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book review

“Song of Oestend” By Marie Sexton

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Genre: MM Fantasy Romance Length: Novel Song of Oestend takes place in an alternate reality and resembles the Old West, but with some odd technologies, ancient mysticism, and ghosts thrown in for fun. I would feel comfortable labeling it as steampunk, paranormal, or fantasy, but I labeled it as fantasy because both steampunk and paranormal fit into that genre. Aren Montrell is a social leper from the city, and to get away from it all, he travels to Oestend for a job as a bookkeeper. Of all the cities he could have chosen, I honestly have no idea why he … Read more

“Family of Lies: Sebastian” by Sam Argent

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Genre: MM Fantasy Romance Length: Novel Sebastian Orwell is the son of a washed-up wizard, but when he saves the crown prince, Turren, from an assassination attempt, he unravels a plot that will change everything. Turren isn’t the only one the assassins were after, and Sebastian has to defend the lives and secrets of his entire family, and fight to keep his own secrets safe from exposure. Plots, twisted in plots, twisted in plots. Needless to say, the plot of Family of Lies was fantastic. The entire Orwell family was loaded with secrets, and Argent leaked them out to us … Read more

“Reawakening” by Amy Rae Durreson

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Genre: MM Fantasy Romance Length: Novel   Reawakening is a story about a dragon, Tarn, who wakes up after hundreds of years of hibernation. He discovers that his hoard—family—have all moved on or are dead. Lonely, he leaves his mountain home in search of civilization, and finds himself in the desert, where he meets a rather feisty air spirit, Gard. He gets kicked out of the desert (because who wants a dragon hanging around?—lol) and he decides to try again with the air spirit in his human form. Only when Tarn arrives in the desert by caravan, he can’t find … Read more

“Bone Rider” by J. Fally

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Genre: MM Urban Science Fiction Length: Novel   WHEN THE main characters in a novel are a cowboy, a Russian, and an alien, you know it’s going to be awesome. McClane is a highly sophisticated piece of alien bionic technology, called “bone riders”, and is self aware. In order to save himself from what he feels will be his destruction, he crash lands his spaceship on Earth, and invades a truck driver’s body to stay safe. Riley Cooper is on the run from his mob boyfriend–ex boyfriend–and he really didn’t need another complication in his life. But McClane shows up … Read more

Book Review: Saturn in Retrograde, by Jamie Fessenden

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Saturn in Retrograde

Okay, so I’m slowly working my way through my reading list of LGBT themed speculative fiction. I have read hundreds and hundreds of mainstream fantasy and sci fi books, but I’m now giving myself a crash course (well, more of a slow motion crash, given the limited amount of reading time I have these days) in gay sci fi and fantasy. So I asked Jamie Fessenden which book of his I should read, and he turned me on to Saturn in Retrograde. I really liked this book, although I wasn’t sure going in if it fell more on the sci … Read more

“Hell & High Water” by Charlie Cochet

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Genre: MM Urban Paranormal Romance Length: Novel   “Hell & High Water” by Charlie Cochet is about a law enforcement agent, Dex, who gets transferred to a specialized unit that deals with Human/Therian affairs, T.H.I.R.D.S. Therians are a subspecies of human that were created accidentally through a vaccine, and because of general prejudice, a task force was developed to ensure their rights. In the beginning of the novel, Dex’s boyfriend, who wasn’t good for him, broke up with him; and his boss, who didn’t really support him, forced him to leave his current job. Dex gets transferred on a team … Read more

“Ash and Echoes” by August Li

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Ash and Echoes is a Romantic Fantasy Epic. I don’t have the opportunity to read many of those, and I don’t think I’ve read anything quite like this work, but if I had to pick something similar, the closest I can think to compare it to is Deckard’s Baal’s Heart trilogy or The Devil’s Fire by Sara Bell. Baal’s Heart is probably the most similar since it was also a trilogy and menage. The power of three! Our main character, Yarroway L’Estrella, is a bit of an odd ball (my favorite). Not only is he a magic user–something I interpreted … Read more

“Greenwode” by J. Tullos Hennig

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To all you historical fantasy fans–check this out. The flavor of Greenwode hit me as a historical, but there’s a bit of magic, and it’s loosely based off of the legend of Robin Hood.  Loosely.  Otherwise, the language, the setting, and the voice was all very Old English.  Hennig did a lot of research, and has a section in the back of the book devoted to how much she did. I don’t read a lot of historicals, but I enjoyed this one.  The magic kept things interesting for me, and the language was not something I was used to, therefore … Read more

“Candle, Cup, and Casket” by Desiderii

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Note: This was recommended to me by Carole Cummings.  I’d heard that this novel (about 800 pages) was some sort of fan fiction, based off of the TV show “Merlin”.  I’ve seen some of that show, and that series isn’t based in space, and the characters are…different.  I suppose the only reason I’m quibbling over details, is because I think the author could take full ownership of this brilliant piece of literature.   King Arthur in space!  The story is told mainly from Merlin and Arthur’s point of view.  There’s magic and technology, and it’s interesting to see how they … Read more

“There Will be Phlogiston” by Alexis Hall

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Note: Someone in QSF Discussions told me about this book – I forget who – but I wanted to thank them.  I had no idea what I was getting into before I stepped into it, except I think we were discussing bisexual characters, and so everything was a pleasant surprise. This is a MMF Steampunk Novella, and I should note that this is #5 in a series.  I didn’t know that before I started it, but I didn’t find that to be a problem either, because it’s an origin story of sorts, our of bad assed trio. The backdrop is … Read more