Ten Dead Comedians | Fred Van Lente

*Book received from NetGalley for an honest review.

Summary:

Nine stand-up comedians are invited to join Dustin Walker, one of the most legendary names in the comedy business, at his island home to partake in a project. When they arrive, however, they are told by Walker's introductory video that he's brought them all to the island to die. Then the video shows him hanging himself. Sure enough, one by one, the remaining comics begin dying off. With no hope of rescue, they must figure out how to survive, if they don't kill each other first.

Review:

I genuinely enjoyed this book. It was a nice change of pace for me. I normally don't read murder mysteries, especially not ones that take place in the "real world". This book, however, was pleasantly entertaining. I had figured out the "who" kinda early on, but the "how" was so much more interesting than I thought. 

The book is a little dark. With so many deaths in so little time, what can you expect? You also get to see the darker side of the comedy show biz life. Despite there being so many comedians, there was quite a bit of drama and very few redeemable traits. And while there was a lot of death, it wasn't as gruesome as it could have been. Though you do get a fair amount of clever and funny dialogue. Heck, I was actually rooting for a couple of the comedians to survive because they were good at what they did and were smart about trying to survive. 

The ingenuity of the killer, however, that was the major selling point of this book. Sure their reasons for doing everything made me think of them as a whiny, overly sensitive, insane person. But I gotta give it to them, they really knew what they were doing. They had everything planned to precision. It was wonderful to get an intelligent villain. 

Despite not liking murder mysteries in general, I really enjoyed reading Ten Dead Comedians. It is intelligent and funny with just the right amount of dark humor. 4 hoots!

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RunLoveKill Vol. 1 | Jon Tsuei, Eric Canete and Leonardo Olea | Mini-Review

Summary:

Rain has been on the run for a couple of years now from an organization called Origami. She has to run again because soon construction of the walls around her current city, Prygat, will be finished and she'll be trapped. 

Review:

For such a small book, RunLoveKill has a lot to offer. This was one of only a few graphic novels that where I found myself studying some of the tiniest details in the panels. This world is incredibly intriguing to me. Despite there being completely sentient and sassy robots, the technology of this world screams biotech to me and I would LOVE the opportunity to learn more about it. I totally agree with the Mature rating on this one. There is a lot of violence and blood. But if you're interested in a lot of action, a runaway from a military style organization and science fiction technology, I highly recommend this book. I really wish there was more to this series. There are so many places this world could have gone! 4.5 hoots!

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Sungrazer | Jay Posey

*Book received from NetGalley for an honest review.

Summary:

Lincoln Suh leads one of the most secret special forces teams. They get called in to investigate the disappearance of an even more secret government weapon named Sungrazer. Their investigation takes them to Mars where every move they make could either get them killed, start a war between the two planets, or both.

Review:

I don't have the best of luck with "standalone sequels". I often feel like I really needed to read the previous book(s). Sungrazer, however, is one of those wonderful books where, had I not been told it was a sequel, I wouldn't have guessed until at least a third of the way into the book. Definite kudos to Posey for writing this book so that, not only could I easily get into this world, but would also make me want to read the first one. 

Let me tell you, this was a really good read! I loved the characters. I loved the dialogue. I loved the world it took place in. I want to know more about these people and their world. I want there to be a next book just as much as I want to go back and read the first one. This book was incredibly easily to get into and at no point did I feel a disconnect for not having read the first one.

The characters in Sungrazer are all so interesting and dynamic. There were one or two tropes, but overall their interactions felt so natural and real. Doesn't hurt that one of the characters reminded me so much of my husband. Seriously, look for the mischievous one. At the very least, he will make you chuckle. And Elliot's intelligence and ability to think on his feet, without resorting to using a gun, was a phenomenal breath of fresh air. I love it when characters can outsmart their opponents without resorting to force. 

And then there's the technology! The armor that Lincoln's team wears for most of the book fascinates me. Their "drones", their weaponry, their simulators, this is why I read sci-fi books. The technology is so amazing and I want to learn more about it and its applications. 

Overall, I really liked this book and happily give it 4.5 hoots! Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go see about buying the first book.

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Jam | Yahtzee Croshaw

Summary:

In Brisbane, Australia, Travis and one of his flatmates, Henry, start to head out of the apartment. As soon as they open the building door, however, Henry gets eaten by a flood of jam. Not covered in jam, literally dissolved into it. The week goes downhill from there. Travis, his other flatmate Tim, the and their neighbors Don and Angela, are faced with an apocalypse. Then they're faced with the other survivors, broken into two camps: the ironic Plastic People and the cubicle workers from Hibatsu. 

Review:

There were a lot of enjoyable elements to this book. An amiable main character. Realistic, and therefore hilarious, dialogue and character actions. A goliath birdeater spider. What's not to enjoy? 

Unfortunately, this book fell flat for me. I'm used to Croshaw giving a different but better ending than the one I think I want, but in this case, the ending was disappointing. I get that, in apocalyptic situations people are going to break in different ways, but I did not like Tim's break. I was genuinely disappointed by that development. I also wasn't a fan of the Plastic People and their constant need to be ironic without fully comprehending what that meant. Then again, that could be a testament to Croshaw's writing that he made them so easy to dislike. 

I did get a number of laughs throughout the book. I found it absolutely hilarious that a character who said he had no fear doing something immediately responded to the situation with "OH JESUS MONSTER TRUCK DRIVING CHRIST THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEAAAAAAAAAAA". I also appreciated the references to Mogworld, Croshaw's previous book. Even Travis not being the brightest bulb in the box was kinda funny (though that did get old after a while). 

Overall it's an okay book. It had a lot of good moments, but it ended up leaving me feeling like there could've been more. Maybe it's just me. I still give 3 hoots for all the laughs.

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Children of Lovecraft | Ellen Datlow

Summary:

A collection of short stories inspired by, and written in the style of, H.P. Lovecraft. 

Review:

Not surprisingly this is a book without any happy endings. That being said, this book still had a lot of beautiful tragedy. There was plenty of horror and Twilight Zone style unsettled feelings. There were monsters in human and unrecognizable forms. There was one story in the collection that was so inane and difficult to follow that I actually put the book down for a couple weeks. The rest of the stories, however, were very engaging and I've got another list of authors to look up. This is a good book for fans of the horror genre or Lovecraft fans looking for new authors to read. 

An Oath of Dogs | Wendy N. Wagner

*Book received from NetGalley for an Honest Review

Summary:

Standish has been hired to help out the Communications at Canaan Lake on the moon (not planet, moon) Huginn. When she wakes up from the cryo sleep she was in to make the trip from Earth, she is told that Duncan, the man who hired her, has died. Went missing the forests of Huginn and hasn't been found since. So, she's now head of Communications. When she gets to Canaan Lake with her service dog, Hattie, she finds out the hard way that there are wild dogs in Canaan Lake that dig up corpses and kill those that try to stop them. When she starts asking questions about Duncan's disappearance, however, she finds there's another layer to this small town that she may not like.

Review:

I'm not generally one for mystery novels. All the ones I read just don't surprise me anymore. They're kinda predictable. The overall mystery of this book wasn't too mysterious after a bit, I'll admit. That being said, I didn't put the book down. I happily kept reading more because I found the characters and, more importantly, the world of Huginn to be incredibly interesting. I really think there's a lot more that Wagner can do with this world and I'll be happy to see it.

I greatly enjoyed reading and trying to picture the various flora of Huginn. Seriously, if you are at all interested in botany or ecology, this is a great Sci-Fi book for you. One of the main characters is a botanist who knows what he's talking about. But there are so many parts of the descriptions of the forests and the insects that made me really wish this book had come with illustrations. The naturally multi-colored wood of the coveted, but literally explosive, horsetail trees are something that I really want to see! And Bajowski's (the botanist) observations about the terran insects' adaptations to and with Huginn's insects were fascinating to me.

And I haven't even talked about the religious sect The Believers yet! Think Amish, but way in the future. They were the first colonists in Canaan Lake and we get to find out that their journey was far from easy when Songhauser, the company that practically rules all of space travel, misplaced their main food supply boxes. Yeah, Huginn is not friendly to outsiders and no one knows that better than the Believers. 

Overall, this was an entertaining book. The mysterious parts weren't too difficult to figure out after a while, but it was still a good read. There is certainly plenty room for more stories from Huginn and I do look forward to them! 3.5 hoots!

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