Low Town Review

Daniel Polansky's debut novel Low Town tells the story of the Warden, a former officer of the law turned drug dealer, as he struggles to chase down a child murderer: "The Warden will follow a trail of violence and rumor from the broken-down streets to the gated communities of the rich and powerful [...] but the truth is far darker than he imagines." That's from the back cover which also goes on to say that Polansky is a "fresh voice in the tradition of George R.R. Martin." I can't say I agree with that. For all intents and purposes, Low Town is a novel that goes through the motions, checks the right boxes, but ultimately fails to make a huge impact.

Cursed Review

How do you define Jeremy C. Shipp's Cursed? Is it supernatural horror? A thriller? I don't really know, but I do know one thing: it's delightfully weird. Cursed tells the story of Nick, a recovering alcoholic with severe abandonment issues and self-destructive tendencies. Oh yeah, he also gets slapped in the face once a day like clockwork. Read on for the full review.

Fuzzy Nation Review

I knew John Scalzi was an author I would want to keep track of the minute I finished Old Man's War and its follow up The Ghost Brigades. So imagine my surprise and delight when I found an ARC of Fuzzy Nation sitting on Saturday. Fuzzy Nation is a 2011 reimagining of an older novel, Little Fuzzy, by H. Beam Piper.

I was a little hesitant when I first heard about this project. It looked like Scalzi was trading writing about genetically enhanced super soldiers for cute little critters. So did the high cuteness levels hurt my enjoyment of the novel? Absolutely not. Fuzzy Nation is an engrossing read that made me stay up until 3:00 am to finish it. Read on for the rest of my thoughts about Scalzi's latest winner.

The Company Man Review

I received a copy of Robert Jackson Bennett's The Company Man on April 16th and I finished it around 2:30 AM last night. That should tell you something about how good it is. Even though it's set in 1919 and 1920, the city of Evesden strongly reminded me of the underwater dystopia of Rapture from the video game Bioshock. Read on to hear more about this noir thriller with a sci-fi flair.

Imago Chronicles Book One: A Warrior's Tale Non-Review

I'm back again with a non-review. I don't like writing these, but sometimes they're a necessity. This time it's L.T. Suzuki's Imago Chronicles Book One: A Warrior's Tale. Like all my other non-reviews, I'll preface this by saying I wasn't able to finish the book. The characters failed to grab me and I couldn't ignore the editing errors. Read on to find out more about why I couldn't finish A Warrior's Tale.

Mr. Shivers Review

I find it hard to believe that Mr. Shivers by Robert Jackson Bennett is a debut novel. It's too good. While there are some bits that are rough around the edges, the book is damn good. I finished Mr. Shivers in two days. I haven't done that in a long time. Read on to hear my thoughts about the mysterious and murderous Mr. Shivers.

mpStation_4 Non-Review

Let me say right off the bat that this is going to be a non-review. I couldn't finish mpStation_4 by Thadd Evans. Here's my impressions of what I did read and why I had to stop.