Music of the Distant Stars by Alys Clare

Genre: Historical Mystery

Setting: Eleventh Century England, After the Norman Conquest

First Sentence: Dawn.

This novel is the third in Alys Clare's Norman Aelf Fen series which currently runs to seven books.

Our main character is Lissaire.  She lives with her Aunt Edild.  Edild is teaching Lissaire to be a healer.  She is also learning another skill.  She is learning how to use what we would call ESP.

One summer, Lissaire's beloved Grannie dies.  She has lived a good life and it's time for her to pass away.

Then one day, Lissaire makes a terrible discovery.  When she visits her Grannie's grave, she discovers that the body of unknown girl has been placed in the grave.

Who is she?  Why was she placed in the grave?

Blame is soon attached to a young man named Derman.  He is a simpleton, with the body of an adult and the mind of a child.  To make matters worse, Derman has run away.

As the plot develops, we discover that there are several people with a motive to kill the girl.  This is strange because she is universally loved by those who knew her.

And then another body is found.  It is Derman.  Is his death somehow connected to the young girl's death?

In the last few pages of the novel, the plot becomes delightfully tangled.  And at the final reveal, I was completely surprised.

This was a great read.  The author has crafted a great historical mystery.   It's a stand alone novel, so it can be read out of series order.



                                                          

Mist Over the Water by Alys Clare

Genre: Historical Mystery

Setting: 11th Century England, a few years after the Norman Conquest.

First Sentence: It was raining.

This novel is the second in the author's Aelf Fen Norman series which currently runs to seven books.

Mysteries often spring from secrets.  Actions often seem mysterious until the secret is revealed.

So it is with our main character, Lessair. She finds characters whose behavior is mysterious.  And in the end discovers a hidden secret.

Lessair is an apprentice healer.  And she can sense the supernatural.

An urgent request for help.  A cousin has injured his foot.  But why had Lessair been summoned when the cousin could have asked for help from the nearby Ely Abby?

Soon, Lessair becomes entangled with a family secret involving her friend Sibert and the death of his father.

Then,  while investigating this secret, she learns of a deeper and more dangerous secret.  This one could bring war and death to the land.

This was an interesting book.  The liked the way the author switched back and forth from first person third person points of view.


                                                              

The End of All Things By: John Scalzi

Genre: Science Fiction

Setting: In outer space, aboard spaceships and on various planets, in the distant future.

First sentence: So, I'm supposed to tell you how I became a brain in a box.

This book is the sixth in Scalzi's Old Man's War series.  This series is unique in that it is a collection of free standing novels and novelettes placed in the Old Man's War universe.  We don't follow a main character.  But we see the main story arc from different points of view.

This  book is a collection of four novelettes.  In them we observe the main story from both a human and an alien perspective.

Basically, the plot revolves around the relationship humans have with the hundreds of non-human species in the galaxy.  Many of these species have aligned themselves into a governmental entity called the Conclave.  Humans are represented by the Colonial Union and its military arm called the CDF (Colonial Defense Forces).

Humans are not very popular in space.  They have been fighting the Conclave for years.  It turns out that the Conclave is not as evil as the Colonial Union would have humans believe.  And the Colonial Union is not very popular on Earth.  It turns out that the Colonial Union has been misrepresenting the real political situation in the galaxy.

Now, there is a new political entity called the Equilibrium.  The Equilibrium wants to gain political control by destroying both the Conclave and the Earth.

So, the Conclave, the CU and Earth need to find a way to defeat the Equilibrium.  Failure would mean the end of all things.

I am a big fan of John Scalzi's novels.  I especially like his action sequences.  For me, the story slowed down when we had aliens with difficult to remember names discussing political issues.

But, overall, I felt that it was a very enjoyable read.


                                         

Destroyermen: Blood on the Water By Taylor Anderson

Genre: Alternate History

Setting: During the World War II time frame, on a different version of Earth.

Blood on the Water is the eleventh novel in Anderson's Destroyermen series.

In this novel the author picks up the story where he left off in the previous novels.  Captain Reddy, his destroyermen, and their allies are spread across the globe.  In the East they are battling the minions of the Holy Dominion.  In the West, they fight the lizard-like Grik and the insane Japanese leader Kurokawa.

In this episode of the series, we learn more about the other human factions that inhabit this version of Earth.  Some are enemies of the Dominion.  Some are enemies of the Grik.  And some have nefarious objectives which make them the political enemies of all the sides of the war.

Anderson uses a large cast of characters to tell his story.  Keeping track of so many characters must be a challenge for the author.  To help the reader, Anderson has included a ten page longest of characters.  When the author introduces a new character, or reintroduces a character from past novels, he does an adequate job of providing the exposition needed to identify the character.  With so many characters, so much exposition could become tedious.  But the author deals with the exposition quickly and gets us back to the action.

I have really enjoyed the Destroyermen series.  The plot moves along briskly and there is lots of action.

I strongly advise readers to start at the beginning and read the novels in sequence.  It looks like it's going to be a long ride.

                                                                        

Dark Matter, Book One of the Hadron Series by Stephen Arseneault

Genre: Science Fiction

Setting: The eastern U.S. in the near future.

First Sentence: The engines lost thrust as the fuel ran dry.

Dark Matter is the first novel in the author's Hadron series which currently runs to eight books.

Dark Matter is a pretty typical beginning to a post apocalyptic series.

We have some unknown power which is disrupting the world wide power grid.

The author drops a few hints about the source of that power.

Humanity quickly devolves into chaos.  There are roaming bands looking for food and looting.

In rural New Jersey a small group of exceedingly wealthy and well prepared survivalists link up in a small local bar.

Together, they decide that a cave in West Virginia would be the perfect place to hunker down, and wait for whatever happens next.

Along the way, they pick up some friends, and battle some evils doers.

Eventually they find themselves cornered in their cave.  Will the cavalry come to the rescue before it is too late?

This book was a pleasant read.  There are plenty of un answered questions. Although it is listed as a science fiction book, there is little scifi in this book.  The author promises to ramp up the scifi in future installments.

If your looking for an enjoyable series to read, check out this one.


                                                         

Daughter of Sand and Stone by Libbie Hawker

Genre: Historical Fiction

Setting: 260 CE to 271 CE in Palmyra, Egypt, and Rome.

First Sentence: On the last day of spring, the moon is just past full and still visible, pale and round in the late morning sky.

Our main character, Zenobia, is the youngest daughter of a wealthy and well beloved merchant in Palmyra.  Girls her age should be looking for a well placed man to marry.  Zenobia's mother and sisters urge her to keep to a woman's place.

But Zenobia refuses.  She believes the gods have a special plan for her.

So Zenobia sets out to acquire power and prestige.

Along the way she is aided by Zabdas.  Once he was a trusted employee of Zenobia's father.  He has sworn to protect and support her.  He loves her.  Yet he knows that , because of her ambition, he will never be good enough for her.

Zenobia follows the path the gods have set out for her.  For each increase in power, the gods extract a terrible price.

In the end, Zenobia finds herself in the very place when strove to avoid: the wife of a well placed man.

This was an interesting book to read.  By writing in second person present tense, the author adds a sense of immediacy to the telling of the tale.  We are not reading a story of the past, but we are watching the tale unfold before our eyes.

Check out this book, as well as some of the author's other novels.




                   

Code Breakers Book 1: Alpha by Colin F. Barnes

Genre: Science Fiction

Setting: In the future, on earth, after a disastrous planet wide civil war.

First Sentence: In 2153 the lottery didn't just change lives it ended them.

This novel is the first in Barnes's Code Breakers series which currently runs to four books.

It is the twenty-second century.  Earth has been blasted by a catastrophic civil war.  Orbiting Earth is a space station where technologists experiment with improving the human race.  On Earth there is the domed City Earth where citizens believe that they are the only survivors of the war.  Outside the dome are humans who struggle to survive on the blasted, radioactive surface of the planet.

At each level humans exist in various combinations of biology and technology.

In City Earth, population control is an algorithm that decides who gets to live, and who must die.  Our main character, Gerry Cardle, is the author of the algorithm. So it comes as a surprise to him when the algorithm selects him for elimination.

When his number comes up, Gerry escapes from the dome and heads into the wilder parts of the planet.  There he joins a group of part-human, part-computer survivors. They are trying to defeat a malicious malware code which endangers City Earth as well as the survivors themselves .

Along the way Gerry discovers that there is something different about his brain and his coding abilities.

For me this was an OK book.  Lots of action.  Physical battles and cyber attacks. If you are into hard scifi, you might enjoy this novel.