It is about sweet young girls remember his "Goodbye, Enorma", the sexy years-old? No pets this time as in "don't poke the bear", no funny drunk bantering among men relaxing in the pub. But man, how exciting and tricky the plot does develop! It is a crime story more complicated as those from Agatha Christie. But what I love with E-Books, it plays in our time. There are no carriages and no wood-fired stoves, there are smartphones and computersoftware for secure deleting files. This author knows his business. Usually, I do NOT award ratings. As I recently dissed the author's "Don't poke the bear" with one star only, for a very good reason, I do rate this one anyway, to accomplish a sort of compensation, in honor of his proficiency.
Destination Havana on March 17, No, thanks, even if it is free. I did not read through the end. It seemed not that exciting, not the entertainment I was looking for, but that was not the reason. I do not give up easily, but it was too difficult to read because of the errors and typos every few lines, like "he was beingshoved", "tried everythingpossible","the mechanicpointing at a small fissure" that was in three contiguous lines.
Furthermore there is no table of contents and the font on my E-Book-Reader is wrong - the default size is much too small and the letters of the different lines touch each other. Alien Alliance on March 20, I loved this book. In electronic gadgets, I am always very distrustful if they promise all-in-one function.
I could not stop reading and most urgently purchased the sequel on the morning after I had read "alien Alliance" to the end. Quagmire's Gate on April 18, no rating Allan E. Petersen has a wide range of topics. Almost all of them have a strong woman as the main person, and almost all of them have a humorous side in addition to being very exciting and entertaining. This title I found in the SF section and I am happy not only to have read it, but to detect this author, who is so much better than many others who are trying to write SF. In some scenes I could not stop laughing e. Throughout the book, I barely could stop reading!
I almost never award ratings. I strongly recommend downloading and reading "Quagmire's Gate". Petersen I have read - except this one. Maybe there is a message in it which I don't have an antenna for, a warning about what we humans are and where we are going. It is the Bible, Old Testament, re-told. It presupposes that God is Universal Energy, that he has created other Humans in other dimensions, and it continues to re-write the Bible right from Adam and Eve. I respect the author to sacrifice to us a considerable part of lifetime to convey his message to us readers - and I have yet to see that he does make money with any of his books.
Being no religious person in the sense of church or creationism, however, this is not a book for me. I normally don't award ratings in my reviews. If you are as deeply and intelligent interested in the field of religion and worldview as the author, read it by any means. Hercules Down on April 18, This is Petersen at it's best. Strong women, heroes, a subtle relationship, lots of humour written with sensitivity as to the relationship and communication between man and woman , extreme surprises where the plot is going as we are accustomed from all of Petersen's books , exciting and entertaining - you will not be able to lay the book aside before you are through to the end.
Petersen, at the time he wrote it, seemed to believe that a geostationary satellite would fly barely over the surface of the earth in reality, 3 times as high as the diameter of the whole planet , and that they could land at will due to celestial mechanics, they are a hundert times more sincerely fixed in their orbit as if they would have been if welded to the point of the Eiffel tower in Paris. But this is an unimportant detail in a mystery and adventure book and certainly one of the best I have read. High Tide Treasure on April 18, Whow! I found Allan E.
Petersen in search of SF books, but this is a adventure, action, historical thriller which immediately captured me and held me throughout the last page. As we are accustomed to, Peterson shows humour, deep compassion, and absolute mastership as an author. I do not regret to have taken the time to read it. Clarke or George Orwell, for example You will have a good time reading ist.
Knowing Petersen, this is none of them.
It's the first book of this genre which fully captivated me within the shortest possible time. As usually Petersen demonstrates his mastery as an author, with an exciting plot and his usual, humorous and extremely exciting style. And as always, male heroes, vulnerable kids and strong women play the main part. Graves of the Past on April 18, Yeah, it's horror and I never before bought or downloaded horror and mystery books knowingly. This is one I did, knowing I could expect best entertainment from Petersen, and was not disappointed.
Hours of reading an extremely exciting plot, written with compassion and humour are waiting for you. And as usually, there is a strong woman, a vulnerable kid and a heroic but human policeman in this book , masterfully described over a big span of years, in this book. An Angel in the Shadows on April 28, no rating Smashwords states that "An Angel of the Shadows" is the first book, but the title shows it is the third and indeed, there are mentioned two previous ones in the book. So, I went through the titles and the order is: The plot is not appreciated by me personally.
I have been educated in a society of christian values. This book, however, is very pious. The dramatics are based not on the bible but on the Catholic Church. Angels, the Pope, the Devil, Heaven and Hell are taken literally and the story weaves around them. It is important to prove that the DNA of a bone is from an angel or at least of somebody created by the same God as human beings and not from an alien, because the latter could weaken the faith of Catholics all over the world other religions do not exist in this book anyway.
So, please before reading take a sheet of paper and write: Then start enjoying Petersens excellent literary quality in creating suspense and writing a plot where you never know who is friend and who is foe, up to the last page, garnished by a lot of interesting SF ideas. I normally never award ratings to SF Books, because it's impossible to do them justice in all the dimensions of this part of literature, and boy, in this case I am glad that I don't. If you were honestly able to sign the previously mentioned imaginary paper, download and read the book, you are good for hours of excellent entertainment.
First Fury on May 14, Being not a member of any church, I never read religious literature but I am happy to have come across this book, which has religious elements included in the plot. The female hero, a scepticist, is convinced by sort of a lay preacher on the ship to doubt her own motives for vengeance and brought within long months to acknowledge she is master of her own fate.
As this has been true for all her life, her dire situation must be a consequence of her own, past behaviour. During this process she learns to master her emotions and shape her own future. This plot is unobtrusive and I, completely areligious, gained very much insight from the book. As if that were not enough, there is underlying a very tactful and tender love story within the inner world of the main person.
Furthermore, it's style is written masterfully and exciting, and I learned lots of 19th century maritime navigation and whaling. In this it remembers me of Kassandra Alvarado's "The white passage", another masterfully book about a woman aboard a big sailing vessel. I strongly advise you to not let deter you from reading "First Fury" because of it's christian elements, it is one of the best and most exciting books I have ever read.
The Craft II on May 16, no rating I have the highest respect towards the authors who sacrifice a part of their lifetime to write entertaining books for us readers, and I have to thank Joe Bob Newman to have given this one to us for free. Alas, not always is the result of their work what a specific reader expected in the book. The Craft II is said to be Science Fiction, which in lucky cases is written exciting and touching, showing an extrapolation of social development or technical technical trends.
This book is none of that, it is the story of a war between two rocker bands complete with beautiful girls from an alien planet, fo course The main person sits in his super flying saucer near saturn and points his laser to the pluto orbit until he hits the hostile spaceship by this method. Could be a good satire but I found no hints that it was to understand this way. Okay, what with the acting persons, is the story interesting and touching? Don't know, found no persons. Okay, the author needed a wife for his hero. He called her Loretta and she is sceptic about his space adventures, as well as religious.
What is she feeling, how does she look, what ist her background, what are his feelings towards her? It's a name, nothing more. Author also needs three children of them. They have names, two are male, one is female. What is their relation to the parents or to their spouse, are all of them thinking the same, are some of them emotional and others rational, do they try to do the right thing before their god or not?
There is the alien, Walter, who recruited Larry for the Alien Federation. Walter, like almost all the Aliens 9 races , is very similar to humans. One of the races has a pig snout. Some have movable ears, others none at all, like a dolphin. All are bipeds, all communicate with sounds. One race is smaller, about three feet high. Again, that's all - it is still a cross between a rocker war and a computer game, nothing but a technical narrative.
At least on the first 33 pages. At page 31 it was clear to me I never was curious what would follow on the next page, at 33 I felt I was not willing to continue reading. Earth is no more base for human beings, all spoilt and poisoned, and they built a huge generation ship for After years they found one. It is very exciting how they investigated the new planet and found out which beings live there, and lived before. So far, so good, and I very much enjoyed the first part.
But then the author let his persons start absurd quarrels about, if humanity was had the right to spread to this planet which was empty of conscious beings, except a friendly, giant metal ant built by the former inhabitants , the spacefarers starting to murder each other. Even this might be good for an exciting reading, but the ratio of lines, where people are discussing absurd things vs. I am grateful for any free E-Book, knowing that the Autor has given away quite a part of his lifetime, but this one simply was 'nt for me. This is a skilled, experienced author with a good writing style, I found the plot interesting, the plot was not imitated following other SF stories; and I did not like it.
The author chose a society consisting of only girls from It's all there, horror, extreme tension, the good against the evil, it is comparable to animal farm form George Orwell. Even though there is no scientific background at all it simply happened that all men and all adults disappeared suddenly , I do apply my habit to not award ratings for SF - it's too difficult to apply justice to all authors. But it is a page-turner so download this one! The Hand of God on July 26, This is one of the most exciting alternative reality novel I have ever read.
Understandably the author does not go into much details how an almost pre-industrial society could accomplish this, there are just a few hints. At one time there is mentioned element 90, which is thorium and under some circumstances might enable a small nation to produce fissionable material. Elsewhere there is mentioned, however, that Isotope of the material called "Luciferium" has been reduced, Isotope enriched by ultracentrifuges, which is the way Uranium element 92 is used for nuclear power.
If the author knew a way how this could be done in an age where horse carts meet the first steam engines, it is a good decision not to describe the procedure in more detail anyway. With this background the author develops the war plausibly and with much human interest. He went to great efforts to really show how the technology of would develop, considered an inexhaustible power source could be installed in houses with gas light, in carts previously drawn by horses or powered by coal-feed steam engines and flying devices borne by hydrogen or helium.
I normally do not award ratings to SF but for this, and for a good reading experience, I am happy to give five stars. I am eagerly waiting for the follow-up "New Dominion". To My Readers on Aug. Read my opinion on that in my profile. I do it instead of payment.
Or to trick authors giving me proofread copies earlier than to anybody else, and for free, too ;. But sometimes there is a backlog, or I am ill for some time or so.
- Wapasha and the Jew?
- A Different Kind of Heaven (Tribes of the Hakahei Book 4).
- Astrologie : lEssentiel du Bélier (Edition 2015) (LEssentiel des signes en Astrologie) (French Edition);
- Falsche Bilder/nEchtes Geld: Der Fälschercoup des Jahrhunderts - und wer alles daran verdiente (German Edition).
Sometimes even, I do an author a favour not to publish my real opinion does not concern you , or for lack of another five negative stars ;. And I feel unable to award ratings for SF anyway. I might really like a very entertaining novel which deserves three stars, but everybody else awards five to all and any SF he ever reads. How can I give the maximum rating and still be fair to the one masterpiece of an author who managed to write the best book of his life, exceeding most of the novels on the market, too?
Texas Roads on Aug. I liked the fine humour and the feelings shown of the acting persons. Then it changed to the religious topic and got ultimately unbearable. Every second word seemed either "faith" or "God". I am sorry I wasted my time to read through the first third. I don't award a rating because I am aware that this impression is subjective and emotional. I am aware that I downloaded a free book and that this is a gift of life time spent by the author on doing the best she can.
But nothing prepared me to expect something similar to the religious tracts which are distributed by Jehovah's witnesses at the door. I had fruitful and peaceful talks with those at the door, but I did not wish their tracts either They suffer from "stimulus filter weakness" and might be, for example, unable to work if there is a fluorescent lamp flickering in their office, or unable to follow a conversation if there are other persons speaking near them. They might get into panic, not able to move or speak because of troublesome factors such as noise, or even get driven to violent but never planned, of course action.
Furthermore, they do not fit into the social expectations of the majority. For example, chimpanzees maintain eye contact in communications, gorillas avoid eye contact. Normal people "NT", neural typic maintain eye contact, Aspergers avoid it. NT's interpret this as lying and bad conscience. Facial expression is less vivid, and lots of Aspergers have another handicap, Prosopagnosis - they do not recognize known people, even their partners or children they know instinctively, but only by their appearance.
Let their wife come from the hairdresser and they are'nt sure who it is. Obviously, the author searched for a topic about death, devil, hell and terror. Burning of witches is out, lynching for racial hatred forbidden since long, but hey! Hear of mass murder and you can be sure to read in the news the word "Asperger". So, the Asperger in " Titus" is a scientist planfully shooting 47 students, to study a first-hand experience of mass murder. All in the name of science". It is not explained; the author equates Autists and mass murderers and that's it.
The authors, at the end of the book, offers lots of links for evidence like the Huffington Post. Everybody knows that this is a premium scientific paper I might have awarded two stars because style and story shows the author is quite gifted, the book is, although utterly nonsens with his god-devil-conflict etc.
But alas, there are lots of mistakes and errors. He has a problem with his word processor, resulting in something like, for example: He too lacks a full command of his mother language. Some samples about were, where, we're are: So, sorry, one star from me because you can't award zero in Smashwords. A Robot Named Clunk on Aug. Pure Slapstick, so funny.
Re-Read it and ordered the first "Omnibus", it's a bargain. I never award ratings to SF. Download this one, if you just want to have fun while reading! Hal Spacejock Omnibus One on Aug. It is all there, SpaceOpera, tolerance against sentient machines which are living together with the hero and doing everything better - not failing to point out how much better why do I have the feeling the author is married?! Furthermore, it's quality work. As I read lots of e-books from hobby authors or even beginners, even I english is not my mother language do find lots of errors in them, but I don't remember a single one here so the author has either invested thousands of dollars in proofreading or lots of time to eliminate them.
I do not award ratings to SF books, because they are beyond comparitily, to my opinion. Save Our Souls on Sep. It's no cheap Space Opera like so many others - it is extrapolating today's social parameters in a far future, and the persons are real, touching people, not all identical. If you have a garden overrun with goatweed and vetches like mine, you are at least prepared to a small amount of the horror already. Quality is quite well also. Table of contents is not that luxurious "Contents: Normally I do not award ratings to SF, see my Profile for reasons.
For us science fans, stephen hunt transferred the plot to outer space and eloquently describes the power of sailing the monsoon, eh, the artificial wormholes leading through hyperspace, the black powder cannons, er, the multiple nukes which are shot at said trading vessel, making a very inspiring story of the inhabitant of an pre-technological planet, which has been forced by circumstances to become a crew member of a 40th century space ship.
This is enticing to read, and the quality of the book is good - no or almost no typos and errors, and there even is a TOC with real chapter titles.
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Characters are a little bit on the cardboard side, the female captain being, of course, an attractive woman, the mail hero a real one, witty and battle tested, the slaves, sorry, androids are loyal and more intelligent than they want their owners to know, and said owners discussing if it is wise to teach the slaves to read, eh, sorry again, to enable real awareness in their androids. So why the lowest possible rating from me? I normally do not award a rating at SF at all reason see my profile. I write the reviews to help readers find good SF and authors find readers.
Very seldom I do rate a SF book to warn readers, and that is the case here. I thougth Smashwords had a rule that the E-Books at their portal have to be a complete story and this one is'nt. From the 86 pages measly enough, if you want to know my opinion , the last one, titled with "Chapter six", is advertising, "join the free The story is not finished, it ends with the spaceship fleeing, being under deadly attack by a dangerous pursuer, and his previous ally on the planet overpowered, arrested and tortured, end of book, go clink out 2,99 Dollar for the sequel or register on the author's homepage with your precious e-mail-address for more promotion, pardon, "newsletters".
Want at least to have a look into the sequel before buying? Go buy a kindle, Stephen Hunt has dozends of books on sale at amazon. It is a pity. The "appetizer" was fun to read and the website of Stephen Hunt is interesting and entertaining, too. Alien Extortion on Sep. Maxine Millar has her own style and her contribution to SF is unique, doubtlessly because of her professional background as a nurse and probably a solid knowledge on biology.
What if there exist an intelligent race of egg-laying beings similar to porcupines with hands? Nobody else than MM could have written the scene where a female one with their special variant of PMS keeps away the males in her space station, as this race has quills to punish attackers - and undesirable overtures as well.
The books of MM do show a fine humour, als is the case in this scene. SF is not developed out of today's technology. They have space ships with faster-than-light drives, which are not further explained. But Alien Extortion is a logical evolution of today's society on earth, as well as a logical development of other races. What if there are intelligent fishes, similar to dolphins, which are really grateful that human beings settled on their planet able and willing to rid them of extremely nasty vermin, similar to ticks or barnacles?
Again, it's MM's special biological knowledge which enables her to include that story. As we are accustomed already, there is lots of human and alien! The creation of a better society among humans from terra, as well as a respectful relationship to alien races is a prevailing concern of the author.
This, however, leads to a sugary portrait of the created society. Quality is medium to high. There is, however, a really good introduction to the previous Books of the "Niseyen Galaxy" series, and there follows a very useful "Index of Charakters, Races and Planets". I was not too happy with the placement of that one at the end; I would have liked to refer to that one throughout reading the book but then I would have to jump at the last pages and the software of my ebook-reader would not remember which was the last page I was reading of the text itself.
Errors are not beyond bearable but they exist, especially in the second half of the book. It is a pity that this author does not allow any contact to her or her proofreader or editor. I have made a habit of mentioning the good sides of the story, criticising the SF aspects or style if there is anything to criticise in my public reviews, and prefer to point out the errors to the authors. This is not possible here.
There are few errors but they do exist, like P. Wear you able to breathe, did you feel safe? I habitually marked them in my ebook-reader and would gladly have sent a list of approximately 20 to the author. I almost never award a rating to SF Books. For the reason please see my profile.
By all means, download and enjoy "Alien Extortion"! Beneath the Lanterns on Sep. Forward, or a mutation within the human genome, like "Slan" from Van Vogt. Other novels, which aren't "hard" SF and often called fantasy, just try to entertain the reader by an exciting plot, with some future, alternative or astronomical names mixed into it so the authors need not to follow our strict scientific and historic environment, or they are using distant places or times as a stage for a romantic love story, which could have happened in today's real world either.
But alas, not all authors are equally gifted in writing an interesting and scientifically correct plot with touching, individual characters. They're perfect representatives of the cardboard scientists typical of hard SF". What do you remember from Asimov's "Foundation"? Other authors clink out a new novel about their man-eating space crocodiles every month and I devoured all of them as they came , Litka works on his latest idea for years until he has it all correct - and he writes great romance as well.
I can not imagine that his early work, "A Summer in Amber", a beautiful romance playing in a meticulously worked out future Great Britain, will be surpassed by any future SF Author. With "Beneath the Lanterns" he has done it again, but of course, in a completely different time and based on a new plot. Okay, the times of day seem to have changed from 24hrs to something like quarters of the day, and the first, second etc. Going along the plot, which is love and combat, unsuspicious as well, the reader becomes fascinated with the world Litka has developed. WTF are the "Lanterns"?
Is it spring, summer, autumn, winter? There are more and more little differences. I think Litka has set up a riddle for readers and has fun imagining how they, bit by bit, solve the riddle or at least try to do so, unless they are fully distracted by the romance developing over the time. Unlike some other SF novels, the background proves inventive and consistent. Of course Litka did not forget to include those unforgettable, subtile humouristic events, little gems we readers have become accustomed to find in his novels!
I almost never award a rating to the books I am reviewing. Please see my profile for the reason.
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It's fun, it is exciting, and I myself estimate C. Litka to be in the best 10 percent of authors. The Trouble with Rescuing Zoe on Oct. So far, so good. The novel begins with somebody giving somebody else a message for another person. Suspense is created by not letting the reader know what was in the message until the end of the novel. This is as spurious as the persons are cardboard characters - elder man, young woman, young man, mother-in-law, aunt, and the plot is sometimes quite ridiculous elder man goes into the forest and comes back with a stone axe he has fabricated himself in half a day, history of mankind finding flint deposits, forming the cutting edge and making it resistant to the considerable force an axe has to apply forgotten This were the bad news.
The good news is: This is important, like a steering wheel for a car is important - else it makes noise which is fun for the kids, but it will arrive nowhere. Quality is between average and good. The Table of Contents is "Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 8" like in most E-Books. Errors are few, even less than average, and not irritating. I almost never award ratings, as is explained in my profile. I strongly advise to download and read this novel, some intriguing reading hours are waiting for you!
Charm of the Devil on Oct. More than that, it is the story of strong women, with all their feelings, their audacity, their fears and foibles. Qualitiy of the e-book is very good.
A Different Kind Of Heaven
There are almost no errors, and there is a nice,detailled Table of Contents, not the usual "Chapter 1", "Chapter 2" etc. I still wish there would be a combined one, something like "Chapter 2 - The case of the concrete man". It is easier to remember to have read an important detail in Chapter 2, than something like "It was in the Chapter called The case of the concrete man".
The author also should correct a small legal glitch. He does not allow the E-book to be "stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic The clause is from pre-Ebook-times, meant against scanning a book, printing out and selling bootlegs! You will notice that my review of "Charm of the Devil" is almost identical of that of "Deadly intent".
This was done intentionally. In more than one aspect, both titles should be read and understand together. We also accompany the author into a new sub- genre of his, a novel of inner development. You can see the build-up of the story, the details, the characters during the until now two books of the "Penny Britain" series. It starts with a lot of open questions and rather stereotypic characters. There are international terrorists but who sent them? Yes, they have a known name but those four letters are all we learn about the organisation.
What is the structure of the organisation? Why do they hit at that year, at that special moment, against that special country? What is that cult? How old is ist, who founded it? Is the reader expected to believe in real, occult powers or does the leader of the cult mislead people for his own purposes only? The author develops with his story, too. For example, in the beginning I had to look up the names several times, because they all seemed alike, until I knew by heart who was the good and who was the criminal heroine.
The good one is a beautiful, young, hard working woman like the criminal one, too. All good beautiful young single women in books have a cat, so this one has one, too, named Holly.
In "Charm of the Devil" there develop, among else of course, a number of sub-stories from the view of the cat. I grinned all the time - and they are so true. Holly had already trained Jill to be punctual with meals". Everybody who knows cats knows how realistic this description is.
Penny Britain also gains on details. She starts on the first pages as a brillant but unpopular commissioner with lacking social capabilities. Social behaviour patterns pose an eternal riddle for her. It even seemed to me that in "Charm of the Devil" there was clearly described an autistic overload " like she was sitting in the middle of a large field.
Sounds around her became loud" but the author supplied an other explanation. But why is Penny what she is? How was her education? Is she socially impaired or is she still learning? Very subtle humourous scenes are developing along the plot. Dramatic scenes are not missing either, and in my opinion becoming more and more brilliantly built up. The extremely bloody and gruesome scenes like at the beginning which I did not like very much became less, the dramatic climaxes became better built up and much more vivid.
I came to like the plot and the style. To my own surprise, I was compelled to immediately continue reading with "Charm of the Devil" after I had finished "Deadly Intent". I think we can look forword very much to Book 3 "Unlawful Death" which is promised by the author at the end of Book 2! I normally do not award ratings. For the reasons see my profile. Here I gave one to help other smashwords readers find the series, which I believe is quite promising. Please read Book 1 before Book 2. Deadly Intent on Oct. Secret Cargo on Nov. The prologue plays in germany.
At first, as a german reader, I was disgusted by some sloppy research. One of the figures is a "Grupenfuhrer Kaltman", obviously a member of the Wehrmacht. Now, names do have a sense. Probably you can research what your own family name means, miller being the owner of a mill etc. One of my neighbours does install cooling devices, but these ware not in existence when people got family names. On page 7 he fears that the SS would execute him when they found out he stole something.
The author mentions that Nazi Germany stored amassed treasures in the salt mines at Merkers, Alteaussee and Siegen. The hurgon might be aliens, but they are just a different type of people and, with contracts ready to sign, Kim can see an end to the war with them.
But the Multeese are a different matter. They are the real enemy, hanging over all her plans like a battleship over a Combi van. They seem all powerful and completely lacking in anything like mercy. Kindle Edition , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. Jul 04, Katharine Ventureadlaxre added it Shelves: This entry is the personal opinion of Katharine herself, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team. To be safe, I won't be recording my thoughts if I choose to here until after the AA are over.
Robinson January 7, Book 1 of 4. Add to Wish List. Book 2 of 4. Book 3 of 4. Robinson October 7, Book 4 of 4. More About the Authors. Scott Robinson grew up in a small country town population in Australia where the only fun to be had was the fun you made for yourself. Robinson's fun usually involved writing about strange worlds that were populated with brave heroes and dastardly villains.