Tag Archives: Self-Published

June 8, 2023 · 1:00 am

No Ordinary River: A Review of Badwater

Title: Badwater

Author: Travis Liebert

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: November 8, 2019

Genres: Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 27 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Review

“I’ve been a search and rescue diver for twelve years. We see a lot of strange and disgusting things. But what I saw last week has me questioning both my job and reality.”

There’s a place in the river where not even search and rescue divers are supposed to go. It’s called Badwater.

But when Joseph Albright dives into this forbidden region, he discovers something beyond comprehension.

Intent on solving a mystery as old as the earth itself, he comes into contact with forces beyond fathom.

Get this riveting new horror story and learn of the terrors that pervade our world.

Content Warning: Drowning and body horror.

A strong current might drown you in this river, but even if that happens it will be the least of your worries.

Joseph was a sympathetic and memorable protagonist. I appreciated how cautious he was around water and how seriously he took his work as a search and rescue diver. These were important things to establish early on in order to explain his later behaviour. They also endeared me to him as a character because I knew how knowledgable he was about safely enjoying the water and how drowning can happen to even the strongest swimmer. If the author ever writes a sequel, I’d sure like to learn more about this world and the other people in it.

My only reason for choosing a three star rating had to do with a plot hole that the narrator never closed. It involved what the powers of the character who controlled Badwater actually were and how far they could be stretched or pushed back against. In some scenes, this character seemed nearly all-powerful, while in others there appeared to be loopholes to the rules. I would have loved to see this clarified as it was the only thing that prevented me from choosing a much higher rating. Everything else about this tale was deliciously scary.

The folklore elements of the storyline were top-notch. They shared enough information for this reader to know what was happening but also left plenty of little details up to my imagination. I also enjoyed taking note of the slight differences in how various characters reacted to the legends about Badwater and why no one was ever supposed to go there. Not only did this make everything feel realistic, it encouraged me to keep reading so I could come up with my own theories about which versions made the most sense to me.

Badwater was a spooky summer read.

A Review of Employment Interview With a Vampire

Title: Employment Interview With a Vampire

Author: J Bennett

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 8, 2014

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: 65 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Deidre finds herself out of a job, out of luck, and out of time. The rent is past due, and the list of her employable skills is smaller than the balance of her checking account. Deidre has one shot at staying out of a fast food restaurant uniform.

A mysterious gentleman with certain “peculiarities” is seeking a housekeeper.

Deidre squeezes into her only nice pair of slacks, tames her wild orange hair, and starts off for the job interview that will either change her life… or end it!

Get ready for a very different kind of vampire story… While Deidre’s potential boss possesses a wicked set of fangs and a hankering for a certain ruby refreshment (preferably served fresh and hot), he’s also got a fashion sense that hasn’t been cool since the 1800s. Nathaniel adamantly prefers the telegraph over the telephone, votes for Eisenhower in every election, and isn’t so sure these horseless carriages will catch on.

Can Deidre survive her employment interview with a vampire and somehow convince her potential boss that corsets and petticoats aren’t the fashion of the day?

Oh, and what’s she going to do about that geriatric vampire hunter sneaking around the haunted mansion?

If you’re looking for a fun and funny supernatural story with a relatable (and often exasperated) heroine, then you’ve found it! Welcome to the first funny vampire novella in The Vampire’s Housekeeper Chronicles series!

No one does funny new adult vampire fiction like J Bennett.

Review:

Content Warning: A few mildly sexist comments. A little bit of body shaming involving the style and cut of clothing Deidre was wearing.

No one has been exasperated to death by a vampire yet, but there’s still time to change that.

Deidre was one of those characters that is hard to explain in a few short sentences. Most of the vampire stories I read are fairly violent, so I spend the first few scenes worried that her naivety and stubbornness was about to lead to her untimely and terrible death. Luckily for her, those traits turned out to be assets when dealing with this particular vampire. I appreciate the way the author flirted with the various interpretations of what a vampire is like as well as the reader’s expectations of what a heroine should do in this genre. Deidre sometimes joined in with the gentle fun that was being poked at certain tropes, and that made me like her even more. She understood the absurdity of her situation, and she leaned into it so hard that I can’t imagine how campy and delightful her future adventures might be.

While I understand that this is the introduction to a series, I would have liked to see more conflict included in this tale that didn’t involve Nathaniel making inappropriate comments about Deidre’s clothing and marital prospects. As much as it made sense for someone who was a few hundred years old to say those things, I found them a little repetitive as time wore on and wished the author had included other examples of how wildly out of touch he was with modern times. There were plenty of other things he found baffling about our era, and I would have gone with a full five-star rating if his rants had included a wider range of topics or if some other sort of conflict had been brought up to reveal the many differences between him and Deidre.

With that being said, Nathaniel was a refreshing take on what a vampire might realistically be like. Of course he would struggle to adapt to changing times, especially given how socially isolated vampires must remain in order to avoid the sun and people who want to kill them. Honestly, I could see Nathaniel being much more offensive than he turned out to be, so it was interesting to think about the perspective changes he had made over the years and who might have encouraged him to rethink his expectations of what various types of people ought to do. There is so much more room here to explore, and I’ll be curious to see how his relationship with Deidre evolves over time.

Employment Interview With a Vampire was a clever twist on vampire fiction.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Fantasy, Humour, J Bennett, Novella, Self-Published, Vampire

May 25, 2023 · 1:00 am

No Easy Way Out: A Review of Take Care of Your Body

Title: Take Care of Your Body

Author: Elton Gahr

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: March 2, 2022

Genres: Science Fiction, Contemporary

Length: 18 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

Frank is a new kind of personal trainer. The kind that switches bodies with the ultra rich so they can get the benefits of working out without the effort. But his new client has done the unthinkable, escaping with Frank’s body while leaving Frank to answer for his crimes.
Now Frank has to track down his own body and force his client to return it before the FBI can catch him.

Review:

Shortcuts can make life easier…if all goes well.

Some of my favourite scenes were the ones that described how careful Frank was when exercising in other people’s bodies. Exercise is one of those things that can be a great deal of fun, a terribly dull chore, or something in-between those two extremes depending on the person involved and what types of movement they actually enjoy doing. Observing Frank’s reaction to his work was fascinating. He respected his clients and did everything he could to help them slowly become stronger and healthier while he was in control of their bodies. It was nice to see how much he cared about perfect strangers.

I had some trouble understanding what was happening in the final scene and needed to read it over again a couple of time to make sure I understood what the author was trying to say. Part of this was due to a character who wasn’t very good at thinking through the logical conclusions of his actions. While he was an interesting person who needed to be written that way for other portions of the storyline to flow nicely, I did find myself wishing for a clearer description of what was happening in that last scene so that both he and I could figure out what was going on there.

The world building was well done. There wasn’t a great deal of time to explain how this mysterious conscious-swapping technology worked given that the author only had eighteen pages to work with, but he explained enough about it for me to understand the basics. Honestly, that was all that was needed before Frank’s dilemma began, so I was happy to quickly move on to how he was going to get his stolen body back before it was too late.

Take Care of Your Body was a wild ride.

A Review of The Life and Lies of Danny Diaz

Title: The Life and Lies of Danny Diaz

Author: Andy Paine

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 21, 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: 46 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

An ageing rocker, a journalist, and a small, seemingly inconsequential object. This is the tale of the greatest musical theft in history.

Such a small, seemingly inconsequential object. Yet for ageing rocker Danny Diaz, journalist Henry Lapthorne, and indeed the entire population, it is an object that has aided in the greatest musical theft in history, forever altering the historical landscape of music as we know it.

After years of wilful deceit, Danny’s life has come full circle as he reaches out to the one man who forever doubted him, intent on telling his story, and finding peace with his past. For Henry, it is the story of a lifetime, an unbelievable tale of addiction, regret, and redemption. But can it possibly be true? Or is it just another ruse? Is this tale the fulfilment of Henry’s career, or yet another deception in the decades long animosity between two men who know each other so well, and yet not at all.

Review:

Content Warning: Theft, suicide, and deceit. The suicide was mentioned briefly and with no details at all about how it was accomplished.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch…or a free song.

The character development was excellent. Danny was never unlikeable, but he certainly was naive and a little selfish when I first met him. It was rewarding to get to know his personality better and see how the object he carried around for years changed him in all sorts of ways. Without giving away spoilers, this transformation of his was the best part of the entire plot because of how he reacted to it and what he did once he realized how much power he possessed.

I adored the ambiguous corners of this story. The things Danny didn’t know about the small object in his possession were somehow just as intriguing as the many other things he was sure about. After I finished the final paragraph, I sat back and came up with my own theories about the subjects he had partial to no knowledge of. Discovering the limits of Danny’s understanding somehow made him feel both more relatable and more interesting. After all, many of us readers are living with little mysteries every day that we won’t ever fully solve either!

Another memorable thing about this short story was the uneasy relationship between Danny and the narrator who was a reporter who hoped to interview such an important musician. The reporter and Danny both had understandable reasons to be a little wary of each other, so it was rewarding to see them gradually let their guards down and connect with each other as fellow human beings. This was something that was gently hinted at in the first scene, so do keep an eye out for it as the plot progresses.

The Life and Lies of Danny Diaz was a thought-provoking and thrilling read.

6 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Andy Paine, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Fantasy, Self-Published, Short Story

May 11, 2023 · 1:00 am

Local Legends: A Review of Come in the Water

Title: Come in the Water

Author: K.C. Hastings

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 19, 2020

Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary

Length: 11 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

There’s something in the lake, and I don’t mean the giant catfish.

Review:

Content Warning: Murder, drowning, a small amount of blood.

Beware what the locals say. Sometimes they know more than anyone else.

One of the biggest strengths of this short story was how arrogant and yet still likeable the unnamed protagonist was. While I certainly wouldn’t want to live with her, I was intrigued by how certain she was that she had everything figured out. Her confidence was admirable even if it sometimes lead her into some pretty dangerous decisions. It can be easier to write a kind and sweet character than one who had such a major personality flaw, so I tip my cap to the author for pulling this off so nicely.

Given how unfamiliar the main character seemed to be with Oklahoma, I was surprised by how quickly she brushed off the scary legends the locals shared with her in the first scene. I would have understood if she didn’t believe every detail of them, but it struck me as odd for her not to be willing to listen to their warnings at all. If only the narrator had given more clues about why she behaved this way. Even if the string of recent deaths all had natural causes, shouldn’t she at least taken heed of how dangerous swimming could be in that area? I wish this had been explored as it would have gone a long way to provide some additional character and plot development.

The horror elements of the plot were deliciously scary and well done. Even the nicest lakes can feel a little eerie even on a clear sunny day when you stare into their murky depths, and that’s even more true for lakes that have disturbing legends attached to them.

Come in the Water is making me think twice about going swimming in a lake this summer!

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Fantasy, Horror, K.C. Hastings, Monster, Sea Monster, Self-Published, Short Story

May 4, 2023 · 1:00 am

Second Chances: A Review of Building Beauty

Title: Building Beauty

Author: Rachel Eliason

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: September 29, 2012

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance, LGBTQ, Historical

Length: 33 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

In the waning days of World War One, Alejandro Faidosky is sent to serve the Tsar in a distant corner of the Russian Empire. In the industrial center of Chelyabinsk, deep in southern Siberia Alejandro discovers a factory producing “automatons”, clockwork robots. His job is to sculpt a robotic prostitute for the common soldier. “Of all the men in Mother Russia I must be the most ill equipped for this assignment” Alejandro moans to himself, but he must not let Major Dmitri know, and he must somehow build beauty.

Review:

Content Warning: Grief and prostitution.

Assumptions make the world go around.

Some of the most memorable scenes were the ones that explored the difference between what certain characters thought the world should be like and how it actually was. Yes, I know I’m being vague there, but this is one of those themes that is best left for new readers to fully explore for themselves. There’s nothing like reaching the ending of a paragraph or scene and suddenly realizing what the protagonist was hinting at earlier or what the author might have been gently nudging the readers to think about with some well-placed comments about the world we live in. I enjoyed those moments and hope other readers will as well.

Alejandro was such an intelligent, cautious, and thoughtful person that I struggled to understand why he chose the unusual design he did for the robotic prostitute he was building. That decision did not fit in well with everything else I’d learned about him. It would have been understandable for him to privately dream about a robot that he found appealing, but openly revealing such information was an entirely different story for that era. I wish this had been explored in greater depth so that I could better understand why he took this risk and what he hoped to gain from it. There was so much more the author could have done with Alejandro in this regard.

This is something I’m saying as a reader who usually has a strong preference non-romantic speculative fiction, but the author blended together the fantasy and romance genres together in this tale perfectly. The storyline genuinely needed both of them, and I loved seeing how they strengthened each other and kept the characters moving along briskly to their destinies. It was my first time reading Ms. Eliason’s work, and her creative approach to how she mixed these genres together makes me want to read more from her as soon as possible.

Building Beauty was a romantic and inventive read.

4 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Historical, LGBT, Rachel Eliason, Romance, Science Fiction, Self-Published, Short Story, World War I

April 27, 2023 · 1:00 am

Better Days: A Review of The Old Mountain Biker

Title: The Old Mountain Biker

Author: Robert Adamson

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: January 10, 2022

Genres: Science Fiction, Contemporary

Length: 28 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

In this SciFi short story, an old mountain biker encounters aliens from another planet that rescue him after a fall. They cure his injuries but also restore his youth.
Then they offer a similar gift to the entire planet, but with conditions.

Review:

Content Warning: A bike accident that causes a minor injury.

Everything is going be okay.

The main character was an intelligent and resourceful man who thought through his decisions carefully. He was exactly the sort of levelheaded person I’d hope would represent all of us during first contact with beings from another planet. I immediately formed a warm and positive opinion of him and would have loved to know more about him. It’s nice to click with a protagonist that quickly!

My only criticism has to do with the character development. There wasn’t a great deal of it in this story due the short length of this piece and how much time the author needed to devote to explaining what the aliens wanted from humanity and what they hoped to get from us, too. I would have gone for a higher rating if there had been more character development, and I hope the next instalment in this series gives me the opportunity to do just that!

One of the other things I appreciated about this short story had to do with how the aliens were portrayed. Too often, science fiction assumes that our first meeting with aliens will be violent or unpredictable, so it was refreshing to have a story in which nothing like that occurred. I can’t say much else about the plot without giving away spoilers, but it definitely has encouraged me to keep an eye on what Mr. Adamson comes up with next. He has a gentle and kind worldview that is sorely needed not only in science fiction but in storytelling in general!

I relished the peacefulness and hope of The Old Mountain Biker.

A Review of The Trip to Nowhere

Title: The Trip to Nowhere

Author: Stephanie Shaw

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: May 14, 2022

Genres: Paranormal, Mystery, Contemporary

Length: 59 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A broken marriage,
A lost love,
And nothing to lose.
When his wife confesses that she’s pregnant for Cole’s business rival, the news throws him into a downward spiral. Unable to face his life, he decides to go on a road trip alone. In the process, he uncovers the truth about a missing woman, an unborn child and a shocking family secret. He realizes too late that sometimes the past needs to be left in the past.

Review:

Content Warning: Pregnancy and murder.

Save this one for the next time there’s a foggy day in your area.

The setting tickled my imagination. Foggy days can make the world feel a little softer and more magical in general, especially if you have a long, quiet drive ahead of you and plenty of time to think. The author captured this feeling beautifully, and I smiled as she found ways to incorporate those drives into her plot twists as well. Her imagination took Cole into some places that were as surprising for him as they were entertaining for me as a reader.

I struggled to understand Cole’s behaviour. He was given multiple hints about what was really happening as he drove down those foggy, isolated roads, and I shook my head every time he brushed yet another one aside and kept pushing on towards his goal. While I believe this may have been written to show how his faults had terribly distorted his thinking over the years, it would have been helpful to have this theory confirmed or denied. Leaving it the way it was written made it hard for me to connect to him because of how obtuse he seemed to be about some things that could have been easily straightened out in the first scene.

With that being said, I loved Ms. Shaw’s clean and crisp writing style. She did an excellent job of painting vivid pictures of her characters and the setting without slowing down the storyline or using a single word more than was necessary. This is a delicate and impressive balance to strike, especially in the short story format when the author also needs to juggle so many other elements of good storytelling simultaneously. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for what she comes up with next.

The Trip to Nowhere was an atmospheric read.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2020s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Mystery, Paranormal, Self-Published, Short Story, Stephanie Shaw

April 13, 2023 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Sword and the Kestrel

Title: The Sword and the Kestrel Book cover for The Sword and the Kestrel by Shawna Reppert. Image on cover is a photograph of a Kestrel being held by the gloved hand of their handler out in a forest where the leaves on the trees and bushes are just beginning to grow in spring.

Author: Shawna Reppert

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: July 10, 2012

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: 21 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 4 Stars

Blurb:

Can a Renn-Faire falconer break an ancient family curse and make peace with the Lord of Forests?

Review:

Content Warning: A life-threatening heart condition

Nothing is more powerful than love.

Guy’s character development was beautiful. I appreciated his serious personality and how much time he spent wrestling with the choices that lay before him, none of which were good ones. No matter what he decided to do with his life next, he knew that he would never live to see old age. That’s a heavy burden for anyone to carry, and his reaction to it was nuanced and realistic. Some of the most interesting scenes for me were the ones that showed him being seriously tempted to commit a crime. So much can be learned about characters by observing them in their lowest moments when they think they might be able to get away with something, and Guy provided plenty of opportunities to explore his personal code of ethics and decide how he wanted to spend his short life.

There was one dangling thread in the storyline that I wish had been tied up properly. It involved Guy’s relationship with one of his falcons, and I kept expecting the narrator to swing back to that sticky subject and tell us how it was going to be made right again. He adored his falcons so much that I found the resolution that was actually shared to be a little unrealistic for what I’d learned about his personality. If not for this issue, I would have loved to give it a full five-star rating.

I smiled when I figured out which myth inspired the creation of this story. No, I’m not going to spoil it for anyone, but I thought the author did an excellent job of translating the themes of that story into our modern age. Fashions may be different now, but there was plenty of room in that source material for contemporary storylines to flourish. I found myself smiling and nodding along as more references were added and Guy slowly began to behave exactly like someone would have in that myth, give or take a little modern technology, of course.

The Sword and the Kestrel felt like a piece of folklore come to life.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Contemporary, Fantasy, Mythology, Retelling, Self-Published, Shawna Reppert, Short Story

April 6, 2023 · 12:00 am

Creating Consciousness: A Review of MARiiMO

Title: MARiiMO

Author: Tyrel Pinnegar

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: November 17, 2018

Genres: Science Fiction, Romance, LGBTQ+

Length: 124 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

This is the journal of Tammy Maheswaran, a reclusive roboticist living with undiagnosed autism. It documents the creation of Mariimo, a developmental robotics platform through which Tammy subconsciously externalizes her issues with isolation, anxiety, and touch. Upon the machine’s activation, Tammy gradually begins to realize that in the act of constructing Mariimo, she’s been unknowingly deconstructing herself.

Review:

Content Warning: Detailed descriptions of what it feels like to have anxiety, phantom pain from a limb amputation, and brief flashbacks to a car accident during which the main character was seriously injured.

Not everything can be planned out in advance.

I enjoyed Tammy’s character development. She told the audience almost nothing about herself when we first met her, so it was refreshing to see her slowly evolve into sharing more details about her personality and interests as the storyline progressed. I liked the process of exploring parts of her life she’d been completely silent about before. My opinion of her was fairly neutral in the beginning, but it swung over to something warm and positive once I had a stronger understanding of how her mind worked and why she made the choices she did.

The pacing was very slow, especially during the first third of the book. While I understand that this was done on purpose due to the fact that Tammy had undiagnosed autism and was meticulous about how she created MARiiMO, I did have some trouble remaining interested as the narrator gave me so many chapters on the many different materials she used (or, in some cases, decided not to use) to make her robot come to life. I was glad I stuck through with it to the end, but the pacing was enough of a deterrent for me as a reader that it did have a negative affect on my rating.

Some of the most memorable scenes were the ones that compared the differences between how a human and a robot may react to the same unexpected event. Even Tammy’s thorough planning phase in this experiment couldn’t predict everything MARiiMO did after she was created. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I thought this subplot was one of the most realistic and well-developed ones of them all. The author pushed everything to its logical conclusion and wasn’t afraid to extrapolate even more plots twists from the tiniest wisp of earlier ideas.

MARiiMO was a thoughtful read.

2 Comments

Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy

Tagged as 2010s, Artificial Intelligence, Book Reviews, Hard Science Fiction, LGBT, Novella, Robots, Romance, Science Fiction, Self-Published, Tyrel Pinnegar

Tag Archives: Self-Published

No Ordinary River: A Review of Badwater

A Review of Employment Interview With a Vampire

No Easy Way Out: A Review of Take Care of Your Body

A Review of The Life and Lies of Danny Diaz

Local Legends: A Review of Come in the Water

Second Chances: A Review of Building Beauty

Better Days: A Review of The Old Mountain Biker

A Review of The Trip to Nowhere

A Review of The Sword and the Kestrel

Creating Consciousness: A Review of MARiiMO

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