January 2012
5 tags
Vampirella: A Murder of Crows - Paul Renaud
4 out of 5
Original Article
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Judge Anderson: Head Trip
4 out of 5
Original Article
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Want Meat
4 out of 5
Original Article
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Madame Mirage - Megan Marie
>
4 out of 5
Original Article
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Mockingbird - Jen Richards
4.5 out of 5
Original Article
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Mockingbird - Jen Richards
4 out of 5
Original Article
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Emma Frost - Etaru
4 out of 5
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Emma Frost - Sam Lau
4 out of 5
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Starfire - Rosanna Rocha
4 out of 5
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Dazzler - Jay Tablante
4 out of 5
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Valkyrie - Victoria
4 out of 5
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X-Dogs 1 - Kelly Ishikawa
4.5 out of 5
Original Article
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The Galaxy Primes - Chris Foss
4.5 out of 5
Original Article
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Some Different Sort Of Time: Watchmen As Cinema -...
Looking at the movie and the not-possibleness of translating the complexity onto the screen for one movie.
4 out of 5
Original Article
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The End Is Nigh: The Limits Of Watchmen - Geoff...
On how far you can take the superhero thing.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
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Somebody Has To Save The World: Captain Metropolis...
On the production of the Watchmen game material at the same time as the comics were being produced - as well as the content.
5 out of 5
Original Article
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Bringing Light To The World: Watchmen From...
Atomic comparisons; fiction to reality.
4 out of 5
Original Article
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58 Varieties: Watchmen And Revisionism - Julian...
On detail and silliness and aspirations.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
2 tags
Ghostkiller - Steven Savile
Beating up a beater.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/32537
Original Article
2 tags
Integrity - Steven Savile
““If one green bottle should accidently fall… it might just crack its skull and lie bleeding to death in Marylebone Lane.””
or following Konstantin ends violently.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/37062
Original Article
2 tags
The Stoker Memorandum - Lavie Tidhar
“Have you heard of the Jekyll-Frankenstein serum?”
3.5 out of 5
http://dailysciencefiction.com/hither-and-yon/alternative-history/lavie-tidhar/the-stoker-memorandum
Original Article
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Nothing Ever Ends: Structural Symmetries In...
How it is put together.
4 out of 5
Original Article
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The Last Laugh: Understanding Watchmen's Big Joke...
On satire, Ozymandias and The Comedian.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
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Blotting Out Reality: Questioning Rorschach - Gene...
From the title you see that it talks about Rorschach via The Question et. al.
4 out of 5
Original Article
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At Play Amidst The Strangeness And Charm: Watchmen...
What it says - but the author says that Watchmen is the hardest SF story he has ever read? Presumably then he hasn’t read much at all - certainly appears that way from the content.
2.5 out of 5
Original Article
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The Smartest Man In The Morgue: Watchmen And...
On looking at Watchmen via Raymond Chandler’s analysis of what makes a mystery story work.
4 out of 5
Original Article
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How The Ghost Of You Clings: Watchmen And Music -...
On the references both real and fictional to bands and composers.
4 out of 5
Original Article
2 tags
East Village Noir - Russell Atwood
Lost girl and lost purse keys murder setup.
3.5 out of 5
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/7555
Original Article
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Reassembling The Components In The Correct...
On the origins of characters and predecessors to check out beforehand.
4 out of 5
Original Article
2 tags
The Detachment - Barry Eisler
The most recent job John Rain was involved with was for higher stakes. Energy supply. After four years off Rain gets approached again. This time he and Dox, along with Treven and Larison are hired to take out two yank Defense honchos who are apparently planning fake terrorist attacks on the USA to allow them a greater deal of fascist control (and cash, of course).
Now even assassins think this...
2 tags
The Questing Mind - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
artificial intelligence pathways.
3.5 out of 5
http://kriswrites.com/2012/01/23/free-fiction-monday-the-questing-mind/
Original Article
2 tags
Blood Hunt - Lee Killough
A detective working on some murders finds something disturbing - a vampire. He also ends up as one and ends up trying to trace the vampire, bringing him deep into another world and also a change of cop career locations.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
2 tags
Ancient Eyes - David Niall Wilson
A young man goes back to the old town. Well, the old hamlet if you like. His problem is what goes on at the church there. A good, new-fangled snake cult. Complete with supernatural entities and rituals involving such. Young women, bad things, etc.
Snakes, supernatural and crazy Californian hillbillies in this polished horror novel.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
6 tags
Michael Turner's Fathom 4 - Alex Konat
4 out of 5
Original Article
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Galactic Empires - Karel Thole
4.5 out of 5
Original Article
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Homeland
Actually, all the Marine POWs are spies.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
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Requiem For An Assassin - Barry Eisler
Hilger showdown.
Which shows that even smart guys can do dumb things. Hilger and what is left of his crew kidnap Dox as a lever to get Rain to perform some assassinations for them. All part of a greater do something about the oil plot involving suborning a port official.
So yeah, Rain wants to kill him. And that usually works, especially if the CIA and Mossad want him dead too.
4 out of...
2 tags
Darkness Falling - Peter Crowther
The Langoliers meets Invasion of the Zombie Body Snatchers.
Or a few people left around after a strange electromagnetic incident find out that the fellow that all wear shades and gloves are out to get them. And something is in their heads.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
2 tags
The Last Assassin - Barry Eisler
Here’s a three-way teamup for Rain and company as a dying Tatsu has a request. Finally get rid of Yamaoto so he can expire in peace.
Rain agrees and convinces Delilah to help. Things get messy when Midori and his son are endangered by Rain’s existence as they are a link to find him. Yamaoto being hard to get to has to get drawn out of hiding by the good old make him think his...
2 tags
Wind Slayers - Robert W. Walker
A lot is packed into this novel, the third of a series of which I have not read the other two.
A special unit of cops gets some dangerous situations in a unit that bears the series name.
Their lead also had Internal Affairs and FBI problems. As well as wanting some vigilante revenge about the people that kidnapped his family.
Plenty is packed into this one - crimelords, assassins, dumb hoods,...
2 tags
Zombie Kong - James Roy Daley
A man is swallowed by a giant undead ape and his spousal unit has to try and get him back.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
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The Shadow - 022 The Creeping Death
The Shadow has to deal with a madman who wants all the world’s gold supply - employing his own titular method of getting rid of people to help him to get there. Even if they are Secret Service agents.
3 out of 5
Original Article
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The Creeping Death - Maxwell Grant
The Shadow has to deal with a madman who wants all the world’s gold supply - employing his own titular method of getting rid of people to help him to get there. Even if they are Secret Service agents.
3 out of 5
Original Article
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Killing Rain - Barry Eisler
This time it is the Mossad that wants Rain to remove someone - thanks to Delilah’s recommendation. And interestingly a couple of small sections are told from Delilah’s point of view - sign of increasing importance?
Things go pear-shaped when he is about to knock off his explosives expert target and the man’s kid walks in on them. So he just does over a bodyguard or two and a...
2 tags
Shades of Gray - Jackie Kessler and Caitlin...
The second Icarus project book follows on from the first, as Jet and Iridium deal with the breakdown of the drug and mind control of the Extrahuman population of the USA.
To do so involves one of the good old methods - ask some of the less nasty villains rotting in prison for help. Which of course includes Iridium’s father. Some flashbacks in his life are interesting, as well as the...
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Wonder Women - Phil Jiminez
4 out of 5
Original Article
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Stormwatch - Tom Raney
4 out of 5
Original Article
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ToxiCity - Libby Fischer Hellman
A young policewoman is involved with a detective in the same force. A distinct no-no by the regulations. He is trying to solve multiple poisoning murders and deal with what happens after they get caught. They both have other women expressing interest in them as a result of the case, which doesn’t make things easier. Especially when it appears that the father of the rich cop chaser is the...
2 tags
Master of the House of Darts - Aliette de Bodard
A third solid entry in this series as now High Priest Acatl has to deal with murder and worse in a magical epidemic. As he has grown to realise more and more, these things are usually the results of a power struggle from those passed over or yet to come into more power - even if your relatives or students.
And monsters. They seem to always use monsters.
3.5 out of 5
Original Article
2 tags
Rain Storm - Barry Eisler
Not quite as strong as the first two. Here Rain follows through on his plans to decamp to Brazil for security reasons, in a couple of stages. However, the CIA pulls him back into, wanting him to dispose of an arms dealer. It isn’t as simple as that though, pointing out that the CIA right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. As in attempting to hire an old sniper...
