Very interesting take on a mesh of tropes...
582943
When is a murder not a murder?  And realistically, what would happen if you COULD travel in time?  Maslakovic writes well and guides the plot through a number of twists and turns, and induced a twist I really didn't see coming.

Well worth the money, and highly recommended.
4885731
This book contained common elements from a handful of different stories I've read in the past couple of years. But they're combined in a way that presents a whole new world.

Clara hasn't had the best life. Her mother didn't provide her with the best childhood. Since growing up very independent and not all that trusting her mother has since 'found God'. She's tried to push this belief upon her daughter (and stepdaughter). Along with some other, shall we say, twisted life views.

Clara just wants to live her life, sans any romantic entanglements, and work in business with her new degree. It would seem all of that might be too much to ask. Between numerous failed job opportunities, thanks to sexist business operators, and a new, mythological twist, Clara's life is turning out to be quite different from what she dreamed.

Fate had other ideas in mind. Fate thinks Clara would make good balance for Cupid.... Zues.... Hades..... Poseidon..... and Ra. Yup, that's 5 high level gods that are apparently in need of a "bonded one" in order to continue their existence. It's a lot to take in. Especially when battling 5 arrogant gods who think she should be grateful and acquiesce. Not to mention a secret society that wants to prevent any bonded one from completing their bond so that the few remaining gods blink out of existence.

It's a crazy world that Clara is just beginning to open her eyes to.

Clara is quite stubborn. As we're told by MANY times by just about every character. It's not necessarily a bad thing. Though, it does get to feeling pretty repetitive after a while. Additionally, the bond starts to work on Clara "behind the scenes" and begins to weaker her will against bonding with the guys. She pretty quickly shifts from not wanting anything to do with them to being grateful they're around to protect her. It felt a little quick and forced, though that is somewhat described by the "bond" itself. Either way, I'd have liked Clara's to retain some more sense of her original self for longer.

All in all, the characters are interesting, though we don't get to know too much about the personalities of the gods aside from the arrogance and obvious stereotypes. Hopefully that's expounded upon in the next installment.
1666750
The late Philip Jose Farmer created (or perhaps just formalized the concept of) a world in which the greatest Pulp and Gothic fiction characters in literature were literally related, thanks to a group of people in carriages passing the site of a meteor strike near the town of Wold-Newton in England in the 1795.  Farmer built on the concept in a number of his own books, and  has left the concept in excellent hands through folks like Win Scott Eckert, Christopher Paul Carey, Jess Nevins, the Lofficier brothers, and too many others to name.

The concept behind Eckert's current massive work (this volume, and a second coming later in the year) is to catalog all of the places where fictional characters have crossed over with each other, expanding Farmer's Wold-Newton Family into what is usually called the Wold-Newton Crossover Universe.  It's a huge undertaking, based off of the Crossover Timeline on the Farmer website, and an impressive one.  An almost too brief essay at the beginning explains the limits Eckert has placed on the Crossover connectivity. The idea is to remain true to Farmer's concept that despite the supernatural and super-science aspects in the original works this is still a world largely similar to our own, and therefore most of the canons of the Marvel, DC and Doctor Who universes are not included simply because Spiderman regularly teams up with Wolverine, or Batman with Wonder Woman, etc.

This edition runs from "The Dawn of Time" through 1939, and so includes the Gothic era and the heydey of the Pulps.

My only quibble with the book is the way the entries are annotated.  I think Eckert makes his case in his introductory essay that, for instance, any time a Real Person (Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain, Groucho Marx, Winston Churchill, etc) is mentioned as taking part in a story, we are obviously talking about the Fictional, Wold-Newton version of that person and not the version from Our World.  I don't think comments like that were necessary within various entries -- it distracts more than clarifies, in my opinion.

While I could have wished for a bit more consistency in the way the entries are source-noted, overall the book is an easy read and one I'm sure I'll be referring back to (as much as I have the original website) whenever I read anything related to this world (or when I write anything that might cross-over). I definitely highly recommend the book to genre fiction fans (not just Pulp and Gothic, but comic book, fantasy, science fiction and horror fans as well).
4550285
A nicely, uniquely, and richly imagined world. A neat trick with so much of this genre out there right now.

The characters are a bit grey, or flat, but that is by design and it only adds to the book's narrative.

The story is fast paced and interesting throughout. And while at the end it seems to lose its way just a bit, it is nonetheless continues to be a good read.
4635344
I see I liked this more than most reviewers did. I'll try to explain why.

OK, the other reviewers are correct: the characters are pretty much cliches, and mostly do not directly have any conflict with each other (though they missed a GREAT opportunity with the Sally/Helen subplot!). Mostly, though, everyone is railroaded by the book's version of fate or destiny, which is an AI. (I doubt that this is a spoiler for anyone who's read #1).

The overall plots are diffuse, though some of the individual, immediate scenarios are well-handled. The overarching plots are seen more obliquely than directly...

And that is why I gave it 4 stars.

"Life is what happens when you're making other plans"- and that's what's going on here. I don't know if it was intentionally done, but it was pretty clever. Even with problems people were trying to address directly- usually the direct approach was a FAIL, and only more indirect, holistic approaches worked. And that's appropriate, and reflective of real Life (though many of us read fiction because things ARE more direct there than in RL!).

What does it mean to be a member of a bellicose species that suddenly has really no excuse for war, nor any realistic way of waging it? How can you keep people (in a broad sense) oppressed when they can just leave? For me, these questions- and the sometimes direct, sometimes oblique approaches to them, make this book well worth reading... but the reader does have to put many of the pieces together. I think that's good; otherwise it'd be too much of a polemic.

Anyway. I liked it, and am looking forward to #3.
3257451
A good read and exceptionally interesting take on an apocalyptic turn for humankind.  Kind of comes out of left field in a reversed version of bringing good over bad, depending on one's point of view.  This book makes the reader think.  I found myself asking myself several times what I would do in certain situations. I was hooked on the story's fast-moving action and compelling character tapestry.  I definitely recommend it, particularly for those of us who are sci-fi/fantasy fans.
3728257
The author presents a carefully thought out theory about parallel universes and a primitive clan of literally bloodthirsty creatures that finds the portals into ours. The idea that world folk tales about scary life forms like vampires, werewolves and dragons could be explained by these border crossings is an interesting one and opens literary doors to exciting science fiction.

The character development is excellent, with special attention to the communication and family life of the murderous clan from the primitive world. We learn to care about the close knit families on our side of the fence, but unfortunately some of them don't last long. The pace of the action was brisk, and I felt the time given to introductory explanations was well spent. The Kindle edition was carefully edited.

There is very little downside to this entertaining book, but I will mention blood and gore beyond what I consider moderation, so I reluctantly withdrew one star. I was a bit confused by the ending section (did I miss the toll booth signs?) and wondered if it was primarily to calm us readers down after the last carnage.

I have another of this authors books on my Kindle so I don't scare easily. If you like adventure stories you will enjoy this book.
1978190
First off let me say that I am a huge, long standing fan of science fiction and fantasy...I've read, essentially every thing I could over the last 30 years. But while I love the genre,  I have always acknowledged that there is a distinction between the vast majority of the books in this area, which tend to focus on plot, theme, and the creative use of tropes, than on character development. Of course, there are exceptions, but for the most part I read Science Fiction and fantasy books for entertainment rather than for insight into the human condition (notable exceptions such as the work of Ursula K. LeGuin often tend to focus more on using fantastic settings or conditions to illuminate broader social conditions).

But despite the use of some tried and true science fiction tropes like the paradoxical riddles posed by time travel for matters of free will etc. I don't think it's fair to classify the Time Traveler's Wife as a science fiction book....as it focuses far more on the development and experience of the main characters than it does on these plot devices.

This is a time travel book for none SciFi fans and is among the better novels I've read in the last couple of years...a book made to help you feel rather than to simply entertain or to explore conceptually.

As a note, I reserve five stars for the truely exceptional read...but this was excellent.
3641721
I don't generally read a lot of small-press or self-published books, but when one snags my attention, I'm more than willing to give it a shot. Lords of Dyscrasia is one of those books where everything fell into place - the cover caught my eye; the review blurb comparing it to "the works of Poe and Lovecraft" made me curious; and the concept of infected bloodlines, diseased souls, and necromancy assured it a spot on my shelf.

Stylistically, this was a very interesting read, with a mix of high fantasy, pulp adventure, and visceral horror that worked as well as I could have hoped. Elements of it did indeed remind me, at different times, of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe, but I also detected the flavour of Robert E. Howard, and even some early Books of Blood era Clive Barker.

The storyline here is interesting, and the investment in the mythology is quite impressive. It's definitely one of the more unique concepts I've come across in a long while, taking a very Cthulhu-like approach to an otherwise standard fantasy trope of interracial breeding and the mingling of mortal & immortal races. The world-building doesn't quite live up to the mythology, but only because we don't get explore enough of it.

This is a very intense, very frantic, very driven read that leaps from scene to scene. The action and the tension is relentless, which has a definite appeal for some readers, but I felt it suffered somewhat because of it. I think one more pass at the story to build some narrative bridges between the scenes, and to pad out the intensity with some subtler moments of reflection could have really served the book well. It's not very often that I put down a book wishing it had been just a bit longer, but her I would have welcome some fluff to round things out.

That said, what's on the page works very well. Doctor Grave is a fantastic character, secretive and manipulative, but driven by an honest purpose. His ethereal assistant is definitely a nice touch, and the ways in which she is used outside the Doctor's environment were a very pleasant surprise. Lysis, unfortunately, came across as a bit one-dimensional for me. I would have like to see some more vulnerability in him, some lighter emotions, but I suspect that lack is due more to the unrelenting intensity of his quest than to any failings on the part of the book.

Other reviewers have said this is a very dark book, and they're right. This is pulp fantasy for the horror fan (not the other way around), and it is wonderfully grotesque. There's a very clinical detachment from much of the horror, which actually serves to elevate the monstrosities to a higher level. Like I said earlier, this reminds me of Books of Blood era Clive Barker on the page, or original Hellraiser era Clive Barker on the screen, and I delighted in that visceral element.

By no means a perfect book, but one that manages to offer something new, and which does an admirable job of bringing it all together.
550660
The reviews on this weren't stellar, so I almost didn't read it, but I'm glad I did. I thought Mead's idea here was very original and interesting. I particularly liked the idea that religious extremists destroyed society, so now religion is banned -- except that the gods won't exactly go away. I like that all of the characters weren't immediately accepting of the supernatural elements of their society, and I appreciated Tessa's contributions. I can see her becoming a key player in later books.

I also liked the idea of the ravens and their occasional observations about Justin and what was happening around him.

I'm not sure why genetic engineering was so bad, honestly, and I wish that had been made more clear, but otherwise, I thought the mystery of the killings was interesting and not too predictable, for the most part.

I'd recommend giving this book a try. I've only read one of Richelle Mead's other books, but most of the negative reviews seem to say this is unlike her other writing. I'm not sure why that's a reason to give a lower rating, but I enjoyed this book. It was a little more descriptive than most YA books, but I think it worked and made sense in the way the story unfolded. Definitely worth a try if you enjoy YA dystopian/fantasy.
3721547
K.M. Alford's "Atlantis and the Game of Time" is a steampunk novel for the thinking person. The book uses frequent shifts in time and setting throughout the plot. What surprised me about this is the level of detail Alford went into with each setting change -- it's clear Alford has done extensive research. Whether you're reading about the 19th century Vatican or 11,000 BCE Western Europe, you truly feel as if you're there. The plot is paced well, and I felt connected to the characters as I read. There's also a fair amount of mythology incorporated into the plot. I'd recommend this book to anyone who likes fiction with multiple settings and mythology.
3968816
A quirky and compelling variation on the predatory hematophage genre (I know some people associate the V-word with a negative connotation so I won't mention it here). Actually, I like how it kind of defies easy categorization: I wouldn't even classify it as a straight-up Weird Fiction of horror genre exercise (though there are a few nods to the latter, 1980's-style horror in particular). In some aspects it reminds me of a Pynchonesque shaggy dog story, with a protagonist bouncing from one objective to another and interacting with a hive of strange characters (to say nothing of changing her outfit a number of times: shades of Slothrop in "Gravity's Rainbow"). Despite the heavy nature of the subject matter, it's written with a light touch and doesn't seem to take itself too seriously: there are even a few chapters that cross the boundaries into comedy.
4814932
the concept of using solidified soul-stuff to use magic isn't exactly new, but it's off the beaten path enough that people tend to shy away from its  use - both in fiction and in games - but this is a well-handled exploration of the idea. kudos.
4087733
What starts out as a strange and somewhat unnerving tale about a  disfigured woman who picks up strong male hitchhikers and then injects them  with something that knocks them out so she can dress them up in other men's  clothes slowly takes shape as a very clever and creative social satire. Of  what, I'm not going to tell you, as half the enjoyment of reading this book  comes about a third of the way through when you start to figure out what's  going on. Faber's point, while first striking me as mundane, actually  started to affect me by the end of the novel. Yeah, I've heard the argument  before, but this is actually a pretty effective (and certainly NEW) way to  put it. I highly recommend this book, although not for the weak of stomach  (as some of the scenes are pretty graphically violent). It's one of the  most unique books I've encountered in my lifetime. And for once, a satire  described as "Swiftian" on the back cover has actually lived up  to the adjective.
1140143
I really, really wanted to give this book a higher rating. I will definetely be reading the sequel to find out what direction it goes, that's for sure.

This book starts off with a bang. It is not perfect - for one I find it lacked in subtlety a bit. But the concept was just so good. The magic system feels fresh and unique. Reverend Rook using passages from the Holy Bible as the base of his spells might have been my favorite part of the concept (or as I excidetly told my friend, someone's finally utilised HOW METAL the Old Testament is). Occasional weaving in of delightfully nightmarish Mesoamerican mythology was right up my alley. And the characters, of course - interesting, fleshed out, and unashamedly queer which is always a bonus in the lit world that either silences queer characters or makes things about their sexuality.

Like so many readers, I have qualms with the second part (and more specifically last third) of the book. As many pointed out, the pacing loses its rhythm, in fact i am reasonably sure that a single conversation occupied a 10% chunk of the book. While I enjoy Mesoamerican mythology, removing Rev's Bible spells was in my mind a huge mistake. And finally, finally, characters start acting in a way that make no sense, and the book makes a halfhearted attempt to explain it and immediately fails at it - sometimes it wants you to believe that all of the strange actions are Ixchel's influence or the hex, sometimes that none, and not in a good "waiting for plottwist reveal" way. I can frankly say I did not enjoy my slog through several chapters closer to the end there.

However, I enjoyed the rest of the book and I still would recommend it to lovers of horror fantasy, unusual mythology and magic system, and queer fantasy that is not about the big Q
412415
While I still think that Kruppe was a copy of Mocker in the Dread Empire books, he was able to become much more than that. It is hard to come up with completely original ideas, but sometimes you can mix old ideas in a new way that works. I think the magic system, Warrens, was a neat way of handling sorcery in this book. The way gods, soldier life, etc is approached I can definitely see the influence of Glen Cook, but that is not a bad thing. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot and intend to keep reading the series.
3911567
Utterly surprised to be the first to have reviewed this. :| This book made me think about the possibility of alternate histories that could very well be proven true before the socially accepted histories.  As with everything, the "what ifs" take over and have you looking up things before you are finished reading the book.  Chances are if you are actually considering buying this book you like to take notes of some sort..if you don't..you should probably heed the warning (you will want to).  As with the 12th Planet, things that I have come across since reading this have made me question things I read within the pages, but it is a very stimulating read nonetheless.