Ebook-Cripple-Mode: Electric Touch"e

Possible cover to up coming book 2 of Cripple-Mode:Series

Review::The Robinson's Dark Matter by Michael Raymond

The Robinson's Dark Matter by Michael Raymond

I really loved this story.

When I first started reading it I was thinking mostly Juvenile Science Fiction. The main characters are fairly young and still in school. Their parents are working parents and the children are left home alone a lot. They discover a strange door in the basement that leads to a room where gravity is shifted. Since Nate is your typical older and protective brother it devolves to Victoria to be the one who believes in conspiracy theories and aliens as in Roswell. So this room is Victoria's biggest vindication.

It is a bit troubling that it might point to them as being the aliens.
(This is the Robinson family and I couldn't get my mind off of references to Lost in Space.)
This book hooked me right from the start, no matter what I might have expected.

There's an element about the mysterious aliens that reminded me a bit of Buckaroo Banzi so when Nick ends up in a band it doesn't surprise me as much as it does him. There are also elements of Howard the Duck in here with portals or wormholes to other worlds with waiting armada's of space invaders. This makes sense when we work out that there are two, no maybe three, different alien groups working here.

Most interesting and perplexing though are the references to Indiana Jones and that franchise of films. It's like a running joke that can only be understood if you've seen all the films and it intimates a possibility of those in different generations who may perceive differently. Especially if someone missed that first movie. You'll just have to read it to understand.

When Nate and Victoria's parents are kidnapped by people infected by some alien mind control they have to delve into the secrets in their basement to help save their parents. They quickly learn they can trust no one, not even the military who have apparently come to the rescue.

With a little help from friends and a mysterious AI they slowly unravel the secret of their parents lives and their own. As they go they pool together their resources to break into a place their parents have been keeping secret from everyone. They don't realize that throughout it all they will be watched.

To say more will really spoil things but the most interesting part of the story is the building of the characters and the telling of the story so you can't go wrong with this one.

This has a well put together plot, with even pacing and some neat speculative science.

For all fans of SFF- Science Fiction Fantasy. Great start to a promising series.

J.L. Dobias

Review::The Trilisk Ruins(Parker Interstellar Travels #1) by Michael McCloskey

The Trilisk Ruins(Parker Interstellar Travels #1) by Michael McCloskey

Trilisk Ruins is a nice entertaining Science Fiction.

At first I thought I was headed into yet another so so spy action thriller disguised as a Science Fiction novel. It really seems that way through the first half. Even to the point where they were trapped in the cheesy alien building with the shifting walls I was still thinking this was only mildly interesting. What saves it all for me was when Kirizzo's part kicked in. The alien, though only one of three major characters in the story steals the whole thing.

Kirizzo is at war, stranded and under attack of the Bel Klaven he has vital tech from the ruins of the Trilisk. He must evade the Bel Klaven and get this tech to his people. In a last ditch effort he enters a strange circular portal of the Trilisk that is still operational.

The story then slips over to Telisa Relachik daughter of an infamous UNSF Captain, is applying for a job with Parker interstellar Travels in her capacity of a xeno-archaeologist in a universe where only the UNSF has legal need for those services. In other words these are smugglers and Jack and Thomas decide that Telisa will be a perfect addition to their team.

Along with Magnus, a trained fighter formerly of the UNSF, they all take off aboard the Iridar to a recent new find of Trilisk artifacts. This venture is illegal, but they have a good team and have covered all the bases. What they don't plan on is the danger of the artifacts themselves.

After finding a portal similar to the one Kirizzo disappeared into the story becomes interesting.

The smugglers, an agent of the UNSF, and the alien Kirizzo are all trapped in some strange alien trap set by Trilisk technology. They must work together to get out and that means that Telisa needs to find a way to communicate with Kirizzo. No one plans on the Seeker arriving with Telisa's estranged father aboard.

The plot definitely thickens as you go along in this story. There are familiar themes of abuse of power and the fragility of tentative alliances. Magnus at first has some distrust of Telisa because of who her father is. As it is there will be plenty of reasons to justify that. It would seem that although she has been afforded a lot of freedom, the daughter of an UNSF captain is actually on a shorter leash than she knows.

This has it all, a little romance, lots of adventure, smugglers versus the authorities and lots of alien artifacts. It may prove out though that the alien at war might shift the balance here and prove that everything else is just petty squabbling.

Great Science Fiction story telling for those who like a bit of adventure and romance. Of the three main characters Telisa, Magnus and Kirizzo none out shine the other, they make a nice balanced ensemble.

This tale reads somewhat formulaic but it makes a great stepping stone into a new series.

J.L. Dobias

Review::People Of The Tiger (The Rational Future Series) by Wayne Edward Clarke

People Of The Tiger (The Rational Future Series) by Wayne Edward Clarke

I enjoyed portions of this book, if not the whole.

I could give this book a five star if I could take sections out of it, but I don't really want to rewrite someones work.

This book is written well, despite the authors claim that he is presenting dialogue the way it should always be and that every other writer is in error. Well that's taking liberty with paraphrasing his words. His style of writing never really put me off despite its sometimes strangeness and his introductions sense of aloofness.

That much said we should address some simple issues.

This book contains erotica, and I have the modified version that might contain less. It's not chock full of erotica, but the erotica seems to puddle in places rather than being strung out. It's not particularly the best erotica I've seen, but perhaps that's because it's been altered because of complaints. On the other hand it is the closest to illegal that I've ever encountered. By illegal I mean that it contains the presence of children within the context and if this were to ever be made into a film it would violate some stringent rules.

To address this issue I'll give the author this much. The premise of the story is that we are in the future where Rationalists have dominated and created a new order. I'm of the impression this new order pervades the globe. In the story we seem to be in India-primarily. These rationalist are apparently not an outgrowth of Rationalism as much as they are perhaps a mix of Pot smoking free love hippies with aboriginal tenancies. Unlike most distopia novels these people seem to be an outgrowth of the former technological society that never lost the advances but have chosen to segment peoples into various classes all of whom have access to the technology but some who eschew it more than others. Hence, the various peoples with names of animals as their tribal designation. The green people, the naturalists have all gone back to nature.

The story begins with Tika and her mother Tira. It is Tika's sixth birthday and she moves from Infant to Training Child. It seems that Infants are brought up to whatever level they might endure in fighting and hunting arts but only become Training Child when they are ready to accept responsibility. Tika is not your average child nor are most of the children of the People of the Tiger. This is never made clear and it weakens much of premise for how the author treats them. My best guess is that at this age they are equal to someone who is roughly thirteen through seventeen in our society. That does not even cover the notion that Tika is genetically above the rest. This seems to be the reason the author wants to treat these children like young adults.

If they were all genetically engineered to be more mature then this would hold well in this story. Unfortunately another premise in this book states that they eschew genetic engineering and whatever was done to Tika is, in fact, considered illegal. These two notions create a moral conflict for at least this reader when the highly explicit sexual situations are brought into the story right into the face of these children. There is a play by play description and narration by an Elder while the scene itself plays out. Though the author attempts to keep it in an almost clinical sense, its this detached sense that is part of what destroys those scenes.(Too mechanical)

The author cleverly tries to tie the erotica into the whole book by way of explaining the rape that led to the birth of Tika, which is revealed in front of the children and then perhaps, trying to diffuse the emotional impact, by giving the children a contrast to the rape through other intimacy.(I'd say true intimacy but there's a problem here.)

There is no real intimacy involved in the erotic scenes,(well I wasn't feeling it) which is detrimental to the character development and the believability of the love part of the free love aspect. This all contrasts also to the gruesome nature of these people who will seem so intimate and yet in a similar clinical sense will do great bodily damage to each other in their fighting arena. (These people are the master of the disconnect.)

I loved the story of Tika and where she came from(the mystery) and the en-devour of her friends to find the answer to that question. For me the story and the conflict was the notion that until we know what happened to Tika's father we don't know what will happen to Tika. Tika is the strongest character draw in this novel she is the central character.

The first part of this novel does have some distracting philosophical notions.
[Quote]
but enough that over millions of years all people will become a little better because a few fools were killed by their own stupidity before they could breed.

Because we hunt for a living rather than for sport, we tend to make our work easier by hunting the weak and the slow, as other predators do, leaving the swift and the mighty to improve their breed.

and we also allow the tiny chance that the weak and the slow and the stupid among us will be hunted by predators.[/Quote]

Clarke, Wayne Edward (2012-02-02). People Of The Tiger - Metric Pro. Edition (The Rational Future Series) (Kindle Locations 259-260). Wayne Edward Clarke Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I don't particularly agree with these but it's primary to the novel that the characters do.

It espouses the back to nature part, but it fails to truly justify the running around naked in the forest full of dangers and predators. Most distopia novels at least try to pretend we lost some civilization and just don't know better.

The book spends a lot of time developing the tier system for honors for the people and basically coming up with the reason that they have to constantly challenge each other to duels.

I had a few troubles with the whole concept of going so backwards in time that they were challenging each other for their land, which technically didn't belong to anyone anyway. There is a portion where our hero and her family displace people for their own selfish purpose and that even leads to the death of a neighbor who eventually we try to justify by painting them in a pale light while they are supposedly expected to honor them.

There's a lot of emphasis on honor and it constantly runs contrary to the need to be truthful and the need to display pride publicly. The characters run through these like they might run through water and I can only think they need a therapist.

All this is building to the lengthy overdrawn out knife and claw and hand to hand fighting that goes with their Olympic like challenges. Again it would work better if these people were genetically altered to be better because no matter how close we bring the medical staff to the fight, these people do serious damage and should be killing each other.

If you like erotica and blow by blow fighting this is the book for you.

I enjoyed more the pursuit of Tika's past and the building of the potential for some sort of faster than light travel which will possibly help Tika in her search for the truth.

If you like Sci-Fi and Fantasy and don't mind delving into odd sociological restructuring and can convince yourself it's not child-porn you might be tempted to test drive this one to decide if you want to purchase the next in the series.

Despite some of my own misgivings in regards to what I felt were shortcomings, I found enough to enjoy with this that I read it completely.

I like a challenge and I don't mind leaving my comfort zone for a minute. So this has offered me some room for thought with People of the Tiger as I try to look at the way all these elements are woven together and decide how much seemed totally necessary to the story.

A person needs to read this to make a proper judgement and this would make a hot topic for someones reading group.

J.L. Dobias

Review::The Lost Girls by Jason Halstead

The Lost Girls by Jason Halstead

This is one of those tough books that you have to dig past a few things to get to the place where you decide you like it.

As with some others this one took me out of my comfort zone right from the start with what seems at a glance to be jumping right into the middle of a fight. Then it turns out to be a rape. Worse yet it turns out to be mutilation when the victim apparently has her fingers augmented with blades that make her into a sort of wild unpredictable Cuisinart stuck on slice and dice.

I might have set it aside at this point but Kat, the cop who's nearly raped, is an interesting enough character to draw me in. She's petite, but dangerous. She's had augments done to her and there's a story behind all that but it takes a while to wheedle it out of her.

She also calls herself a lesbian a dyke and gay at various stages. She has a massive distaste for men. But the interesting part about her personality is that she's every-mans dream and nightmare. She's strongly independent and in some ways throughout the narrative somewhat indistinguishable from a male except when describing her own body parts. She loves women and hates emotional involvement, or maybe is afraid of that kind of involvement.

Right from the get go she gets hurt and inflicts a lot of justice on her assailants. She's almost a rent-a-cop in this world which has some portal-ish connection to a world of magic which all sounds fantastic unfortunately it's only incidental to this novel. After getting patched up Kat will have to undergo some Psych time, which is how she meets Natalie who is married and straight yet hits on Kat.

Kat loves the attention and flirts a lot which just sends all sorts of conflicting messages because Kat is a loner and knows better than to even try to get involved with a confused straight woman. As I mentioned there is a back-story to Kat and; Natalie, being a therapist, is supposed to get to the core of it. This makes for a hot and cold romance.

After a couple of more incidents Kat is injured badly enough to need more augmentation until it appears she'll be mostly a cyborg before she's finished. Natalie is put off by this(not the cyborg-the job), but she's already compounded things by hiring Kat to look into her husbands illicit affair. True to her almost male like nature Kat gets immediately involved with Skyler, a lovely escort she hires to help go undercover to check out a modeling agency while still working on Natalie's case.

This story quickly becomes a convolution of plot that puts Basic Instinct to shame. In fact, this is Basic Instinct with a mostly female cast.

Anyway, everything will come together. Oddly the best part though is finding out what Kat is all about when she reveals her past finally.

This is a great character study that makes for an interesting and sometimes gruesome beginning to a series.

Good book for Suspense and SSF lovers. Contains elements of lesbian content although I'm not sure how representative Kat might be. She's mostly augmented and bad ass and driven.

J.L. Dobias

It's like a Zen moment... When a writer realizes they don't really want to rewrite every other author's work.

It's like a Zen moment...
When a writer realizes they don't really want to rewrite every other author's work. That second we realize that rewriting other peoples novels is not a viable profession, that we really don't have that much time on our hands.

Unless we are ghostwriters.

As a writer, I've fallen victim to at least the passing thought that I could write something better. That the author chose the wrong style. That this piece of crap is annoy the daylights out of me and I can't continue it. I should make it better.

So when someone approaches my work from that level I realize that it's something that will happen. I try to step back and try to to absorb the parts of the critique that have been helpful. After all, if they sent you any sort of note that means they care enough to say something.

When we publish something we invite criticism.

That's why we employ editors, to minimize the number of events. Unfortunately there are some subjective elements to style that make it impossible to please everyone. Someone has to make decisions about those and that means that it will go well with a percentage of people, though not so well with another percentage.

The key is to invite criticism. With this, should come the realization that you will be sifting through that to find the key pieces that will help to hone your work.

As a writer one of the main tools I've found that I use is reading other peoples work. I don't read for ideas. I read other work for views on experimentation with styles. The biggest stumbling block to this tool is those few times when I have difficulty finishing because of something I perceive as a problem.

I would like to think I'm getting better at it. Although, I will admit to recently upsetting at least one author by suggesting I hadn't finished the novella because of a few minor details. That didn't go over well. The trouble came when they decided to write derisively about my critique not being a critique, and their fans descended upon me with overpowering abuse.

The evil part of this is that I did read it; I just wasn't honest. If I had been entirely honest, perhaps it would have gone differently.

There were some major inconsistencies in the timeline of events which caused me to reread it several times to affirm that those existed. The plot was otherwise simplistic so there really shouldn't have been any need to lose track of the time of events. The characters were more one dimensional than anything else, which may or may not have been a plan since this was a pure science science fiction blended with a small element of slight fantasy but chock full of acronyms and quite recognizable descriptions from out of today's space program.

The bottom line here is that I should have said what I saw instead of a short bit about how I thought he should have at least spelled the difficult words he was using correctly and he might want to chose more recognizable words that make sense in the context.

I have been striving to improve.

To that end I have been completing books despite the level to which the author sets to annoy me and attempting to only place my annoyance in as a passing thought without allowing it to affect my overall review.

The point is; I give a review.

I attempt to be helpful and demonstrate what I like and mention what annoys or perplexes.

So, when someone tells me that a specific style choice of mine annoys them I try to listen. What is annoying to me is that sometimes people don't approach me at all about the things they find annoying let alone what they might like.

It should be mentioned that, especially so with style choices, I say I listen, but that does not mean I will change or alter the style I use. There are times when the style choice made has been decided after a lot of thought. That never means it's the best or most correct choice, but it does make it's more difficult to say I will fix that.

To name a few that I've heard.

Oh, you used first person- I can't read that - it's too much young adult - self published and first time authors use first person and don't know how to do it well.

Oh, you use present tense. Present tense always creates an urgency and immediacy in the narrative that become tiring and has no break or pacing.

Oh you use Said or Says all the time and its too annoying and I'm bleeding out of my ears eyes and nose from it.

Not all of these people have thrown the book down or quit reading, but I thoroughly understand the bleeding part and there is no reason to go on only to end up with a 911 call.

These are valid complaints, to an extent, and sometimes when I'm reading other work these things annoy me. Although, I somehow have reached a point where I can now look past them and that might be bad, but I've come to enjoy my reading much better. If the author uses too many of the generic dialog tags I just sort of block them out as long as I can keep track of who is talking. Tenses and POV even when handled poorly are really not that annoying when I begin to understand the style of the person writing.

I understand that not everyone can manage that and I know of quite a few who do throw books down and in the trash after a few pages.

When I give a review I give merit to the story and I'll often mention that it would be easier on the eyes and the mind if the POV was not so much head hopping, or the tense of the narrative could be more secure.

For me the truth is that these are not rules as much as guidelines and they are not laws as much as style guides. When handled poorly, they are also not things that are considered good writing, but they have to be consistently annoying before they affect my star ratings.

On the other hand if someone is using a difficult possibly less used word, then I expect it to be spelled correctly. That means the writer should look them up no matter how much a master they think they are at that word. And while they are there they should check and see if its common usage, the way they used it, or if it might be more of a colloquialism. God forbid they might not even know what it means. So when you use susurrus it should be spelled susurrus and not sussurus. If you don't spell that one correctly how am I to look it up or even know if you know what it means if you can't spell it correctly.

There are spelling mistakes that make sense in the sense that they might even get past an editor because the mind and eye might fool one into believing they spelled that correctly because it's such a common word.

The question would be; is susurrus a common word for you? Because, if it is I still think it should be flagged and checked because it wasn't common to me and the way it was spelled was not something common in my dictionary.

By the way; the author didn't think that was very helpful criticism.

All that aside, when someone asks how I handle criticism:

I try to point out that if I didn't want to invite it I wouldn't have published. And thank you for the input and thank you even more for having finished reading my entire novel despite the flaws that were found therein.

If you didn't finish it because you were too frustrated or pissed off then thank you again and at least I know I evoked some sort of emotion from you although not the one and the way I had hoped or intended.

J.L. Dobias