When I first volunteered to review this book, all I knew about it was that it was an anthology of Steampunk stories, including one story by an author whose work I enjoy (Madeleine Holly-Rosing, creator of the Boston Metaphysical Society comic). That alone was enough to pique my interest. But as it turns out, Some Time Later is more than that.

In Ten Dead Comedians, Fred Van Lente puts a twenty-first century comedic spin on Agatha Christie’s classic mystery, And Then There Were None. Van Lente’s plot and language are clever and witty throughout the pages, as the comedians get killed off one by one on a deserted island. The characters are brilliantly developed throughout each chapter. They include a variety of different types of comedians—from a podcaster to a late night host. Van Lente does a great job highlighting and maintaining each character’s original style. There are really reminiscent of current, real-life comedians (though I don’t know about Oliver Rees…). The characters aren’t particularly fond of one another, which brings about frequent comedic banter. And they each have their own individual vices, making their deaths perhaps less tragic.

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.