Tag Archives: Self-Published

May 8, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Pain Is So Close To Pleasure

Book cover for Pain Is So Close to Pleasure by Jonathan Antony Strickland. Image on cover shows an orange octopus with all eight tentacles curling around its body. Title: Pain Is So Close to Pleasure

Author: Jonathan Antony Strickland

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 5, 2012

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror

Length: 5 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

This is the story “Pain Is So Close To Pleasure”, a short comedy story I wrote several years ago. The story looks at an alien race who has recently come into contact with our own. To learn more about each other, ourselves and the aliens decide to send an exchange student to the others world to spend time there so each race can learn more about the other.

Content Warning: Swearing and death.

Review:

Cultural misunderstandings don’t even begin to cover what happened here.

Mr. Kolmortis truly felt like an alien to me which is not always something that happens when I read science fiction about creatures from other planets. His thought processes were so different from how a human would interpret the same situation that I understood why he was bewildered by our species. We were not at all what he expected to find when he agreed to this exchange student program on behalf of his school.

With that being said, I struggled to believe that either side would agree to this program without getting to know a lot more about each other first. Just because two species can communicate in some way doesn’t mean that what works for one of them will be a good idea for the other one, too. Yes, I know I’m being vague here, but the twist is something best left up to other readers to be surprised by just like I was. If only the protagonist had given more hints about why this decision was made and why the adults in the situation assumed they had all of the information they needed for such a massive step in interspecies relations.

I did appreciate Mr. Kolmortis’ closing paragraphs in his confused letter to Mr. Francis, the human headmaster who had chosen Peter as the representative of humanity for this cultural exchange. He genuinely wanted to get to the bottom of what had recently happened, and he had no idea how readers were going to react to the information he included that didn’t make sense to him. It’s not always easy to write characters like him, so kudos to Mr. Strickland for diving so deeply into this world and imagining what it might really be like to meet a sentient alien species.

Pain Is So Close to Pleasure was a wild ride.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

May 1, 2025 · 12:00 am

A Review of It Happened One Wednesday

Book cover for It Happened One Wednesday by C M Weller. Image on cover is a black and white photo of a 1950s style diner with a black and white checkerboard linoleum floor, seats up by the kitchen for solo guests, and cute little booths on the side of the room for groups of two or more. Title: It Happened One Wednesday

Author: C M Weller

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 24, 2013

Genres: Science Fiction, Historical, Contemporary

Length: 9 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

For your consideration, an ordinary girl on a hot, summer’s day. But watch out for the door she’s about to enter, for it leads straight to the past… which is, indeed, another country.

Content Warning: Influenza and racism. I will discuss the latter in my review.

Review:

Get ready for a fun time travel paradox!

No, I can’t tell you what it is, of course, but trying to figure out how the various events fit together when they all needed each other in order to happen in the correct order was amusing. This is one of those things I like the most about time travel tales, and I was glad to have enough time to puzzle about how certain events probably fit into the timeline and why Esperanto was determined to return to such a racist and sometimes dangerous chapter of American history.

I would have loved to see more world building in this short story. Yes, it was modelled heavily on The Twilight Zone and therefore some mystery was to be expected, but from a reader’s perspective I felt a little confused by what was going on and how Esperanto managed to travel so far back into time and what on Earth she hoped to accomplish there. If this had been explained a little better, I would have happily gone for a full five-star rating as this was quite the experience for her.

Social mores can change quite a bit from one generation to the next, but they happen so slowly that the people experiencing them may not always notice right away while the generations to come might be shocked by what things that were normal sixty years ago but are now prohibited by law. Yes, this paragraph is about racism and how the protagonist responded to it. I’ll leave the details of that up to other readers to experience for themselves, but it was refreshing for me as a reader to get a glimpse of the past that doesn’t attempt to whitewash the ugliness in it.

It Happened One Wednesday made me want to know what happened next.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 24, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Heart of Water and Stone

Book cover for Heart of Water and Stone  by EE Ottoman. Image on cover shows some small white wildflowers growing next to stream that has a rocky bed in it and some stones piled beside it, too. The water is rippling slightly as if it’s a somewhat windy - but not stormy - day. Title: Heart of Water and Stone

Author: EE Ottoman

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 12, 2025

Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQ, Romance, Historical

Length: 68 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Girin is a troll, content with his simple, quiet life in the forest—a life thrown into chaos when he stumbles across an unconscious human on one of the mountain paths. The human is not an ordinary one either, but a witch—tortured, branded, and mere steps from death when Girin finds him. Unable to leave him there to die alone, Girin takes the human home to nurse him back to health. But he quickly learns that keeping one stubborn human alive is a far more difficult task than he first surmised …

Content Warning: Historical references to slavery, torture, and the belief in witchcraft.

Review:

Goodness comes in many forms.

Trolls aren’t common protagonists in fantasy, so I was excited to meet one here. It’s always nice when authors purposefully seek out themes and types of their genres that are not currently in vogue. Yes, it can be a risk in some cases depending on how audiences react, but I’d argue it’s one worth taking. It’s much more interesting to read tales that flip the reader’s expectations around and play around with who we’re supposed to sympathize with than it is to read one that sticks closely to the tropes. (Not that tropes are bad things, of course! There’s simply something to be said for thinking critically about why specific ones are being used).

I would have liked to see more world building in this piece, especially as it was related to Girin’s communication with the mountain during a point of conflict in one of the later scenes. There were so many things I wanted to know about how their relationship worked and what the mountain might be capable of doing to help him. If this had been explained better, I would have happily gone with a higher rating.

The slow-burn romance worked well for the characters and storyline. Both Girin and Ronan had plenty of reasons to be cautious about falling in love, so it made perfect sense for them to build a strong friendship first. This also meant that the romantic elements of the plot were often overshadowed by the fantasy and adventure themes which was a positive thing to this reader. A dash of this sort of content is plenty for my tastes most of the time.

Heart of Water and Stone made me smile.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

April 17, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Darkness in the Cyclone

Book cover for The Darkness in the Cyclone by Barnabas Soon and hyperhop. Image on cover shows an aerial shot of a tornado beginning to form. The clouds are swirling together tightly and menacingly. Title: The Darkness in the Cyclone

Author: Barnabas Soon and hyperhop

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 12, 2025

Genres: Speculative Fiction, (very mild) Horror, Contemporary

Length: 3 pages

Source: The authors gave me a free copy.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

What happens when a natural disaster hits the Gold Coast? As cyclone Alfred hits, a man is trapped in his home without power. What lovecraftian horrors does he imagine as he is cut off from the rest of civilisation and only the howling wind and rain as company?

Content Warning: Natural disaster (cyclones).

Review:

Are you afraid of the dark?

Some of the most interesting scenes in my opinion were the ones that described what it’s like to sit quietly at home during dangerous weather. This experience can be lonely, boring, terrifying, and/or even a little entertaining depending on how violent the weather is, how many supplies one has, and how prepared their home is for the many different things that can go wrong when the wind is raging outside. What is a mild inconvience for one person or place can be much worse under a different set of circumstances, and I appreciated the fact that the author allowed for every possibility before revealing Alfred’s fate.

It would have been helpful for the horror elements of this tale to be given more time to shine. I hesitated to even label this under that genre because of how subtle it was here.  Other readers are free to make up their own minds about how far these hints should be taken and what was really going on, of course, but I personally needed a little more substance and grit in order to feel connected to Alfred’s dilemma.

On a positive note, this is a gentle introduction to the horror genre for people who are easily startled or who don’t generally gravitate in that direction. The scary stuff is confined to Alfred’s thoughts and hobbies as he waits out the storm alone in his house for a few days. Yes, thoughts can be frighting sometimes, but there wasn’t any blood or gore here to amp up the suspense which did help this tale feel more realistic. I mean, who hasn’t occasionally felt afraid during a bad storm or on a particularly dark and gloomy night when the power is off thanks to bad weather? It’s such a common experience that it makes sense to explore it in fiction.

The Darkness in the Cyclone is a thought provoking thing to read during storm season…whenever that season may be where you live.

2 Comments

Filed under Uncategorised

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 10, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium

Book cover for The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium by Alastor Velazquez. Image on cover shows a sketch of some sort of engine or machine that has what appears to be multiple black buttons or gears moving up and down on it. Two analogue clocks are drawn as well, one on each side of the machine. This was set against a background that looks like an old, yellowed sheet of paper that has splotches of ink and coffee stains on it from many years of use. Title: The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium

Author: Alastor Velazquez

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 17, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 20 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

First there is a spark. When friction converts kinetic energy to thermal. Molecules vibrate at the surface. That spark combusts the air molecules around it, transforming into heat and light. A chemical reaction born from speed faster than sound. When the atoms catch and connect. When the world feels the flame that is made. When it licks at anything and everything it can touch. For it craves life. It craves to keep burning and burning. And burning. And burning.

Content Warning: Grief and terminal cancer.

Review:

Nearly anything is possible with a little elbow grease and science.

The steampunk aesthetic fit Graham’s dilemma perfectly. No, of course I won’t be saying what troubles he was dealing with as figuring out that piece of the puzzle was left until a little later on in the storyline. It’s better for other readers to learn those details when I did and for them have their own opportunities to realize what was going on. What I can say is that his solution made me wish this could be a short film as I would have loved to see how a director would interpret the detailed description of it that was provided in the text. Would it stick to the original themes, lean more heavily into the science of it, or do something else entirely? With steampunk stuff, one never really knows in advance, and that’s half of the reason why it’s so fun.

This short story struck the perfect balance between providing enough details for this reader to understand what was happening while also leaving plenty of room for the audience to fill in the blanks when it came to matters that were interesting but not vital for character or plot development. That is a difficult thing to accomplish, so I must congratulate Mr. Velazquez on not only pulling it off but making eveything seem effortless. While this was my first time reading him, I certainly hope it won’t be my last based on what a good time I had soaking in his polished words. 

While this isn’t what I would label a romance per se, there were romantic elements to the plot that were beautifully written and integral to understanding the characters as individuals. This is one of those cases where I was glad to see a little romance in my science fiction, and I’m saying that as a reader who has far more often not been thrilled by the mixing of these genres to say the least. For me to compliment it is a rare treat and one that the author has earned many times over today. Bravo for making the sum greater than its parts and for convincing this skeptic!

The Metallurgy of Graham Rhenium was a wild ride. 

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 3, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Fifth

Book cover for The Fifth  by Rudolph Kohn. Image on cover shows the Milky Way at night. The sky is starry and feels endless.Title: The Fifth

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 14, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror

Length: 11 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A team of four astronauts have just left the Solar System, carrying several thousand of their fellow men and women for the first colonization attempt of a relatively habitable planet just a few light-years away. Just as they are getting ready to enter cold sleep themselves, they observe a strange reading on their sensors…

Review:

Was it an ordinary workday? Well, that depends on your definition of those terms.

Some tales work better if they’re plot focused, and this was one of them. Brief, necessary details were shared about the four astronauts who were finishing up a few last chores before putting themselves into cryosleep for their long journey to a faraway habitable planet, but that wasn’t the focus of the plot by any means. Instead, checking off the last few items and being interrupted by a computer alarm were what really mattered here, and I was engaged with every single scene along the way. This is a good story to read for folks who prefer to dive straight into the action and then work their way back to a bit of character development from there.

I struggled with the cliffhanger ending. It felt as though it could have easily gone on for at least a few more chapters in order to explain what was happening and how the twist was going to change the lives of the astronauts and the thousands of people in cryosleep they were protecting. No, I didn’t need to have every loose end tied up, but I would have liked to at least see more of the main characters’ reactions to the final scene and few more hints about what what happened next.

With that being said, that last sentence did grab my attention and make me read it over again a few times. It could be interpreted in more than one way, some of which landed firmly in the horror genre, and I enjoyed the process of coming up with possibilities and trying to determine which one was most likely. If any of my readers end up checking out this short story, I’d love to hear your thoughts about what the sentence meant and which interpretation you chose.

The Fifth made me want more.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , ,

March 27, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Nor Gloom of Night

Book cover for Nor Gloom of Night by C M Weller. Image on cover is a simple drawing of a white envelope that is being propped up by a purple, mouse-shaped cat toy that has a green patch on it’s back that’s possibly from where a cat bit the toy too much. Title: Nor Gloom of Night

Author: C M Weller

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 9, 2012

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 23 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Paul has been called a “glorified mailman” by his peers, but he sees it as a sacred duty. Now, with the “little problem” of a big rock through half his vessel, he has to do everything he can -including the unthinkable- to deliver. The mail must get through.

Content Warning: Accidental deaths of people and of one pet.

Review:

Being a glorified mailman isn’t half as easy as it may sound.

Paul’s grumpiness and low levels in trust in humanity as a whole was a little irritating to me until I understood where he was coming from, but I appreciated the chance to change my mind about him. Honestly, he had some good points to make about how some companies are willing to cut corners in order to save a few pennies even if they risk their reputations – or, a million times worse, the health and safety of their customers – in the process. It was also interesting to see how the rough portions of his personality were smoothed out by his deep love of his cat, Liz, as well as his wife and child. Of course someone might be grouchy if they were under as much stress as he was when the audience first met him! Getting to know him better was a good thing even if I would have taken a slightly different approach to his dilemma.

I struggled with the plot holes in this short story, especially in the final scene. As much as I wanted to give this one a higher rating, I had too many questions about the logistics of what happened to do so. This was especially true when it came to explaining how cryonic suspension works in this universe and what it was and wasn’t capable of doing for someone medically speaking. Yes, there is a certain suspension of disbelief that needs to occur when reading science fiction, but including more science in this fiction would have encouraged me to bump this one up by at least a star.

With that being said, the ending was fantastic. Science fiction can be a heavy genre at times depending on who one reads, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much hope could be found in this piece. That’s something I always love to discover in speculative fiction, especially these days, and it encourages me to hopefully read more from this author soon.

Nor Gloom of Night made me smile.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 20, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Broken Home

Book cover for The Broken Home by Rudolph Kohn. Image on cover shows part of a stone building with a window in it. Most of the rest of the building has been destroyed. These ruins are set against a cloudy desert background. A few rays of light are poking through and illuminating the scene and the few plants growing in the soil beneath it. Title: The Broken Home

Author: Rudolph Kohn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 12, 2024

Genres: Science Fiction

Length: 16 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 stars

Blurb:

Over ten thousand years in the future, mankind has spread to the stars… but the Earth Empire was left behind, and the birthplace of mankind was lost–first to tyrants, and then to the obscurity of history. However, when an explorer stumbles onto the once-great planet, not a single person has survived. The planet itself goes up for auction, and the buyer seeks to understand what happened, so long ago. The Broken Home is a short story about the excavation of the greatest fortress the Earth Empire ever built.

Content Warning: References to an ancient war and death.

Review:

Anyone can learn from the past if they listen closely.

Science fiction fans who have been immersed in this genre for a long time will probably be able to figure out what is happening in this tale fairly quickly, but that isn’t a criticism of this piece. Not everything needs  shocking plot twists in order to be worth reading! What mattered more was seeing how Jenkins and Marley reacted to what they discovered about humanity’s past when they returned to Earth to see if there was anything interesting left behind there. I sympathized with the mixture of emotions they experienced as they uncovered something that no living person was aware of. Honestly, I probably would have behaved the same way if I were in their shoes!

As this short story was heavily centred on its plot development, I would have liked to see more attention paid to how humanity evolved over ten thousand years. That is a long period of time in which all sorts of incredible – or terrible – things could have happened, and I found myself wishing for more details about what the characters knew about their recent and distant past. This easily could have been expanded into a novella or full-length novel, and I would have happily read a much longer version of it.

One of the things I liked the most about this piece was how it reacted to the idea of history being something that is always changing as new information is added and old assumptions possibly being reinterpreted by the newest generation. Some things might be lost in the mists of time depending on record keeping and how much current historians know about a specific era, but that doesn’t mean it’s hopeless. There is always the possibility of change as this field develops and new perspectives are considered. I know this paragraph is vague, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers while also sharing the wonder of how quickly our assumptions can shift given the right variables. That is to say, keep an open mind while reading this!

The Broken Home piqued my curiousity.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 13, 2025 · 1:00 am

A Review of Apis

Book cover for Apis by Liz Boysha. Image on cover shows a drawing of a black woman who has patches of something gold and glowing on her skin. She’s holding her chin up with one hand has she looks thoughtfully and happily off to the viewer’s right. There are blue, purple, and yellow flowers woven into a halo-like object above her head. Title: Apis

Author: Liz Boysha

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: August 15, 2020

Genres: Fantasy, LGBTQ, Contemporary

Length: 166 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A woman wakes up to find bees are living inside her. It’s a love story.

Content Warning: References to growing up in multiple foster homes. Rape. Attempted sexual abuse. Miscarriage. Bee stings. Stabbings. Fainting. Anaphylaxis from bee stings. A house fire that resulted in a child being orphaned. Metastatic breast cancer. Infertile foster parents who disrupt the placement of their foster child after getting pregnant.  Miscarriage. TI will not be discussing any of these topics in my review.

Review:

Hope isn’t a thing with feathers in this universe, but it does have wings.

The world building left plenty to the imagination which fit Astrid’s personality and backstory nicely. She wasn’t the sort of person who would ever stick her nose where it didn’t belong, and she appreciated the same treatment from others. Her fierce desire for independence coloured everything she said and did, including her limited interest in what was happening around her unless it personally affected her in some way. This was a slightly unusual choice, so I commend Ms. Boysha for taking that risk in writing a character who, in a different set of hands, could come across in a much harsher light. There is something to be said for characters who have strong boundaries and aren’t afraid to enforce them, and I hope to meet more characters like this in the future.

One of the things I struggled with as I read part one was how many different traumatic things kept happening to the characters, particularly the protagonist Astrid. Including one to a few of them would have been enough to keep the storyline moving forward, but to have wave after wave of awful experiences that were shared but generally never resolved was too much for my tastes. This is something I’m saying as someone who reads horror and is accustomed to a decent level of scary and disturbing scenes. Other readers may disagree, of course, but I think this would have been a stronger work if Astrid had been given time to process and heal from a smaller number of painful experiences.

With that being said, I was intrigued by how Ms. Boysha used these scenes as possible fodder for the metaphor she was exploring. (I say possible because I believe there are other explanations that could also be just as valid). Trauma of any form can resurface months, years, or decades later in ways that may not make immediate sense to someone who isn’t aware of the backstory. Yes, I’m being vague here, but the details are best teased out by other readers for themselves so you can form your own theories about what this tale means. I found it meaningful to draw parallels between Astrid’s early life experiences and how her life unfolded after the events of the first scene.

Apis filled me with questions.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

March 6, 2025 · 1:00 am

Newlywed Questions: A Review of The Ring and the Knife

Book cover for The Ring and the Knife by Benjamin Parsons. Image on cover shows a black and white drawing of a shirtless white man and a white woman who is wearing a long, flowing dress. They are standing in a graveyard during a time of year when there are no leaves on the trees. It’s probably very cold there, so why don’t they have the common sense to dress warmly for the weather? She looks pensive and he’s pointing at something behind them and trying to get her to turn around and see what it is. Title: The Ring and the Knife

Author: Benjamin Parsons

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 11, 2023

Genres: Romance, Paranormal, Historical

Length: 32 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Something happened to William Mortimore in Berecombe churchyard, many years ago – something he can’t quite remember. When he unexpectedly finds himself that little country village again, fragments of the past start to haunt him – and lure him to uncover a forgotten secret.
Berecombe – why does William remember the name of that little village? When was he there before? What happened to him that day in the churchyard, long ago? Why can’t he remember? Why does he feel compelled to return? As the questions smother him, he searches to understand the dreadful, portentous meeting his memory has supressed – the terrible secret of his own past.

Content Warning: Murder. I will not discuss it in my review.

Review:

Cemeteries are as full of answers as they are of new questions.

Romance isn’t a genre I visit very often, so it’s quite the compliment for me to mention how much I loved this one. William and his wife were deeply in love and determined to enjoy their honeymoon when the audience met them in the first scene. I looked forward to getting to know them better and was pleased with what was shared. Newlyweds are so full of hope that this particular pair created a nice contrast between their happiness and the sad things that were happening in the churchyard they decided to visit.

There was a plot hole involving William’s past that I wish had been given more time to develop as the order of events for it never quite made sense to me. Some of these moments were shared non-linearly, so it took me a little bit to piece them together and come up with a reasonable explanation of what must have occurred. If more attention had been paid to this issue, I would have happily gone for a full five-star rating.

With that being said, I enjoyed the plot twists that were revealed later on. They created a satisfying mixture of romantic and paranormal themes that made me wonder what else the characters were about to discover about that quiet little pocket of the countryside that felt so peaceful but was simultaneously filled with intrigue and uncertainty, too. What a treat it was to dig more deeply with them as they pushed forward to figure out why William’s memory had a large blank spot in it.

The Ring and the Knife was romantic and eerie.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as , , , , , , ,