Hi!
I've been listening to audiobook podcasts. There are some good sources of free SF stories on iTunes.
I just listened to the podcast of issue #51 of Clarksworld Magazine. Very good. The story Tying Knots was unique and interesting. The Taxidermist's Other Wife was creepy but well done.
Every issue I've listened to has been good. The narrator has a very calming and nice speaking voice. The stories have been thought-provoking and unusual. All SF.
I apologize for being behind on my reviews. I'm on book #4 already. I shall get those reviews up here next week. Company's coming this weekend so it'll have to wait until then. However, I do have reviews on Goodreads.
Thanks for reading!
Anna
Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
SFR #1 Breaking Chance by Kim Knox
Publisher: Samhain Publishing.
Teaser: Melissa "Lucky" Chance is a career petty thief. In a world where the tech to surf the web is implanted at birth, she's talented, spunky and gifted with a cute face that blends in. Getting caught...again...is par for the course, until the new governor of the fairly isolated Jovian Colonies decides to make an example of all those being prosecuted that day. Her only hope of escape lies in the sexy form of The Butcher, a mass murderer.
John Ramius knows he deserves the nickname The Butcher for killing 50 men in as few minutes. But no one else understands his particular Hell--the ability to sense another's deepest needs and the overwhelming compulsion to fulfill them. His only hope of escaping to fulfill the dying desire of his last lover is a cute and talented thief with deep-seated needs of her own.
Together they discover a world full of lies, politics and manipulation.
This book contains graphic sex, though not a LOT of it.
Review:
I love the cover of this ebook. The guy resembles Vin Diesel. Ms. Knox's books are now on my auto-buy list. I completely enjoyed this. I'm not one to normally read books with graphic sex but this one didn't cross over into gratuitous. The few sex scenes were well-developed, fit the plot and advanced the character development.
I immediately liked Chance. She's snarky with a dark side. She's a nymphomaniac out of avoidance. She's not perfect and not drop dead gorgeous. I like that.
John is scary at first. Of course, he's The Butcher, he's supposed to be scary. He's also the perfect compliment for his heroine, Chance. They work together perfectly.
I loved the worldbuilding, the character development, and the sentient ship was sweet. The SF was good, and the Romance was good if a little dark.
The bad? Well, there's nothing "bad" per se. I do wish there'd been another 50 pages (or 200) of plot and character development. It's a novella so the h/h get to the HEA very fast, *almost* a bit too fast. Things are mentioned that I would have loved to read more about. Some of the scenes feel cut to the bare minimum for space.
This could easily have been a 300-400 page book. And I would have loved it.
Out of 10 stars I give this a 9. On the SFR rainbow of SF to R I give it a solid 5 with pretty equal amounts of both.
Here's a link to find it on All Romance Ebooks. There's a Kindle version too. http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-breakingchance-418171-143.html
Teaser: Melissa "Lucky" Chance is a career petty thief. In a world where the tech to surf the web is implanted at birth, she's talented, spunky and gifted with a cute face that blends in. Getting caught...again...is par for the course, until the new governor of the fairly isolated Jovian Colonies decides to make an example of all those being prosecuted that day. Her only hope of escape lies in the sexy form of The Butcher, a mass murderer.
John Ramius knows he deserves the nickname The Butcher for killing 50 men in as few minutes. But no one else understands his particular Hell--the ability to sense another's deepest needs and the overwhelming compulsion to fulfill them. His only hope of escaping to fulfill the dying desire of his last lover is a cute and talented thief with deep-seated needs of her own.
Together they discover a world full of lies, politics and manipulation.
This book contains graphic sex, though not a LOT of it.
Review:
I love the cover of this ebook. The guy resembles Vin Diesel. Ms. Knox's books are now on my auto-buy list. I completely enjoyed this. I'm not one to normally read books with graphic sex but this one didn't cross over into gratuitous. The few sex scenes were well-developed, fit the plot and advanced the character development.
I immediately liked Chance. She's snarky with a dark side. She's a nymphomaniac out of avoidance. She's not perfect and not drop dead gorgeous. I like that.
John is scary at first. Of course, he's The Butcher, he's supposed to be scary. He's also the perfect compliment for his heroine, Chance. They work together perfectly.
I loved the worldbuilding, the character development, and the sentient ship was sweet. The SF was good, and the Romance was good if a little dark.
The bad? Well, there's nothing "bad" per se. I do wish there'd been another 50 pages (or 200) of plot and character development. It's a novella so the h/h get to the HEA very fast, *almost* a bit too fast. Things are mentioned that I would have loved to read more about. Some of the scenes feel cut to the bare minimum for space.
This could easily have been a 300-400 page book. And I would have loved it.
Out of 10 stars I give this a 9. On the SFR rainbow of SF to R I give it a solid 5 with pretty equal amounts of both.
Here's a link to find it on All Romance Ebooks. There's a Kindle version too. http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-breakingchance-418171-143.html
Saturday, January 1, 2011
2011 Science Fiction Reading Challenge! Whoo hoo!
http://sfrreadingchallenge.blogspot.com/p/2011-sfr-reading-challenge.html
I chose the Moon level, 15 SFR books for the year. SFR means any Science Fiction book with any amount of actual Romance, meaning a happy ending. I'll be posting reviews of all the books/novellas I read here and at Goodreads. Most of the participants will post a list at the challenge site of the books they're reading and a link to their blog of reviews, if they choose to review.
If you're looking for a new, expanding genre, look into this! It's a lot like Shippy Fanfic but with new universes.
I can't wait!
My first two books will be Breaking Chance by Kim Knox, and The Stars Down Under, third book in the Outback Stars trilogy by Sandra MacDonald.
I think I may try to finish a few SFR series I started last year.
This is going to be fun! I expect my To Buy list to explode with suggestions from the other participants. :-) It did last year. LOL.
Happy 2011, everyone!
Anna
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