflict among the dolphins-one faction blames other dolphins for taking too much, while the more traditional faction looks for answers in their traditions
ªªªªª The Last Eagle by Daniel P. Mannix
Daniel P. Mannix was one of the absolute best writers of ‘realistic’ animal stories, and I was thrilled to see his works made available on Kindle. The only one I hadn’t read was this one, so I quickly rectified that! I can’t say there’s much of a plot per se-the book is simply the life history of a bald eagle on the eastern seaboard. But if you like realistic animal stories, this is the author to read. The book was written in the 1960’s (I think) so some of the background descriptions are a bit dated, but that does not detract from the story at all.
ªª The Three Trespasses by Will Kenyon
How often does one find a story using an old Genesis song as an outline? Fans of old (old) Genesis should remember the song White Mountain, about wolves battling over a lost crown. This is only a short story (maybe a novella), and it’s lacking any real background about the wolves’ society. It doesn’t even really make clear if they’re 2-legged anthro wolves or not (they live in dwellings, for example). So, not great reading, but sure to pique the curiosity of any fan of classic Genesis.
ªª The Awareness by Gene Stone
This was one of those books with a fascinating premise but a mediocre execution. All mammals suddenly gain sentience (unexplained) along with the ability to talk. For some reason they immediately start going to war with humans, but that is only touched on. The book follows a domestic dog and cat, a pig in a factory farm, and a circus elephant. Things that could be interesting, like the conflict between domestic and wild animals, is only discussed a little bit, and the author seems more interested in making a statement of some sort. This only realized a fraction of what could’ve been done with the premise.
ªªªªª The Bees by Laline Paull
Another great book from this year, this follows a single worker bee, born late in the season, and how she navigates both treacherous hive politics and a multitude of dangers outside. Not much more I can say without giving spoilers, but I will say this book gets my highest recommendation.
ªªªªª Rise of the Red Shadow by Joseph Lallo
Another excellent book, a prequel to the author’s later Book of Deacon trilogy, but you do not need to read that to enjoy this. Lain is a fox “malthrope” (anthro fox), a type of creature so despised they’re killed on sight. Captured as a youngster and sold into slavery on a plantation rather than being killed, he’s raised by a sympathetic blind slave into adulthood. This is another book that I won’t say too much about due to spoilers, but I did like this so much I immediately read the main trilogy that follows it (see that review under the “Fantasy” heading.)
ªªªª Bad Elephant Far Stream by Samuel Hawley
A young elephant is taken from the Indian jungle while a calf, and brought to America in the late 1800’s to work in a circus. Far Stream grows up in the circus, experiencing all the kindness and cruelty of the various people she has to deal with over the years. In some ways the elephants get better treatment than the workers, because they’re so valuable, but they also suffer some pretty barbaric practices in the name of ‘discipline.’ A talking-animal story that does not pull its punches or overly romanticize its subjects.
Dystopian
ªª Meritropolis by Joel Ohman
Someone trying to cash in on the Hunger Games craze, this book borrows (or swipes) from similar stories, including Wool. From the book blurb: In Meritropolis everyone is assigned a numerical Score that decides their worth to society and whether they live or die. From Wool it takes the idea of people being sent outside the city to die, as well as the people in the city believing they’re the sole remnants of humanity. Charley is a very high-scoring teenager who’s vowed to take down the system due to his younger brother being sent outside when they were children. His high score lets him (literally) get away with murder, which does stretch the suspension of disbelief. The most interesting thing about the book are the bizarre and improbable hybrid animals living outside the city, including bison/lions, Rottweiler/boars, and snipe/ticks. And we don’t see enough of them.
ªªªª Sand by Hugh Howey
By the Wool author himself, this time a post-apocalyptic world that is covered by a vast desert of sand a mile deep. Humanity manages to survive in small towns, eking out an existence while constantly battling the encroaching sands. Sand Divers are an elite group, able to use special suits that allow them to swim and dive through the dunes in search of buried salvage. The book follows a family of sand divers, and their battle with treachery, the elements and each other. An excellent book in the genre.
ªª Silo Submerged by W.J. Davies
It’s kind of scary that I don’t remember anything about this book, other than it was another in the Silo saga. So it must not have been that good.
ªª The Man Who Ended the World by Jason Gurley
A reclusive and misanthropic genius zillionaire decides to orchestrate WWIII, with himself as the sole survivor in a vast underground bunker. Two children and the bunker’s AI try to thwart his plans. I had a lot of trouble with the kid’s motivations-that the boy would just be willing to abandon his family, knowing they’d die in a horrible nuclear holocaust, and that tempered being able to believe the rest of the story.
ªª Lockdown: Escape from Furnace #1 by Alexander Joseph Smith
Yet another YA dystopia book, this one has a premise that was so ridiculous I couldn’t even accept it, which made the rest of the book kind of pointless. A rise in juvenile crime spurs the construction of Furnace, a super-secure juvenile prison a mile deep underground, where no one is ever released. (the financial logic behind this is hard to figure) Guards that are not quite human regularly terrify and brutalize the inmates, and occasionally prisoners are arbitrarily dragged off in the middle of the night to a fate worse than death by scary monsters. Alex, who was framed for a murder and sentenced to life in Furnace, where he has to survive and attempt to escape. This was the first part of a multi-volume series. It just didn’t do it for me.
ªªª The Book of Matthew (Greatfall) by Jason Gurley
An epilogue of sorts to the silo story Greatfall, following the fate of Silo 23 and the main villain of that story. A satisfying conclusion to the saga.
Fantasy
ªª Night of Wolves (Paladins book 1) by David Dalglish
A light Paladin (following a healing God) and a dark Paladin (following a harsh God) develop an unexpected friendship while defending a village against a horde of werewolves. This book was mostly a set-up introducing the two Paladins and laying the groundwork for the series that follows it (which I probably won’t read)
ªª The Stolen Crown (Mithgar) by Dennis L. McKiernan
As much as I liked the earlier Mithgar books, I think the author has run out of steam. Both this one and the previous one were ho-hum. Mithgar is Tolkien lite, with elves, dwarves, humans, etc. When the kingdom falls a young prince is secreted out and raised under a false identity, only to try and reclaim his kingdom when he comes of age. Very much a ‘been there, done that’ feel to this story.
ªª Shards by James V. Viscosi
Another entry in the “person from our world pulled into a fantasy world they have to try and save” genre. Not bad, but not nearly as good as Dragon Stones from the same author. This is the first in a series, but volume 2 has not been released, so buyer beware.
ªªªªª Book of Deacon 1-3 by Joseph Lallo
At first glance this seems to be yet another fantasy book with the standard trope of a team of ‘chosen ones’ who have to save their land from Evil. Yes, this is that, but it was well-written enough to rise above the standard fair. I read all three books in a row, I enjoyed it that much. A war has been raging for decades, sapping the vitality and population of the land. Myranda is a young woman orphaned by the war, and the first of these chosen ones. Others are Lain the fox malthrope, Myn the young dragon, and Ether the elemental. The villains are suitably horrible and seem impossible to overcome, and their true nature and motivation is not known until late in the series. Tons of action and interesting characters keep everything moving at a good clip. Great series.
ªªªª Jade (Book of Deacon) by Joseph Lallo
A novella that is an epilogue of sorts to the main trilogy, that takes place quite a while after the events covered there. A girl is cast out by her unpleasant guardians, and reluctantly looked after by a dragon. The why of the dragon’s odd behavior is revealed later, and eventually it’s revealed how everything ties into the first series.
SF
ªªªª Dawn of Dragons by James Maxey
A prequel to the excellent Bitterwood trilogy, this introduces some of the characters in that book (the amoral Jazz and her robots) and reveals the origin of the dragons, and the start of Atlantis. A must-read for anyone who enjoyed the Bitterwood series.
ªªªª ½ Brilliance & ªªªª ½ A Better World by Marcus Sakey
The first two books of the Brilliance Saga, these are excellent near-future thrillers, but some people may be put off by the rather heavy-handed parallels between the events in the books and current and past real-world events. Starting the in late 80’s, 1% of all humans are born ‘brilliant,’ with savant-like abilities. Some of the abilities are not particularly useful, like being able to instantly guess the correct number of objects in a container, but others are devastating: being able to read body language so well no one can lie to you, or find the variations in the stock market so you can become a trillionaire overnight. “Normals” fear and hate the Brilliants (or “Twists”), so they take any children who test as brilliant and put them in abusive boarding schools, and push to have every Brilliant implanted with an ID chip and tracker. Naturally the Brilliants don’t care for this, so the country lurches towards civil war. Nick Cooper is a Brilliant working for the government to take down rogue Brilliants, who soon begins to question whom and what he’s really working for. This is an excellent and disturbing series.
ªªª Unexpected Stories by Octavia E. Butler
Unexpected, because Ms. Butler sadly died some years ago. She was not very prolific (but made up for it by quality), so we are lucky to have these two old stories from early in her career. One is a long prequel to her novel Survivor (a book which she actually disowned!), about a humanoid alien race where castes are genetically determined, and the leadership caste is so rare that when a young male is found on a rival tribe’s land, they’re willing to cripple him to force him to stay. The other story is a near-future tale about the government tracking down and recruiting telepaths, and one ex-agent’s attempts to help the minority children with developing powers avoid that fate. This story seems a warm-up for her Patternmaster series.
ªª Vessel by Andrew J. Morgan
A mysterious alien vessel wrecks havoc on the international space station, causing the astronauts to go crazy, or simply vanish. A journalist tries to break through the official wall of silence, while a (brilliant, beautiful and single) female scientist is given a crash course in space flight and shipped up to the station. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when the author decided to skip over most of the space flight training! Unfortunately this is one of those books where if the characters simply came clean to each other, a lot of problems (and plot complications) could’ve been avoided. And after all that, there’s no good resolution. Color me disappointed.
ªªªªª Defenders by Will McIntosh
The Earth is invaded by hostile aliens (a sort of telepathic starfish) whose ability to read minds makes them unbeatable. Rapidly losing the battle to the invaders, scientists manage to engineer giant-sized super-soldiers, without the brain chemistry that makes them vulnerable to the aliens. Unfortunately, the cure to the starfish invasion rapidly becomes worse than the disease, and humanity has to figure out what to do with the monsters they created. An excellent military & social SF adventure.
ªª The Walk Up Nameless Ridge by Hugh Howey
A short story. Some guy decides to try climbing the tallest mountain in the universe, that no one has managed to climb. I’m still not sure if he managed to do it.
ªªª The Dinosaur Four by Geoff Jones
A group of hapless customers and employees at a coffee shop inadvertently get transported back into the time of dinosaurs. Much carnage and character attrition happen as they race to get back the device that will return them to modern times. I found it kind of difficult to believe that researchers doing sooper-secrit work on time-travel would have their lab in a building above a coffee shop, but you just gotta except some things in fiction.
ªªª The Serene Invasion by Eric Brown
Overly benevolent aliens (The Serene) come to earth, solving all our social and environmental ills. One of the solutions is to make humans incapable of any violence, to each other or to yourself. Naturally there’s some humans who don’t like this development. One character, (a former arms dealer who went broke) goes to increasingly desperate length to commit suicide, until he’s contacted by enemies of the Serene who want to return humans to their former wicked ways. Other characters who have been helped by the Serene try to stop him. One of the funny things about this book was how offended some people got when I described the ability to commit violent acts being taken away, so clearly the premise of this book is not for everyone!
ªªª ½ Hybrids (Neanderthal Parallax)by Robert J. Sawyer
The final book in the trilogy where the modern human world and a modern Neanderthal world intersect. The story is partly about a romance between a human female scientist and a male Neanderthal scientist, and all the culture shock involved with that (male and female Neanderthals live apart for most of each month, and are expected to have same-sex mates for the time when they’re not with the opposite sex.). The other part of the book is about how certain factions of humans are scemeing to take over the Neanderthal world, which is unpolluted and unspoiled. The series will not be for everyone-people of certain political bents would consider a lot of it environmentally preachy, and there’s an overt anti-religious plot theme. But if that doesn’t bother you, then it’s an interesting series.
ªªª The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
An old classic. Somewhat dated by the old technology and the militarism, still interesting. Alien parasites try to take over humanity, and soon the only way to make sure someone is not infected is for everybody to go around naked. Scandalous at the time the book was written, now just amusing. This was interesting for the portrayal of the agency fighting the invasion as being run by people that are actually very smart and competent. In fiction where I’m used to seeing the plot kept moving by people doing stupid things, this was refreshing.
ª The Shell Collector by Hugh Howey
What I thought was going to be an eco-thriller turns out to be a sappy romance. In the near-future, oceans have become so acidified by climate change that seashells are extinct and intact ones command huge prices. Maya is a reporter and shell collector, who recently wrote an expose’ on the family of a reclusive oil magnate. When she’s unexpectedly given an interview with the magnate, the FBI gets involved, claiming the guy is making fake shells to flood the market and cause prices to crash. This all sounds much more interesting than it is. The book mostly focuses on the internal conflicts of the reporter, and I really didn’t give a shit about any of these characters.
Thriller
ªªª Legion: Skin Deep by Brandon Sanderson
Hallucinating genius Stephen Leeds is back in this novella, where he’s hired to track down a missing body and the biotech it may have secreted inside it. His ‘aspects,’ imaginary people that only he can see and talk to, each one an expert in a particular field, are starting to reveal hidden lives outside his knowledge, worrying him that he may be losing his tenuous hold on sanity.
ªªª Revival: A Novel by Stephen King
The somewhat rambling tale of Jamie, who we meet as a young boy in an extended family, and minister Charles Jacobs. The two pass in and out of each other’s lives over the course of several decades, as Jamie deals with tragedy and drug addiction, and minister Jacobs changes the course of his own career after a devastating event. This book doesn’t really have a driving plot or even a villain per se, unless you count the ills and frailty of the human condition. What it does have is King’s excellent prose, which makes it worth reading even without a strong plot. In the end, this is a book about what happens when you mess with things that should not be messed with, and that miracles will come with a very steep price.
ªª Vengeance from the Deep (books 1 & 2) by Russ Elliott
This could be one of those ‘so bad it’s good’ stories. Some isolated natives on an island off South Africa worship a giant kronosaur, occasionally feeding it “white devils” as they become available. A nerdy scientist and his Rambo-esque escort inadvertently free the Kronosaur and really piss off the (literally) spear-chucking natives. The typical scenario follows of the kronosaur wandering around the South African coast eating people, and none of the authorities will believe it’s really a kronosaur and not a shark. There’s the ubiquitous gorgeous and single scientist woman, various experts, a precocious kid, and lots of people being eaten. Not to mention the angry natives pursuing the White Devil who desecrated their island. It’s all very silly but I’ve read worse. It's worth noting that the covers on both volumes are very striking, and it turns out that the author is actually a graphic artist and designer. The covers were much better than the actual books.
ªªªªª The Last Town by Blake Crouch
The final book in the Wayward Pines trilogy. Describing the plot won’t make much sense unless you’ve read the other two books, but suffice to say that if you liked those books, you’ll like this one. The one caveat is that this one is even more violent than the first two (hard as it is to believe) so this is not for the faint of heart. Seriously. And the epilogue! He sure better follow up on that!
ªª The China Dogs by Sam Masters
Dogs start going berserk in Florida. An albino (!) policeman teams up with an eccentric pierced and tattooed chick to try and solve the mystery before it’s too late. The plot eventually encompasses evil Chinese authorities, the president of the United States, North Korea, and everything but the kitchen sink. This is marginally better than the other killer-dogs story I read last year (see below) but that’s damning it with faint praise. I found the ending in the hospital particularly unbelievable.
ªªª Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
A Mercedes piloted by an unknown driver plows into a crowd of people waiting outside a job fair, killing and injuring many. He is never caught, and the case still haunts retired detective Bill Hodges. When the killer unexpectedly contacts him, it starts a series of escalating events as the game of cat and mouse between the detective and the killer becomes deadly. Not King’s best work, but still an engaging read.
ªªª The Neighbor by Dean R. Koontz
A short story. When their elderly next door neighbor dies and his house is abandoned, a 12 year-old boy and his older sister get a lot more than they bargained for when they decide to explore it. It is true that you can never completely know what goes on behind closed door.
ªªª Dinosaur Lake II by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
The dinosaurs are back at Crater Lake, and they’re hungry. This time they can fly. That’s about all that needs to be said.
ªª Jezebel by Gordon A, Kessler
Dogs in a small town suddenly start going berserk. The animal-control officer (the cliché` haunted Vietnam vet) has his hands full with that, as well as a beautiful deputy that inexplicably seems obsessed with having sex with him. This story is just stupid, particularly the big reveal of what’s happening with the dogs, and the protagonist’s illness, just made me roll my eyes.
ªª Snapper by Felicia Zekauskas
A giant snapping turtle lurks in a lake by a small town for many years, biting off the occasional appendage or making the odd fisherman vanish. A beautiful single writer renting a cabin teams up with a handsome local guy to uncover town secrets and end the menace of the snapping turtle. Unfortunately, the book author doesn’t seem to know anything about reptile biology, because there’s scenes of the snapping turtle swimming around in a frozen -over lake, and attacking people in the snow. Not gonna happen.
ª Zoo by James Patterson
While I’ve enjoyed some of James Pattersons’ books, this was not his best effort. Animals start going berserk and attacking people. When the reason for it is finally discovered, it doesn’t even make sense. Honestly, nothing anyone does in this story makes much sense. A book with a similar theme I read a couple years ago (Animal Kingdom by Lain Rob Wright) was also kind of dumb, but still handled the premise a lot better than Zoo.
ªªª Invasive Species by Joseph Wallace
An unknown species of wasp from deep in the African jungle suddenly begins turning up in populated areas. They can apparently parasitize any large mammal, like Alien, and removing the parasite will kill the host. You might as well do that anyway, since the host dies (also like Alien) when the parasite matures. They’re also really smart, and hold a deadly grudge if anyone kills a larva or adult. While it was not a bad book, I felt humanity didn’t put up a decent fight. I mean…they’re bugs. Use Raid or something.