A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of being able to read and review the first edition of M. Holly-Rosing’s comprehensive guide to crowdfunding creative projects. It was full of useful information, marketing and promotion tips, personal stories of both success and failure in crowdfunding, and just about anything else you could possibly need to help budding creators on their way to launching their own successful Kickstarter campaigns.
Disaffected and spoiled Snaldrialooran teen Ixdahan Daherek became an unexpected hero during his exile to Earth in Heart of Earth and found himself drawn back towards greatness when he stumbled across a plot for universal conquest in his second adventure, Heart of Mystery; however, nothing could prepare him for the sheer megalomaniacal wackiness of the Zoktylese plan to subjugate “non-sentient” worlds to cultivate more fields of the root that form the basis of their diet. Add in the fact that Ixdahan has become a little less, well, corporeal due to events at the end of the previous book, and the youngster is struggling to come to terms with his new situation while he transitions from youth to man.
“>Run away from life.
You try to run away from life, but it always catches you.”
One never quite knows when something will change their life. We all have those moments, whether good or bad, but sometimes the cause of the change can be quite surprising. But, a fictional television show? How could that ever impact anyone in a meaningful way? This is the topic of Family Don’t End with Blood: Cast and Fans on How Supernatural Has Changed Lives (edited by superfan Lynn S. Zubernis).
Gwen Hensley thought her arrival in the small Kansas town would bring hope and the comfort of family, but something dark from her family’s past tracked her grandmother, Lizzy, down and murdered her before the young woman and her raven familiar, Lewis, arrived. The young woman must come to grips with her loss, a new environment, burgeoning magical abilities, and the truth of why her mother ran from home, but can Gwen really survive the knowledge of betrayals and twisted bonds?
Charles "Chuck" Higgins was at the wrong place at the wrong time when he bumped into an inebriated space traveler named Joppenslik "Jopp" Wenslode. Quickly captured by the Prime Partners Intergalactic Consortium, Chuck and Jopp are forced to work together, hauling cargo between space destinations. Their friendship is solidified when Haaga Viim and his crew of mercenary space pirates attack Jopp and Chuck’s cargo ship, causing them to crash on an outpost planet. The madcap adventure takes off from there, and after some plot twists and red herrings, the pair solve their crisis.
In his previous book, Stay Younger Longer, author Ryan Hyatt conjured up a world not so far from our own, where eco-politics carried more weight than they should, the search for the next party was everyone’s greatest quest, and California set the standard of living for the nation.
Bobbie’s expression was grave. “The Faceless Ones are a new race, or to be precise, a very old race that has been in hiding for a long time.” Bobbie looked uncomfortable even talking about them. “They have begun building their strange machines and terrible devices across the world. No one knows to which gods, if any, they pray, but the ywield knowledge as to make the University look like a tribe of cavemen.”
Lyndon White’s Kickstarter foldout book, Dracula Concertina, is a stunning, beautifully Gothic collection of illustrations based on Bram Stoker’s classic novel. With just a brief narrative on the back cover, the story emerges across the nine remarkable illustrations. White has created a new and exciting version of Dracula while still maintaining the darkness and horror of the vampire’s evil plight.
That's not the deal.
After Logan, it's kind of hard not to want to dive into more post-apocalyptic westerns. Luckily, there are quite a lot of them. Unfortunately, there's slightly less a number that are good, but Randall P. Fitzgerald has put something together that will engage and excite. I know that's an odd thing for a Western to do, but the blended style actually works for the novel, Husks, he's put together. I'm going to be honest: I've a mighty distaste for trilogies of late, but the part of this novel that stands on its own is well worth the time.