7 Steps to Midnight by Richard Matheson

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• Published July 2003 (Forge Book paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 08, 2004
• For the most part this was a pretty enjoyable read. The story involves Chris Barton, a mathematician who's life is turned upside down one night as he's thrust into danger, intrigue and all that spy stuff. Matheson does his usual excellent job with his characters. His plot is straight forward and quick enough to pull you along, insuring that you keep reading despite the late hour. And the mystery and suspense is just real enough to keep you actively involved. The problems that I had were two items. First was that Barton keeps saying or thinking "This is exactly what would happen in a book, not to a real person like me" or some derivative of that phrase. It was OK the first couple of times but then he kept saying it every single chapter and it just got too repetitive. And then you throw in that he really is a character in a book and not real and it kept jerking me out of the story. The other thing that I was disappointed with was the very ending. It just seemed to much the Hollywood ending: nice, quick tie-up where the good guy gets his reward and the bad guy gets his comeuppance. Sure, I don't mind the Hollywood ending every now and then but I usually prefer it to stay in the movies and not in the books. And this was very much the Hollywood ending. All told though, I would still recommend the book.

Sacrament by Clive Barker

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• Published October 1996 (HarperCollins hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on July 6, 1998
• Although Barker earned his name with his early books on horror and scaring the shit out of you, most of his later novels are more fantasy based. Usually they include a mystic journey between our world and another world existing just beyond our senses. These novels are often huge in length and very difficult to briefly sum up without sounding crazy. This novel started out as a much more real story than Barker has done in a while, but it did turn into another mystic journey: a much more centered and specific story than other novels, but still a journey. However, this novel is much more reachable and attainable than his other mystic journeys as in IMAJICA. The story focuses on Will Rabjohns, a photographer who photographs dying animals, an influence which came from an experience with Jacob Steep who had taken the task of documenting and exterminating the last animals of a species. (See what I mean about not being able to easily summarize and still sound sane.) The symbolism within the novel is rich and plenty and often sublime. And before the story is complete, your view of good guys/bad guys becomes instead a view of nature and that is how people act. This in turn becomes symbolic as the entire story is seen to be about nature and life. It is a story that I very much recommend!

Sacrifice by Andrew Vachss

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• Published July 1992 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 10, 1996
• Book 6 of the Burke novels
  This is a very good novel. It is very intense! At the same time the characters come across real vividly and with a lot of depth. It is easy to see and picture them, but like real people, not as easy to understand them. There many layers to each person and they don't always do what you expect, and are often surprising with what they do do. When I first started reading it, I was overwhelmed and a little confused just from the number of characters being quickly introduced, and there were repeated references to characters from previous books that I felt I was missing something. Not with regards to having trouble understanding what this book was about, but that there was a lot of history and a lot more to the characters that I wanted to learn about. It's like meeting an interesting person that you like and then want to get to know better. I want to know these characters better and experience their world. I very much look forward to picking up the novels that I missed and reading them also!

Safe House by Andrew Vachss

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• Published April 1999 (Vintage Crime / Black Lizard paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 15, 2001
• Book 10 of the Burke novels
  Once again Vachss takes us in to the life of Burke makes us experience the troubles and hardship that is just part of his daily life. And once again, we thrill and the experiences of one of the hardest boiled characters in existence; or at least I thrill in it. In SAFE HOUSE, Vachss tells the continuing story of Burke, a hardened criminal who scams money from those too stupid to keep it, who lives on the fringes of society and who has a sense of what's right and wrong and lives his life accordingly. This time Burke becomes involved in protecting a woman with a mission who is protecting abused women, specifically one who is trying to protect her son from his Nazi father. Unlike so many of the other Burke stories, this one does not have a sad ending. Things might actually be looking up for Burke. We'll find out in the next novel which I won't miss.

Safer by Sean Doolittle

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• Published February 2009 (Delacorte Press hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on October 14, 2012
• Doolittle is one of the authors that slowly worked his way onto my read list where excellent writing has moved him up to my "must read" list. SAFER reinforces his position on that list. The book was very well written and involves several fears that can result in today's society. Sara Callaway accepts a Dean position at a university near a small Midwestern town; as a result, she and Paul, her husband, find and move in to a house on a quiet cul-de-sac. Unfortunately it's not that quiet and they end up being broken into on the very first night. The neighbors step up and pull Paul into being part of their Neighborhood Watch; the unofficial leader of the group, retired Policed Office Roger Mallory, even gets them a great deal on a security system. Paul becomes suspicious, tensions build and before he realizes it Paul is battling with his neighbors and arrested. Things don't get any easier when he hires an attorney with his own problems. The story continues building into a very suspenseful finale. There are a few themes that Doolittle expertly wraps into the story and which many of us can easily relate: being accused of something you didn't do, the dynamics of interacting with your neighbors and when does trying to help go too far. These ideas are the source of what causes Paul so much trouble. Each idea simple and common enough that it becomes very easy to imagine being stuck in a similar situation. It's what makes the book so accessible and so gripping. I highly recommend the book.

The Sandman: Book of Dreams edited by Neil Gaiman and Ed Kramer

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• Published January 2002 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 26, 2003
• Before you buy this book you need to make sure that it has all the pages; the paperback copy I have does not. It ends at 374, which means 20 pages missing from the final story, no afterword by Tori Amos and no biographical notes. If I found the other stories in this book to be great, I would hunt down a complete copy and read the final story but unfortunately I was not that pleased with the collection. While I knew that the short stories were based on the Sandman reality from DC Comics, I also thought that the stories would be a bit more accessible by the general public. Instead they built off the comics and if you didn't know who Merv or Matthew or the librarian were, then you will feel like you missed something. For those people, I would recommend skipping this collection and picking up any of the collected Sandman compilation. Now for the rest of us who know all about Despair, Delirium and the rest of the Endless, I think that you'll find this collection a bit disappointing. There were some stories that I really enjoyed and you'll find those below, but it seemed like the bulk of the stories were too "dreamy." The authors enjoyed recreating the whimsical nature of dreams instead of presenting a solid story. The stories struck me as so anxious to show that they are part of Morpheus's world that they forgot to tell a story at the same time. So my recommendation for the rest of us would be to read the following stories the next time you visit Borders or Barnes & Noble and to spend the money instead on a Sandman compilation.

  "Each Damp Thing" by Barbara Hambly - Cain accidentally releases a terrible force within Dream's home

  "Splatter" by Will Shetterly - A spokesman is recruited for the Serial convention

Santa Steps Out by Robert Devereaux

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• Published October 2000 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 21, 2002
• This novel is almost sacrilegious for perverting the child aspects of major holidays. In short, you shouldn't expect to think of any major holiday the same after reading this book. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are all key figures in this modern and very adult view of holiday figures. The story focuses around Santa Claus who one year happens to spy the Tooth Fairy and who is then quickly seduced by her. Of course, Mrs. Claus finds out and is not too pleased by it. The rest of the story follows their lives as they naturally, or magically, evolve. There was only two things that kind of rang wrong while reading the novel. The first was that near the beginning of the book Santa Claus seemed out of character at times; it got resolved in the story and it made sense but at the time it was a bit off. The other was the almost deux en machina ending of the book. Yes, it too made sense and flowed naturally but it was almost too easy. However the ride of the novel was definitely well worth it and is not something I'll ever forget. This is highly recommended to anyone with an open mind who doesn't mind their childhood memories being shattered for the adult world.

Savage by Richard Laymon

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• Published November 2007 (Leisure Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 19, 2010
• Laymon's novels are always fun to read. They aren't necessarily the most rational as some of them are built on some pretty fantastic and amazing coincidences. However, they are still very enjoyable. SAVAGE is one of those books. The story follows 15-year-old Trevor Bentley after a domestic disturbance at home and when his mom tells him to find his uncle, a constable on the London police force. Before we know it Trevor is witnessing Jack the Ripper's final murder, taking action against him, kidnapped aboard a yacht bound for America and numerous other events. The hunt between Trevor and Jack ends up switching around a few times as the two of them both try to eliminate the other. In the end, while the book is about Trevor growing up and about the hunt between the two characters, the book is really about having fun and simply enjoying the events. It can be compared to one of those popcorn movies which you watch and enjoy but which will not be winning any awards. Something that is fun but not serious.

Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale

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• Published August 1995 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on August 17, 1999
• This is another relatively small novel by Lansdale. It can be considered an example of what happens when you try to get rich quick. Hap Collins gets approached by his ex-wife with an easy way to make $200K. Needless to say it is not as easy as it was supposed to be nor does it end quite the way Collins thinks. While there are many suspenseful moments included, the novel contains a lot of character development. And they are all characters that you enjoy finding out about. Most of the development is actually portrayed in the interaction between characters as events unfurl which makes it perfect because the story keeps going as you find out more. The part that I didn't agree with as much was the very ending. Collins does something which demonstrates that his ex really did get to him when I thought through most of the story he was past that.

Saving Souls by Lucy Taylor

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• Published July 2002 (Onyx paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 7, 2009
• For some reason, I thought that this was going to be different than what it was. I'm not sure what I was expecting: more horror, more deaths, I'm not sure. Don't get me wrong; I really liked the novel and would recommend it but my expectations were slightly off. Instead of a something more intense or whatever, the story is closer to a detective story. Almost a whodunit. No, you can scrap the almost there. It is one. Cass Lumetto, a journalist from New York, is pretending to be Jack O'Doul's girlfriend in order to find out if he killed her college roommate. Fortunately Jack is in prison so she can pretend without taking things too far. While the hope for something incriminating starts with Jack and her visits to the prison, Cass starts to use her journalism background and questions other people. She quickly finds herself the target for someone else and ends up in more trouble than she expected. Things get complicated quickly with multiple plot lines occurring until it all culminates in an ending that brought both satisfaction for correct guesses and shocks for unseen threads. While I might not have been expecting the level of mystery that I got, I was very pleased with it.

Scavenger by David Morrell

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• Published May 2008 (Vanguard Press paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on December 29, 2015
• David Morrell is one of those authors that I generally don't seek out but almost everything that I read by him is really good. It makes me wonder why I don't anticipate reading his books as much as other authors. The only reason I can think of is that I have so many other authors that I read and try to stay current on that I can't handle one more. A poor excuse considering the quality of Morrell's writing. Anyway, SCAVENGER makes me reconsider why Morrell isn't on my must-follow list. The book is solidly entertaining and thrilling from start to finish. Frank Balenger and Amanda Evert are recovering from the events in CREEPERS (not a requirement to read but recommended). Suffice to say, they are a couple of survivors from a tortuous torment in an abandoned building. Amanda and Frank attend a presentation about time capsules where they are drugged and Amanda gets kidnapped. The rest of the book is the chase of Frank trying to find and rescue Amanda while simultaneously Amanda is forced to "play" in an adventure scavenger hunt for a missing time capsule. If she wins, she gets to live. The setup and action might seem a bit much for the end result; there seems to be near limitless resources to both set up and execute the plan and to have the characters run through the hunt. This is no worse though than James Bond or countless other stories where money seems to be no object to achieve the final goal. And there are ample explanations as to from where the money comes. While all the characters are believable, I do wish that Detective Ortega was flushed out a bit more. He almost fell into the cliche of not-so-smart detective that helps the hero but is still two-steps behind the hero at all times. I still very much enjoyed the book and would recommend it.

Scissors by Ray Garton

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• Published October 2004 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover signed, numbered and limited to 1,000 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on June 18, 2007
• Despite some difficulty identifying with some characters and some shifts in the story, I did like this book and would recommend it. The story follows Stuart Mullond at a particularly troublesome point in his life. Despite it being years in the past, he's still tormented by a botched operation on his penis from when he was a little boy. In fact, he starts believing that he is being followed by Dr. Furgeson, the doctor who botched things. It is very obviously creating mental problems for him as his life quickly falls apart. This is the part of the novel where rather than seeing the disintegration of a man's mental health into full-on crazy, I realized we were jumping straight into the crazy with no lead up. However, proving me wrong, Garton took the story in a slight twist and quickly changed things up. I'm not going to spoil things but I'll admit to being surprised and liking the new aspect. It took things to the next level. It made the story a little bit harder to believe but once I got past that part, it was great. It also totally changed the ending that I was predicting. The hardest part to connect with the story was the beginning when it's so obvious to the reader that Stuart needs serious help; that is when I couldn't connect with what the characters were doing. Still a good story though and one that is recommended.

The Scorpio Illusion by Robert Ludlum

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• Published June 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on October 19, 1996
• This is a really good, typical Ludlum book. You've got a spy story mixed with the right amount of adventure, back-stabbing, violent plans, and assassination attempts, all combining to form a very good book. The novel can be quickly summed up by saying a retired CIA operative is recruited to stop a world-class terrorist from killing the President. But by limiting yourself to just that you miss a lot of the intricacies that are so much a part of Ludlum's novels. There are always twists and turns in his stories which help to keep you on the edge of your seat the entire time. Although, I must say that other Ludlum novels that I've read before always seemed to be more complicated than this one. It had its twists but not as many as I remember other novels having. Either way though, Ludlum is still a master at weaving intricate spy stories.

The Scream by John Skipp and Craig Spector

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• Published 1988 (Bantam Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 01, 1999
• This turned out much better than I thought it would. It starts out with rock bands fighting the religious conservatives and it seems like it will focus on that. But then the story switches so that the fight against censorship is only a part of it as a band which takes it to the extreme starts to convert their fans into the undead. The undead assist in the gathering of mystic forces so that the band can bring forth a demon who first tasted life (or death depending on your point of view) during the Vietnam War. All of these factor combine along with others (like a member of a different band capturing the moment of conception upon DIOS) to a spectacular climax where no holds are barred and main characters can and will die. OK, so maybe it is not "literature" but for horror fans, it is a damn good read!

Scream Queen by Edo van Belkom

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• Published April 2003 (Pinnacle Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 21, 2005
• I loved this book! I literally devoured it over two days, including staying up late to finish the book. I always love finishing a good book at 1am; it gives you a weird sense of unreality which is exactly what I got here. The story follows the Gowan brothers, a pair of grade B movie producers, as they film a reality show about six contestants spending the night in a haunted house. Plus we follow Jody Watts, one of the contestants for the show. Van Belkom knows pretty much where the story is going and takes us there in short order. In the process though we meet a large cast of characters that are easy to remember, characterize and not confuse. A huge plus over many other books. The suspense builds up nicely and does spook you out at times. I was playing the book in my mind as if it was a movie and if done right, it would be one scary ass movie. I've liked short stories by van Belkom but now I'm going to have to hunt down more of his novels.

Screaming Science Fiction: Horrors from Out of Space by Brian Lumley

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• Published February 2006 (Subterranean Press hardcover signed, numbered and limited to 1,500 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on October 24, 2007
• This wasn't quite what I expected and I'm not sure why. The title alone implies horror stories with a science fiction bias to them and that is exactly what you get. My original expectations were more science fiction than horror. Regardless though, I was very pleased with what I read. More pleased than I expected which is always a good thing. Lumley always seems to do a great job with all of his short stories. I haven't read a collection by him and ever been disappointed. This is another stupid observation but I should really give one of his novels a try. I'm sure that I'll be equally pleased. Anyway, pick this book up. It's a bunch of horror stories with science fiction firmly wrapped into the story. All of the stories are great but my favorites are below.

  "Snarker's Son" - A pretty simple story of a boy getting lost through a portal to another world but still a fun one.

  "No Way Home" - Another story about a parallel universe with a unreliable portal.

  "Gaddy's Gloves" - A teen uses his video game playing skills to pursue making the big bucks.

  "Big C" - A Lovecraftian tale about a cancerous growth takes over more than the person its infected.

Second Chance by Chet Williamson

• Purchase it here
• Published August 2002 (Leisure Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 11, 2003
• I really enjoyed this novel! While reading it, it started off with just being good, which can be difficult in itself, but then as I got further along and closer to the end, it had more and more of an impact. The story is about Woody Robinson, a musician who is searching for that extra emotion to infuse with his music. In trying to recreate that young, energetic and "true" feeling from his college days, he throws a '60s party at his old college apartment and with his old college roommates and friends. During the party, they somehow travel back in time and are able to change history by rescuing two friends who died. Unknowingly they rescue a third friend who ends up becoming an environmental terrorist and kills a lot of people. As the title obviously points out, the story is about having second chances, first to let Woody have a life with his true love who died tragically when she was young and second to correct the creation of an environmental terrorist who didn't exist in the first reality. It might sound like the book is a bit too much science fiction but it really is not; that whole aspect is really downplayed in favor of the characterizations and interactions which are both excellent. The only problem that I had was keeping track of who all the characters were in the party. But considering that those were all sub-characters and not really focused on, it really didn't matter too much if I couldn't tell them apart. Go out and read this book. You'll definitely enjoy it.

The Secret of Crickley Hall by James Herbert

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• Published May 2007 (Pan Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 3, 2010
• I consider Herbert's book THE SECRET OF CRICKLEY HALL to be a solidly entertaining book. It follows the typical pattern for a haunted house story: scary looking house abandoned years in the past due to a tragic event, new family moves in, spooky things happen, events are ignored, big spooky things happen and everything comes to a conclusion. It's a comfortable pattern and Herbert follows it. In this case, it is the Caleigh family that moves to the new location for the husband's job and to escape the dread due to their son being missing for almost a year. The family experiences weird happenings which are generally ignored or rationalized away by the father until they can no longer be ignored. Unfortunately while the haunted house story is a comfortable pattern, it is also a familiar one. It means that the author has to go beyond the normal and do something to pull the reader's in further. It could be character depth to make everyone real or something to break the normal pattern, but something is needed. While Herbert is more than talented enough to provide that something, he does not in this case. Instead we're left with a solid story that is entertaining but which does not grasp us as much as it should. The spooky isn't quite spooky enough. We don't quite care enough for the characters. And the one surprise that does occur was not enough. I would still recommend the novel but I would also be sure to reduce your expectations so that you aren't disappointed.

Secrets by J.F. Gonzalez

• Published 2009 (Sideshow Press paperback signed, numbered and limited to 50 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on October 16, 2012
• Not yet reviewed

The Second Saladin by Stephen Hunter

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• Published May 1998 (Island Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 09, 2000
• While this was a good novel, it didn't grab me as much as some of the others by Hunter. It follows his trend of having a conspiracy focused around an ex-military personnel. This time it is an ex-CIA agent who left after having been captured, tortured and broken by the Russians. The conspiracy - a Kurd who was trained by this same CIA agent has snuck back in to the country and is trying to kill a political figure. While there was nothing really wrong or out of place in the story, it still was something that I couldn't quite sink in to completely. I did enjoy the book and Hunter does do one of my favorite things when he kills one of the main characters but I just wasn't in it as much as I felt I should have been. Maybe I'm over doing it with Hunter right now - I have read a bunch by him in the last few months.

The Select by F. Paul Wilson

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• Published May 1995 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 5, 1997
• If medical mystery stories like what Robin Cook does interest you, read this novel. If an intelligent, moving story involving three dimensional characters interests you, then read this book. If conspiracies centered around mind-control and experimentation upon people interest you, don't let this tale slip past you. It is gripping and exciting to read as the story unfolds quickly and pulls you in to medical school and the mysteries found there. The characters are enjoyable to follow and to become part of their lives. It is a very enjoyable novel which should not be passed up by anyone.

The Serial Killer's Wife by Robert Swartwood

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• Published August 2011 (RMS Press ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on April 12, 2015
• I had a great time reading this novel. It was a great "race against time" novel with a twist ending that I suspected but didn't really see coming. Elizabeth Piccioni had a good life until her husband was arrested by the FBI as a serial killer. During the trial and publicity, Elizabeth runs away to try to give her son a normal life. Now five years later, her son's life is at risk by a psycho who wants the trophies from her husband's murders. Elizabeth has 100 hours to race back to her old life and try to find the trophies so that her son can be saved. The story was exciting and gripping as the characters raced to the end. As I mentioned, I suspected a twist at the end since a few things during the story seemed too easy and obvious. The degree of the twist though was something that I did not expect. However, nothing was out of character for anyone. There was no sacrifice to the reality of the story in order to achieve the surprise. Instead the characters were all three-dimensional, easy to picture and equally easy to care about. Well, I did find that her son was a bit of a caricature. He didn't really have any personality; considering though that for 95% of the book he was solely in the background as a threat and motivation to the main character, I didn't really mind. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Swartwood.

Severance Package by Duane Swierczynski

• Purchase it here
• Published May 2008 (Minotaur Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 28, 2010
• This is one of those books that once you start reading it, you won't be able to put it down. Fortunately I was on a plane to Madrid and had nothing else to do because otherwise I would have spent an entire evening or Sunday afternoon reading it. The character are engaging. The story is fast paced and exciting. And the action does not let up. After a month of paternity leave, Jamie DeBroux returns to the office on a Saturday morning for a special meeting. Unfortunately he finds out that his company is a front for an intelligence agency, that the office is closing down and that closing down means everyone must die. But almost immediately Jamie's boss finds out that there are other plans in the works; continuing the bad luck for Jamie, they still involve the death of everyone. The story becomes an action packed tale of creative deaths and plans falling apart. Things naturally focus on the events unfolding but the characters involved are entertaining and definitely pull you in. Naturally you'll feel for Jamie who is forced into a chaotic world that he thought was normal; at least he was the one that I identified with the most. The story did have a few holes in it but at the same time those holes could also be looked at as the characters being human and making mistakes. And there were several very human mistakes made by them. And if you spend too much time analyzing the events, you'll realize they don't really make sense. Don't worry though because it does not take away from the enjoyment of the book at all. So block off a few hours, make yourself comfortable and start reading.

Sex and Violence in Hollywood by Ray Garton

• Purchase it here
• Published October 2001 (Subterranean Press hardcover signed, numbered and limited to 1,250 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on September 26, 2009
• Garton definitely delivers on the title of his book. There is plenty of sex and violence. The story follows Adam Julian who has lived his whole life in the midst of Hollywood stardom. His father is a screenwriter of bad but highly successful films. Adam believes that his father killed his mother and is half planning on killing him. His plans start to move forward as his dad's new wife enters the picture along with her sexually charged and out-of-control daughter. After much of the previously mentioned sex and more than a tad of violence from a physically damaged friend-of-a-friend who lives in the desert with his pornographer father and sadist mother, Adam finds himself in a legal battle for his life. Fortunately he has Rona Horowitz on his side and she refuses to accept defeat. The characters might be too much at times but they are also fun to read about. You want to read about them and see what happens next. In all, the book is over the top, more than a little crazy and has some very strange events happening. I can easily say that this is only slight exaggeration of Hollywood itself and get away with the joke. Instead I will compare Garton to another favorite author: Joe Lansdale. If you've read any of the Hap and Leonard books by Lansdale, you will see the same degree of craziness and wide events happening. With Garton, we see it happening in Hollywood with movie stars rather than in the backwoods of east Texas. However you want to look at it though, this was an excellent book that I found very hard to put down. It's very highly recommended.

Shade of Pale by Greg Kihn

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• Published October 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on November 22, 2001
• This was a disappointing book to me. It wasn't that the novel was that bad; I have read and expect to read much worse. It is just that I had kind of high hopes for the book since I loved Kihn's HORROR SHOW. The story is about Jukes Wahler, a psychiatrist who is tracking down his sister after she has disappeared; at the same time he is dealing with a series of Irish men who have had dealings with a Banshee. Excellent idea and nicely plotted as a story. My problems though were a multitude. All the characters were flat and very boring. The story was littered with too many little lucky co-incidences like following someone who just happens to show up during the 30 seconds that the guy is at the location or like a psychiatrist who has no social life but who can easily recognize Ska versus Heavy Metal when it's played in the background. In fact too much detail was provided whenever a musical reference was made; if it was from the point of view of a omnipotent narrator that would have worked but it was always from the point of view of Jukes who comes across as not knowing the difference between Limp Bizkit or buttermilk biscuits. Yes, some of the co-incidences were explained away at the end but it was too much of a deus ex machina for my tastes. Overall despite my general liking of Kihn as an author, I wouldn't really recommend this novel; you could easily do worse but you could also do better.

Shadow Season by Tom Piccirilli

• Purchase it here
• Published October 2009 (Bantam Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 26, 2015
• This book is another example of how great of an author Piccirilli is. The story is solid and riveting. At the halfway point, things got so good that I couldn't put the book down. I was just getting off a plane during the last thirty minutes; if it was up to me, I would have sat down at am empty gate and finished the book instead of heading to my destination. The story itself follows Finn, an ex-cop who was blinded and is now teaching English at a girl's private school in upstate New York. Over Christmas break when all but a handful of students and teachers are gone, violence seeks Finn out and forces him to confront his and others' secrets. The source of the violence is new but the ghosts from his past are not. The book follows this unveiling by alternating some chapters between the past and the present. Giving us the opportunity to see exactly how one is affecting the other. One of the things that I really liked was how the reasoning and actions from the first half of the book made no sense; then all the puzzle pieces started coming together and it was one shocking revelation after another. It was these revelations that kept me sucked in and wouldn't let go. Well, that plus the strong, believable characters, the moody scenes and raw emotion of everyone just trying to deal with life. SHADOW SEASON is a beautifully written, intensely thrilling novel. It also should be read by every thriller fan out there. So go buy it already and enjoy!

Shadowfires by Dean R. Koontz

• Purchase it here
• Published June 1993 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 8, 1996
• Let me start off by saying that I love reading Dean Koontz books and I like what he writes. Plus whenever he comes out with a new book, I almost always buy it, so obviously the guy is doing something right to keep getting me to spend money on his books. Now with that said, his books have a very obvious pattern to them. Set in Orange County, California, a strong female character teams up with not quite as strong male character to battle some villain/foe/monster. Usually the male character appears as less but ends up surprising the female character with some unknown talent: ex-Vietnam vet, expert at killing, black belt in martial arts, ... During the battle/chase/pursuit, the male and female fall in love and together they defeat the villain/foe/monster, sometimes with the help of an outside character, sometimes not. Add some character analysis and insights to the backgrounds of the characters and you've now got a Dean Koontz book. It's a pattern that works well because he still sells his books, but it is also an easy way to sum up some of his books. This book follows that pattern. Characters that I liked: Jerry Peake, DSA agent that wants to be a legend; and Felsen Kiel, otherwise known as The Stone. Like I said before, even though this follows Koontz's pattern, it is still a good book and I would recommend it.

Shadows by John Saul

• Purchase it here
• Published June 1993 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 7, 1997
• This is yet another really good novel by John Saul. Once again it involves a medical conspiracy which places children at risk and ends up wrecking havoc upon young psyches. Well, this one had a few more deaths than other novels so its victims ended up permanently disabled instead of just confused. We follow Josh, a brilliant youngster, who ends up becoming involved with the conspiracy at an academy for gifted students. He follows a trail of mysterious deaths and discovers a plot device taken from grade B movies of the 50's and even a later Steve Martin film. Despite the potential to fall into camp, the story does nothing of the sort. Instead it becomes incredibly threatening and frightening as more power gets channeled to the victims. I won't disclose anything else (not that I've said anything specific anyway) but do read the novel when you can. It's worth it.

Shadows Bite by Stephen Dedman

• Purchase it here
• Published March 2003 (Tor Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 06, 2004
• Ahhh, the long awaited sequel to THE ART OF ARROW CUTTING. Well, long awaited for me and not really that long since it's been less than a year since I bought it. (Yes, that is how long my "to read" list is.) Anyway, the story picks up with the same characters as before: Mage is learning the extent of his powers with the key and trying to do good in the world while Takumo is fending off attacks by yakuza. Add to the picture the undead and you have yet another novel that will thrill and excite and be difficult to put down. With this being Dedman's third novel, I am pleased to admit that I am hooked to his writing and will eagerly await all future novels by him.

Shapeshifter by J.F. Gonzalez

• Purchase it here
• Published July 2012 (Midnight Library ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on October 29, 2014
• One thing that I really like about Gonzalez's books are his characters. They come across as real people. They are people that I can picture working with or having in my life circles somewhere. I understand and connect with their motivations. And even when they are bad guys, they aren't an over-the-top, let's everyone hate him type of bad guy. SHAPESHIFTER continues that trend. The book follows Mark Wiseman, a computer technician in the tape library of a large insurance company. And when the moon is full, he is also a werewolf. He can sometimes control the change but one day while at work, he gets caught mid-change by Bernard Roberts, the President of the company. Unfortunately Bernard sees the situation as an opportunity and he blackmails Mark. The story then covers how trapped Mark is and what he does about it. Bernard gets more and more bad by the end of the book but he also becomes more and more desperate as things fall apart for him. It is real and interesting and challenging. I found myself wondering what I would do in each of their situations. The characters all made choices that I saw myself making too. Yes, there a few things they did that didn't make sense but nothing that I thought changed the story. And nothing worse than done in tons of movies and other books. I don't want to ruin the ending but it followed in that realistic manner. In thinking about it afterwards, there weren’t too many other choices for how it would end. I kind of want the story to continue and learn more but at the same time, I'm perfectly happy with the ending. I look forward to the next J.F. Gonzalez book that I read.

She Wakes by Jack Ketchum

• Purchase it here
• Published September 2004 (Leisure Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 23, 2005
• I was hoping that it wouldn't happen but it did. While I've loved everything by Ketchum so far and have been grasped from the start of all his other books, SHE WAKES is the first where it took me a little more effort to complete. The book was still good and had a lot of strong characters and interesting events. For some reason though I had a harder than usual time getting through parts of it. It could have been the Greek setting and how the islands they were visiting blurred together for me. It could have been Lelia, the dangerous villain of the piece who has powers but powers that are never spelled out. One of the reasons that I'm generally not crazy about magic or fantasy stories is because the right spell to save the day can be pulled out of thin air at any point in time. This was what Lelia's powers were kind of like; she could come back from being killed but not completely. She can control others but not the one person she wants to. The limitations seemed arbitrary and without a logical reason. And that's probably the reason why it took me longer to complete the book than normal. One thing is for sure though, I am still enjoying Ketchum and all the different stories and settings that he tells.

Shella by Andrew Vachss

• Purchase it here
• Published August 1994 (Vintage Crime / Black Lizard paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on December 24, 1996
• At first I was expecting this to be another Burke book, so I was a little surprised when it turned out it was not. Not that it matters though. Vachss still does a great novel regardless of the character he is writing about. This time the character is Ghost who is tracking a friend who he went to prison for. Not tracking for revenge but for love. I kind of hate summing it up like that because it seems to belittle so much of the character and of his depths to be put so succinctly. Like his other books, Vachss tells the story bluntly and quickly as it progresses, making you read it in a manner which is just as quick. The story zooms by at a quick rate, packing as much as it possibly can into it. All of it good, all of it enjoyable.

Shifters by Edward Lee & John Pelan

• Purchase it here
• Published May 2005 (Necro Publications paperback signed edition)
• Finished reading it on July 1, 2009
• Not yet reviewed

Shivers edited by Richard Chizmar

• Purchase it here
• 22 short stories by such authors as Douglas Clegg, Al Sarrantonio, Nancy Collins, and Graham Masterton
• Published August 2002 (Cemetery Dance Publications paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 03, 2003
• This is an excellent collection of horror stories. There is no pattern or common thread to them other than being scary and well written. Some like "The Sailor Home from the Sea" are almost old-school in style but all of them deliver in the punch. And the article/journal by Kelly Laymon about Keene Con (a multi-day party thrown by Brian Keene) gives a fun view of some of the humor horror novelists have. For you completists out there, "Tender Tigers" by Nancy Collins is a Sonja Blue story. Almost every single story was a big hit with me and it was hard picking out my top ones to list. Think of these stories not as the icing on the cake but as that extra scoop of ice cream sitting next to that cake and icing.

  "The Hand of Glory" by Simon Clark - While cleverly used to burgle some homes, the hand of glory has some unfortunate side effects.

  "Hermanos De El Noche" by Bentley Little - Improper Spanish aside (it should be "Hermanos Del Noche"), the story involves a man doing his best to rescue his wife from some vampires.

  "White-Out" by Peter Crowther and Simon Conway - A woman sees her counselor in an attempt to exorcise her dead husband's ghost.

  "The Wager" by Thomas F. Monteleone - Two men try again and again to one-better the other.

  "That Extra Mile" by David Niall Wilson and Brian A. Hopkins - Newly started jogging leads a man to fighting crime.

Shivers II edited by Richard Chizmar

• Purchase it here
• 24 short stories by such authors as Douglas Clegg, Rick Hautala, Brian Keene, and Tom Piccirilli
• Published June 2003 (Cemetery Dance Publications paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on May 04, 2005
• One of the problems with have a collection of awesome stories such as with SHIVERS is that the sequel needs to be as strong as the original. While not having quite the impact as the first, this collection does kick ass. The ratio of good stories to bad stories is extremely high, offering all types of stories. You are sure to find several in here that you like. And you'll find mine below.

  "Anna" by F. Paul Wilson - A husband who believes that he is free turns out not be as free as he thought

  "Riding The Storm Out" by J.F. Gonzalez - Sort of like Stephen King's "Rainy Season" and THE SHINING combined

  "The Box Man" by Gary A. Braunbeck - A pretty gripping tale that shows your local homeless person might not be as weak as you suspect

  "Something In Store" by Bev Vincent - A dream fantasy for horror fans all over the world

  "A Night Out With The Boys" by Ray Garton - A man becomes friends with his neighbors and wishes he hadn't

  "Last Wish" by Bentley Little - Like all granted wishes, they come with a price you don't want to pay

Shivers III edited by Richard Chizmar

• Purchase it here
• 18 short stories by such authors as Douglas Clegg, Al Sarrantonio, Tom Piccirilli, and Brian Freeman
• Published August 2004 (Cemetery Dance Publications paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 20, 2005
• Chizmar has pulled together yet another collection of excellent short stories. There's something to be said about a solid collection of stories that provides loads of entertainment. No gimmicks. Nothing overly strange. Only a bunch of stories that are all really good. And like any collection, only some get to be remembered as the best. And those are below.

  "Horn of Plenty" by Thomas F. Monteleone - A jazz group gets a little bit of help from a mysterious horn

  "Itsy Bitsy Spider" by Meggan C. Wilson and F. Paul Wilson - Spiders become much more of a threat to man than before

  "The Lingering Scent of Brimstone" by J. F. Gonzalez - Two parents do everything they can to protect their child

  "Please Let Me Out" by Edward Lee - A woman keeps her lover trapped at home

Shivers IV edited by Richard Chizmar

• Purchase it here
• 20 short stories by such authors as Ray Garton, Brian Freeman, Ed Gorman and Brian Hodge
• Published June 2006 (Cemetery Dance Publications paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 13, 2008
• Once again Chizmar delivers on an awesome series of short stories. From the first book, he has continually provided some of the best short stories out there. Once again there is no theme other than solid stories that are meant to scare you. It almost seems unfair because there are so many favorites to choose from while compared to other collections, there are so few.

  "Last Exit for the Lost" by Tim Lebbon - A man receives some packages from his daughter in Venice

  "LZ-116: Das Fliegenschloss" by Stephen Mark Rainey - A German air ship fights more than the war

  "Something to be Said for the Waiting" by Brian James Freeman - A man waits for his wife and son to return

  "Ever After" by John R. Little - A man deals with the negatives of an extremely long life

  "Up In The Boneyard" by Keith Minnion - A construction worker has some problems with his bones

  "The Deer of St. Bart's" by Bev Vincent - A school has strict faculty rules

Shivers V edited by Richard Chizmar

• Purchase it here
• Published December 2008 (Cemetery Dance Publications paperback signed edition)
• Finished reading it on December 18, 2010
• Not yet reviewed

Shock Rock edited by Jeff Gelb

• Purchase it here
• 20 short stories by such authors as Stephen King, Graham Masterton, F. Paul Wilson, and David Schow
• Published January 1992 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on May 13, 1999
• This was a pretty good collection of stories. All of them are based in one way or another on rock and roll music. It a cool concept and it was carried off fairly well here. The majority of the stories are short and all of them are fast reading. I don't know if this makes them better or worse, but they are still there and they are still enjoyable. And since I happened to recognize almost every author and like their respective styles, picking out favorites became difficult. But here they are.

  "Bob Dylan, Troy Johnson, and The Speed Queen" by F. Paul Wilson - A nobody decides to time travel to become a somebody

  "Requiem" by Brian Hodge - A band with pure motives comes back to find a fan of the same type

  "Bunky" by Rex Miller - A convict is trained to be an assassin by reading a radio jock

  "Weird Gig" by Ray Garton - A band gets together to refind that missing spark

  "Hide In Plain Sight" by John L. Byrne - A classic monster story but with a new monster

The Shotgun Rule by Charlie Huston

• Purchase it here
• Published January 2009 (Ballantine Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 2, 2011
• Not yet reviewed

Shudder Again edited by Michele Slung

• Purchase it here
• 22 short stories by such authors as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell and Harlan Ellison
• Published January 1995 (Roc paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 7, 1997
• You would think that I would have learned after reading the first collection in this series. I wasn't too crazy about I SHUDDER AT YOUR TOUCH and I'm not too crazy about this collection either. And for pretty much the same reasons: not enough sex/eroticism in the stories, too many slow paced and old fashioned. But even amongst a collection of lack-luster tales, some jewels shine through. The jewels I found here are ...

  "A Birthday" by Lisa Tuttle - A weird story about a woman's cycle and menopause

  "The Crooked Man" by Charles Beaumont - An intense satire on the acceptance of different people

  "Again" by Ramsey Campbell - A man in the country ends up trapped while trying to help an old lady

  "The Model" by Robert Bloch - A model turns on her escort which leads to a twist of an ending

Sibs by F. Paul Wilson

• Purchase it here
• Published May 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 1, 1996
• Another excellent novel by Wilson. This one though does not tie in to the same world as his other series. (See my review of REPRISAL above.) The story is about a women who dies from jumping out of a high building and her twin sister who wants the truth of what happened. It is an exciting story where you can predict part of the story and it apparently ends with 100 pages still left. At that point it continues going even though as a reader you're not exactly sure about what is going to happen. The ending is great and the last two pages made me shudder with thoughts and possibilities of what might happen. I definitely recommend this book whole-heartily.

Sides by Peter Straub

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• Published June 2007 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on May 27, 2010
• While it had not been that long since I read a Peter Straub book, I was still looking forward to reading SIDES. Straub is always a huge treat to read. Even though I knew that SIDES was a collection of Straub's non-fiction over the last twenty years and not a new fiction story, I figured that I would be amazed as I always him with his quality of writing. In that regards, I was not disappointed. His writing was lyrical and poetic and beautiful as it always is. However, the content of what he was writing about was a hit and miss with me. Straub primarily broke the collection down into three sections: Encounters where he provided Introductions or Afterwords to other author's books, "Two Essays and a Frivolity" or as I thought of it Miscellaneous and then Observations by Putney Tyson Ridge, Straub's alter ego and a fictional critic. The Encounters section was fabulous! As Straub would discuss the different books, I would yearn to read or reread the book in question. THE STEPFORD WIVESThe Stepford Wives. DRACULA. THE ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU. And to seek out more books by some of the authors mentioned: Richard Laymon, Graham Joyce, Caitlin R. Kiernan. (Granted I read most of Laymon's and Joyce's book already but it made me want to reread them.) Straub was a little too complete in his discussion because he would discuss the entire book and I would realize that I no longer need to read them anymore. At least not for the story. The middle section though is where Straub started to lose me. His piece entitled "Mom" was fabulous and will make most people appreciate their own mother. The other two pieces were fine but not as interesting. It was the last section with which I became bored. The writings of Straub's alter ego were boring and very uninteresting. There was not enough insight to offer anything new nor enough humor to make them funny. I'm sure that Straub was poking fun at himself but it was a poking that did nothing for me. Overall I would recommend stopping halfway through but at the same time, I know that I would not be able to do so myself.

Silk by Caitlin R. Kiernan

• Purchase it here
• Published June 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 04, 2000
• I approached this novel with a bit of excitement. I've found much of Kiernan's short stories to be very enjoyable and thrilling. Unfortunately the book didn't quite live up to my expectations. I found the plot to develop very slowly (too slowly); it wasn't until the final third that my interest in the story was sparked enough and by then things were finishing up, and finishing up in an ending that is unbelievable. The characters were boring and annoying; I didn't really care that much when their lives continued to take a turn for the worse. And when the "scary" things were happening, not enough information was given to scare me in the slightest bit. On the other hand the writing itself was often brilliant and a joy to read. While the story tends to follow Niki Ky, a displaced New Orleans woman, or Daria Parker, a bassist who makes ends meet by working at a coffee shop, the real story is about Spyder Baxter, a local Alabama woman who has some secrets that she is reluctant to share. On the way to finding out the secrets, several not-so-innocent victims end up suffering. I would like to recommend this book, but find that I can't really do that in good conscience.

A Simple Plan by Scott Smith

• Purchase it here
• Published 1993 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on August 2, 1996
• This novel was given to me by my best friend so I wasn't too surprised when it turned out to be very good. Like it's title suggests, it starts off with a simple plan or concept. Some people find $4.4 million dollars in a crashed plane in the woods. From there, it quickly gains in complexity as one thing after another must be done to cover up for finding it. I quickly found myself trying to second guess what would happen next but kept failing. I enjoyed being continually surprised at the degrees taken and steps done to insure the secret. In addition to being surprised, the novel leaves a feeling of sadness and uncertainty as you ask yourself what would I have done in the same situation. Where would I have stopped? Pick it up, you won't be disappointed.

Sims by F. Paul Wilson

• Purchase it here
• Published September 2004 (Tor Book paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 07, 2005
• While SIMS seems to focus more on getting an idea across and making people think, it would not work if there was not the solid entertaining story behind it. And the idea which we are supposed to be thinking about won't be a problem yet for at least a few years down the line. The premise of the book is that by fidgeting with DNA, a corporation has evolved chimpanzees into a new species somewhere between man and simian. And in order to get the most out of their dollars invested, this new species becomes cheap labor owned by the corporation. Our protagonist gets involved when the sims want to form a union to stay together as a family. The story is immediately engaging and easily keeps your interest throughout, even as the book moves from part to part and the story changes. In fact, that would be my only negative: that each part seems to have a different focus. It all works together but there is a sort of disconnect between the chapters. Sort of like Wilson's DYDEETOWN WORLD where each chapter is pretty much stand alone. The same can be said here. Considering though that each chapter was sold as a limited edition book printed by Cemetery Dance, it's easy to see why the disconnect is there. All in all though, still highly recommended.

Single White Psychopath Seeks Same by Jeff Strand

• Purchase it here
• Published March 2003 (Hard Shell Word Factory paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 04, 2006
• As the title page states, this is "...the second chronicle of the adventures of Andrew Mayhem." Do you need to read the first? Nope, I didn't, but I am definitely adding it to my list of books to get. This is pure fun. Yeah, it included some torture, some crazy events, weird coincidences and some inept characters but it is pure fun. Mayhem is our luckless lead who from the very start finds himself in one near death event after another. Some he escapes by luck but it's also due to the very real, clumsy and lame actions that people will do. It would be a hard boiled noir detective story except Mayhem is not a detective and there's too much humor to be hard boiled. At the same time though, there are crazy and terrifying events happening that you would not want to be part of. Luckily Strand has such a great and original imagination that it's a fun ride despite being scary. And amazingly he can flip back and forth between hysterical and scary within a page. I look forward to tracking down his other books and reading them. They guarantee to be enjoyable.

Six Days by Kelli Owen

• Purchase it here
• Published May 2012 (Gypsy Press ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on June 16, 2015
• This is a very gripping book. It grabs your attention and won't let go. Fortunately you don't want to let go either as you are carried through the story all the way to the equally gripping ending. Jenny Schultz wakes up trapped in a basement. A pitch-black basement. No light to show her where she is or what is around her. Instead she must feel her way around the room to find a door or an opening or even a weapon. While she searches the room, Jenny must also look inside for the strength to continue and to survive. She relives her life in an effort to determine who trapped her here and why. Until she can find a way to escape. In my mind, the theme of the novel is survival, finding the strength and hope to fight to survive. As Jenny is reliving her life, she keeps remembering the hard parts. All the times where life was beating her up and where she was losing. But then each of those memories always end with Jenny getting past the troubles and surviving. Exactly what she is trying to do in the basement. The details of the past are slowly revealed while giving us hope for the future. I absolutely found myself hoping and caring for Jenny as she went through her struggles. They were very real to me. Well, being locked in a lightless basement with no memory of how I got there might be a bit harder to accept but the rest of her life provided reality. It's what made her current situation that much more dire. And in this case, the story stays true all the way to the very end, making a great book even better. Highly recommended.

Skull Cathedral by Tim Waggoner

• Purchase it here
• Published July 2008 (Novello Publishers paperback numbered and limited to 150 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on February 12, 2009
• Not yet reviewed

Skylar by Gregory McDonald

• Purchase it here
• Published January 1997 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 3, 1999
• Another fun read from Gregory McDonald. However unlike his early Fletch novels, there is not as much humor in it. And unlike his later Fletch novels, this is much more interesting and fun. There is still the same sarcastic humor and dead-pan statements made by the main characters which is a trademark of all McDonald's books. Yet it seems that more planning was put in to this plot. It wasn't as simple as others that he has done but it also wasn't too complex because at the end, the pieces all fell quickly in to place and made perfect sense. The kind of sense that you hit yourself on the head and wonder why you missed it earlier. Additionally the ending is left open ended enough that we can very easily see much more of Skylar which would make this reader very happy.

Skylar in Yankeeland by Gregory McDonald

• Purchase it here
• Published January 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on October 20, 2000
• McDonald is consistently reliable. He always does a good book that's filled with humor (subtle and overt), good characters and a plot that contains more than you would think. This is one more novel where he continues to display that reliability. Skylar Whitfield goes from his home in Tennessee to Boston so that he can attend a musical college up there. However he quickly finds out that things aren't the same in the North as they are in the South. And the mysteries deepen as some jewels disappear on the night he arrives. My only regret is that the plot of McDonald's more recent novels are not as complex as his earlier Fletch books. Well, that and that his books aren't longer; I always seem to finish his books in less than two days. Definitely pick this book up and read it if you want some good fun.

Sleepwalk by John Saul

• Purchase it here
• Published January 1991 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 12, 1996
• John Saul is a master at creating a conspiracy against children teenagers in a small town environment. His later novels generally follow a pattern of some corporation funding medical experiments being performed on a small town's children. (His earlier novels followed a different pattern which also involved younger children.) Unlike Dean Koontz's "formula" novels, Saul's don't lose their appeal and become repetitive. I think the reason for this is that Saul will kill, maim or hideously change major characters while Koontz generally won't. So the reader is never really sure what will happen or who will live or die. Sleepwalk is another really enjoyable novel that slowly pulls you in until you suddenly realize that you are zooming through the novel, interested in every little thing. Plus in a move I really liked, the "villain" is not really revealed until the last third or so of the novel. I guessed who earlier than that but it did not take away from enjoying the story.

Slither by Edward Lee

• Purchase it here
• Published November 2006 (Leisure Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 6, 2008
• Lee continues his long trend of great stories, interesting characters, fantastical creatures and more than a fair helping of sex. This one though doesn't tie into any of his City Infernal stories. Just a simple big ugly monster story. The story follows Nora as her and her research team accompany a photographer to a small island to get some shots of a marine worm. They are accompanied by a military escort since the island is an abandoned but still secure military base. First some dead bodies are found. Then some people on their team are changed. And then they find the monsters. And the title of the book should be a giveaway as to what they are. Overall, the story was extremely entertaining and a quick read. No hidden moral in the story. No secret meaning. Pure entertaining sex and gruesome deaths. Maybe events were a little too convenient, but nothing that was distracting from the joy of the book.

Slivers of Bone by Ray Garton

• Purchase it here
• Published May 2008 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover signed, numbered and limited to 1,000 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on July 3, 2010
• With each book by Garton that I finish, I'm becoming more and more impressed. His characters are real. Dialogue is crisp. And his descriptions envelop and wrap you in the scene. You become part of the action; considering the horror slant to his stories, that means you end up spooked and with that creepy feeling inside. One of the other things that helps make the stories in this collection so engrossing is that most of them are in the realm of possibilities. There are a few supernatural ones (vampires and ghosts) but many of the rest are possible. My favorite stories from the bunch are below.

  "The Guy Down the Street" - Neighbors find out that the guy down the street is filming porn videos of their teenage daughters.

  "The Homeless Couple" - A man comes to better understand a homeless couple living near a phone booth.

  "411" - A telephone operator overhears a double homicide and accidentally gives the killer enough information to find her.

  "Monsters" - A man goes back to his hometown and ends up tormented by the same monsters of his youth.

  "Screams at the Gateway to Fame" - Two paranormal investigators face their biggest challenge.

Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman

• Purchase it here
• Published November 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 07, 2000
• Neil Gaiman is an excellent writer of comic books, to the point of winning awards. And I have caught various of his short stories in other collections and have loved them. The one novel that I read by him was good but not that great. Now with a collection of short stories and prose by Gaiman just finished, I think that I can say that Gaiman should stick with the shorter format. His stories are excellent! There are a few which aren't as great but for the most part the quality is reliable and steady. This collection contains 29 short stories and poems. Then to top it off, the introduction hides within itself an additional short story that definitely qualifies as horror. Weirdly I had read some of these stories in other collections but didn't remember them as being written by Gaiman. Some made my favorites list below while others were just good. However I can't really admit to liking any of the poems all that much. Some of the imagery within the poems worked but for the most part they were lacking and too "flowering." One more thing, in the introduction Gaiman talks about where each of the stories comes from and some background on it. I found myself often looking back at the stories background just before and after I read each story. I think that I would have preferred the background component to only be listed after each story since having it in the Introduction proved distracting. My favorites of the short stories are...

  "The Wedding Present" - Hidden in the introduction but still a chilling story of a unique gift.

  "Troll Bridge" - Something to change your opinion of trolls.

  "Changes" - A sci fi tale involving drugs and pleasure.

  "Tastings" - Getting what you want to be satisfied.

  "Murder Mysteries" - A favorite tale about angels, vengeance and detective work

Smoking Poppy by Graham Joyce

• Purchase it here
• Published January 2002 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on April 19, 2002
• Wow! This is a wonderful book! I was quickly pulled into the story and just as quickly involved with the characters. The story follows Dan as he goes to rescue his daughter from a prison cell in Thailand. As the story progresses and what starts as a simple yet horrible task turns progressively worse, Danny learns more and more about himself. And in the end the story is as much about personal growth as it is about the events but it is all subtle. No hitting over the head with a hammer, just good honest storytelling about characters that change. You won't want to miss this one. The only warning I have is that once you start reading, you won't want to stop until you've finished the book. As sort of a weird bonus, I was traveling through Vietnam at the same time I read this book so a lot of the comments on the weather, the jungle and some of the people really hit home.

The Society by John F. Conn

• Purchase it here
• Published January 2003 (Meisha Merlin Publishing paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 26, 2006
• This is an amazing book. I'm not sure where I got the recommendation to read it but that person should be doubly thanked. I'll admit that it took me a little to get involved with the story. Mostly though it was due to the book not having traditional chapters. There would be breaks in the narrative flow but rather than starting on a new page, it kept to the same page. It did have a description to it, like "Time For One More" but that was about it. There's really no reason for that to make a difference but for some reason it did. Once I got past that abnormality, the story was great. The story itself is about a society of serial killers. Like any society or group, they would get together every once in a while. And like any society, they have some who more power or control than others. In this case, James and Stephen are fighting for control of the society. The further I got into the story, the faster the pacing went. It wasn't long before I couldn't put the book down. The last 100 pages literally flew by as twist after twist were thrown in and I realized that no one was quite who they seemed. I would absolutely include this on a must read.

Son of Fletch by Gregory McDonald

• Purchase it here
• Published October 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 11, 1997
• This is classic Fletch and Gregory McDonald at his best. I have read most, if not all, the Fletch novels and this should definitely be added as one of the better one. McDonald spins a tale of Fletch's son visiting his father after a recent jail break. And quickly we see Fletch doing things that we wonder why until ten pages later. Just as Fletch constantly thinks three steps ahead of the other characters, McDonald keeps us readers jumping those same three steps, trying to catch up. But it is a fun catch up, and it is the reason that these novels are classified under the Mystery section. Unless you are thinking those same three steps ahead, you can only find out the answers as the other characters do. The situations are unique and fun. The dialog is quick and funny. In all, this is an excellent novel and should be read by all with a sense of humor and a love of mystery.

Soultaker by Bryan Smith

• Purchase it here
• Published February 2009 (Leisure Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 25, 2014
• Bryan Smith is an author that I've been looking forward to reading for a while. I've been hearing a lot about him: about what a great writer he is, about how violent and sexy his stories are, about how he's beginning to get the recognition that he deserves. I'm happy to report that all of that is true. Or at least it is true from the one book of his that I've read. SOULTAKER focuses on Jake McAllister as he comes back to the hometown that he escaped from so that he can help his younger brother Trey. Jake's abusive, drunk mother saw Trey's personality change due to his new girlfriend and thought that Jake could help. The problem is that Trey's girlfriend Myra is a centuries old demon who is looking for some fun and games before charging up by consuming a lot of souls. The premise might send a bit cliché and it kind of is. In fact, as the climax approaches in the book, Jake recognizes and points out the same exact thing. Since he is a horror writer, yes, another cliché, he thinks the announcement of demons is a prank. The book could very easily have fallen into that pattern and simply been yet-one-more-horror-novel out there. Instead thanks to three dimensional characters with complex and interweaving story lines and a level of paranoia that infects the readers, the book and the author stand out as being quality material. For most of the book, I doubted the sincerity of one of the main characters, Kristen, and kept waiting for her to reveal her true side. I won't spoil the suspense and will keep her actions to myself but suffice to say that I believed in her as a character with complex issues. Smith is similar to Edward Lee in that the novel is filled with extensive sex and violence. It all fit within the story but if you are semi-squeamish, then you'll want to avoid this book. Otherwise, find it and read it. Now!

Specimen 313 by Jeff Strand

• Purchase it here
• Published August 2011 (St. Martin's Griffin paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 13, 2013
• I love reading anything by Jeff Strand. He is always entertaining to read. It doesn't matter if the stories are more serious or more humorous. They are pure fun! Max is a plant. A special meat-eating plant, specifically specimen #278. He's enjoying his life until one day Jenny, specimen #313, is planted next to him. Max is happy because he was getting lonely but he's also concerned by Jenny can do more than him. Will they be friends or will Max be put out to the pasture? About the only negative with the story is its length. I wish that it could have been longer. It would have been fun to experience more of the plants' lives. But then again all Strand's stories go by way too fast. It just means that rereading them will be that much easier.

Spider by Patrick McGrath

• Purchase it here
• Published October 1991 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 22, 2001
• Unfortunately SPIDER was a big disappointment for me. I had heard a lot of good things about it and was looking forward to an enjoyable book, but instead I turned out not liking it at all. In fact, after getting about half way through I started skipping sections and pages so that I could finish the book sooner which is something I've only done a couple of times before. The story is about a guy who is mostly telling about his past and the murder / disappearance of his mother. The whole thing is kind of like a diary but rather than being interesting, it is very boring. There is almost no dialog. Any action / activity that occurs is slow and drags. And none of the characters were interesting enough to care about. I've still got McGrath's ASYLUM to read and I'm hopeful that it will be better. We'll see. Until then though, I won't be able to recommend this book.

Spider-Man: The Octopus Agenda by Diane Duane

• Purchase it here
• Published 1996 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on October 04, 1999
• A pretty standard story of spider-man that doesn't do too much to grab you. There are too many references to recent events in the past; if it is meant to be a continuation of the Spider-Man/Venom story from Florida, then give us more than just a rough outline. And there is too many details on Mary Jane's life; yes, she needs to be a three dimensional character but none of the details seemed to take the story anywhere. I kept expecting her new job and experience to be part of the same mystery. Then the ending was way too over simplified. For the type of lead up and complexity, the ending should have involved more. If the conclusion is going to be so simple, then don't make the build up so big. Over all the story is too wrapped up in presenting details that are useless; the details may be part of continuity but in terms of the story they were superfluous. Finally, sure Dr. Octopus was the main villain but he barely had any time in the story. Plus only one five minute confrontation at the end. That barely qualifies as a mention let alone having the entire story named after you.

The Spook

• Out of business
• Published monthly exclusively on-line
• Previously I hadn't put any reviews in for magazines because I figured that they were a bit too dynamic. Well, mostly it was because I wasn't reading too many magazines that were focused on horror; instead it was computers (work stuff). But I've discovered a couple that have been turning out pretty good stories and material and I figured that it was time they got some recognition. So here it is. Any good material that I find, I'll include in this entry for people to find along with the usual cross links to the author's name.

  "Red Rover, Red Rover" by Norman Partridge - Published August 2001
  This is exactly the type of story that I love. A good simple ghost story that follows itself through to the chilly end. It even gave me the creeps at the end. I loved it!!

  "Tatters" by Ramsey Campbell- Published October 2001
  A man's life is slowly ruined by a rhyme

  "Frightfully Sorry" by P.D. Cacek - Published December 2001
  An author becomes famous on someone else's story

  "The Absolute Last of the Ultra-Spooky, Super-Scary Halloween Horror Nights" by David J. Schow - Published January 2002
  On Halloween, a themed event at a local amusement park gets a bit out of hand.

The Stake by Richard Laymon

• Purchase it here
• Published April 1995 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on November 19, 2000
• With all the vampires books that seem to have made their way on to the market lately, I was half hesitant to read another. But having heard good about this novel and there being accolades from both Stephen King and Dean Koontz on the cover, I did read it. And absolutely devoured it! This is an excellent novel that quickly pulls you in and won't let go. No, not through loads of action or thrilling things happening back to back. Instead the appeal of the novel is the simple approach it takes to unveil the story. I kept reading and reading, finding myself highly interested in what was happening to the people in the story. It was also appealing in that near the beginning of the book, I knew what part of what the climax would be, but it kept not happening. Instead there were numerous side tracks that kept adding to the story. The novel is about two couples who are exploring a ghost town and stumble upon the body of a young woman with a stake through her heart. It proceeds quite naturally from there as the protagonist, Larry Dunbar, a horror writer, uses the events as the basis of his next book. The coolest thing about the book is that about half way through it seems to get semi-autobiographical. It added so much to the story because now in addition to the story, it could be really happening. You'll have to read it to see what I mean. And read it you should! This is not a book to miss!

Stalking the Unicorn by Mike Resnick

• Purchase it here
• Published August 2008 (Pyr paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 23, 2011
• I was first turned on to Mike Resnick by Subterranean Press and the Dr. Lucifer Jones short stories they published. I loved all the adventures of Dr. Lucifer Jones that I could find. When I found STALKING THE UNICORN in a bookstore, I just had to pick it up and see if I liked other stuff by Resnick. And I did. In fact, in some ways STALKING THE UNICORN is better than the Dr. Lucifer Jones stories; Dr. Lucifer Jones becomes a bit repetitive on how stupid but fun he can be. Anyway, John Justin Mallory is a private eye who is down on his luck; his wife left him, he's out of money and he has no clients. And then he sees a little green elf in his office. Instead of a fantasy though, the elf turns out to be real and he needs some help to find a unicorn that has been stolen. Mallory follows Murgenstrum to another Manhattan populated with demons, trolls, elves, leprechauns and other fun, fantastical creatures. Once there, the search takes Mallory on a bunch of humorous adventures with entertaining characters. The wry humor is prevalent throughout the whole book and just plain fun to read. Mixed in with all the fun, Resnick provides some interesting perspectives on today's city life. The only negative I had with the book was that it seemed to bring some characters in solely to populate a scene for a single joke and that would be it. We wouldn't see them again. Considering that you have a detective making his way through a city though and he has to hunt down some clues, he can't really find humorous situations with the same characters the entire time. In the big picture, a very minor point. I would encourage you to hunt down this book and give it a try. If you enjoy fantasy and pulp noir, you'll like it. I know that I'm going to be ordering the next book of Detective John Justin Mallory: STALKING THE VAMPIRE.

Star Trek: Ashes of Eden by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published March 1996 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 17, 1997
• For some reason, every book that William Shatner writes makes it through the entire printing process and ends up with misspelled words. Now, I am not criticizing Shatner for the misspellings; I know that I am just as guilty of not knowing how to spell every word and/or having my fingers not type what I'm thinking. But I would think that his editor and/or someone else along the printing process would take care of it. OK, now on to ASHES OF EDEN. Shatner deviates from the writing style of most of his Tek books with this writing. His Tek novels read much faster and have much more of a slam-bam approach to them. ASHES OF EDEN instead follows closer to the Star Trek series and explains itself a bit more and is more dialogue enriched. The story picks up six months before "Generations" and falls quite nicely from the betrayal by Admiral Cartwright. A long time rivalry between Kirk and Drake from the Farragut days is continued and serves as the central driving point for the plot. Everything flows quite nicely and some very nice insights are shown for the characters. Additionally the dialogue for them is exactly what you would picture for one of the movies. At some points I felt that Kirk's insights to himself were autobiographical for Shatner as well. This added to the feelings for the novel and what was happening and helped to make it more enjoyable. I would recommend this novel to all Star Trek fans.

Star Trek: Avenger by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published May 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 17, 2000
• It continues to amaze me that Shatner has such a different style between his Star Trek books and his Tek books. Personally I think that he has a ghost writer for the Star Trek books because their quality is superior to his others. And like his other Star Trek books, this one is quite enjoyable. It picks up directly after STAR TREK: RETURN. Well, maybe not directly considering it is two years later but it is directly from Kirk's point of view. There's a bit of a mystery at the beginning of how he returns from death's door and when we find out, you just want to roll your eyes. It is just too convenient and simplistic. But the point isn't really to nit pick over flaws in logic. Instead the point is to enjoy the adventures of Kirk and Spock together again. As such, you get all the little things that you expect including a surprise near the end that will really make you roll your eyes. But it is still fun, enjoyable and more than a bit nostalgic.

Star Trek: Dark Victory by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published April 2000 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 19, 2002
• This book picks up exactly where STAR TREK: SPECTRE ends. In fact the last chapter from SPECTRE is reprinted in this book. Unfortunately it had still been more than a year since I finished the last book so I'm not exactly sure what is going on. It takes me something like 50 pages before I finally start piecing together all the little things from the previous novel that I had forgotten about. The main story of this novel was how Tiberius from the mirror universe was invading our universe so that he can gather the arsenal to take over the other universe. Unfortunately a lot of the details in this scheme were left out, like what army since Tiberius is pretty much flying solo except for a crew from what would be the mirror universe's Next Generation crew. And then there is continual references to the Preservers who were from Kirk's first five year mission but which I couldn't remember a thing about despite having seen every Star Trek: TOS episode multiple times. And then when it starts getting to the end of the book and I'm wondering how they are going to tie things up, what happens? It ends with the story continuing in yet another book. Argh! What started as a single story became a two parter and is now a trilogy. Pocket Books could have at least set the reader's expectations by putting some sort of blurb on the cover of the books. Sigh, pick up what we hope is the final chapter in STAR TREK: PRESERVER.

Star Trek: Movie Memories by William Shatner with Chris Kreski

• Purchase it here
• Published December 1994 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on April 12, 1997
• This is a fun book which gives many insights to the happenings of the Star Trek movies. Shatner does a good job of describing what happened and what lead up to the creation of these movies. It all comes across pretty fairly, even those moments when people were being difficult. Obviously it helps to be a Star Trek fan if you are going to read this book. And don't think that it will be a pretty boring book, because it's not. I learned several new things that I hadn't known before, like Kim Cattrall was originally wanted for the role of Saavik. And how back in 1977 Paramount wanted to launch a fourth network, but because of difficulties it didn't happen until much later. All around it is an enjoyable read of Shatner's collected memories from the movies. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go watch the Star Trek movies, all of them, in order.

Star Trek: Preserver by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published April 2001 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 26, 2002
• OK, this really is the last of the stories so it is just a trilogy. In fact, I happened to find on Amazon that the electronic edition of the book is sub-titled "The Mirror Universe Saga"; like I said in the review for DARK VICTORY, nice of them to tell us that it was a trilogy. While this one did finally tie together all the loose ends from the previous novels, it also did some with some corny story elements. Without really giving anything away, apparently the Preservers are running an experiment with our universe and that is why they are the "big enemy" that we need to track down and find. Experiment idea - good idea. Tracking down all powerful beings and having no real purpose as to why being a driving element in the book - bad idea. The fate of Tiberius - corny. The explanation that Bones's medical replacement part are all on loan and experimental - good explanation. Final chapter - a really nice touch. Overall the book was good but the entire plot was dragged on for way too long. They should have made it a two-parter and that's it. No need for more. Oh, I never did remember who the Preservers were from the TV series or if we ever saw them before.

Star Trek: Probe by Margaret Wander Bonanno

• Purchase it here
• Published April 1992 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on April 23, 1997
• Another book in the Star Trek mythos and one just as enjoyable as others that I have read. I was actually expecting it to contain more: more exciting probe action, more Romulan action, more explanations. Actually I think that I was really looking for the probe to be the reason for the "years of silence" from the Romulan Empire. It seemed to me to fit on many fronts. It would have worked with things heard on Deep Space Nine and Next Generation. And I think that I was a little disappointed when it didn't match my thoughts. It still was and is an enjoyable novel. Unfortunately I can't think of too much more to say about it.

Star Trek: Return by William Shatner

• Purchase it here
• Published April 1997 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 01, 1999
• I must say that I am impressed with this novel. The story and ideas were all thought through to completion. Nothing was so outlandish to be unbelievable. And there were many characters pulled from different series. The old crew of TOS was accounted for. Next Generation's crew pulled the majority of the book space, but DS9 had a few people thrown in for good measure. Plus the continuity was solid amongst them all, even including some unanswered questions from the original series which were now answered. All very intelligently done and at a very exciting pace. My only regret is that the book obviously ends with a sequel in mind. And the question becomes how much longer will Kirk keep living despite his "death" from Star Trek: Generations. But since these are the novels and not the movies, my hopeful answer is a long time.

Star Trek: Spectre by William Shatner with Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

• Purchase it here
• Published April 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 26, 2001
• Shatner keeps doing a good job by continuing the adventures of Captain Kirk, even though the movies had him killed off. And once again, Shatner's Star Trek novels are very impressive. They make for very good reads. This time the universe is threatened by the Mirror Universe. There are two factions from the Mirror Universe that visit ours: one from the Terrans and one from the Alliance. Both sides are looking to steal technology to better their own side in their battle. Once again Shatner pulls in characters from all four of the series to weave a tail that is intriguing and exciting. I hate to say this but one of the things that I dislike about it is Dr. McCoy. Nothing personal but let the guy die or retire; he's something like 160 years old and they keep replacing his failing human parts with cybernetics. If Starfleet can keep him alive for 160+ years, then why don't they do it with anyone else? Please just let him retire to a quiet life and disappear, sort of like Checkov, Uhura and Sulu. The other quasi-negative thing that I had was that this novel was really part one of two. Just as I thought it was going to end, Shatner pulls out a big surprise and then leaves us all hanging! Argh!! Now I have to find and read the next book soon! (Dark Victory is the second half of this story.)

Star Trek Deep Space 9: The Siege by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published May 1993 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 2, 1998
• One more awesome Star Trek book written by Peter David. I still find his writing to be fabulous and extremely fun to read. He clearly understands the characters and can make them appear extremely three dimensional. At times when reading his novels, it is like having the book acted out in your head. Everything and everyone just seems to come alive. Combine that with the scenarios that you the reader always thinks of but never sees: holosuite images of Kira and Dax doing a strip tease. Plus in-jokes and rips on the other series and on whatever comes to mind. Together these elements make his novels great! Since this is the first original DS9 novel it is a little dated at this point, especially with the Cardassian and Dominion war against the Federation. The relationships between the characters are obviously still in the beginning phases in a few points. But this is still a great story and should be read.

Star Trek Deep Space 9: Wrath of the Prophets by Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger

• Purchase it here
• Published May 1997 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 17, 1999
• This is very much a fan favorite novel. We have everyone's two favorite Bajorans: Ro Laren and Kira Nerys. They in fact meet and spend tons of time together hunting down the cause of a deadly plague. We also get Quark and Captain Sisko spending a lot of time together. Keiko makes an appearance. And even Varis Sul, a one-time character from an earlier DS9 episode shows up. All the characters are completely themselves and act as expected. The only real questionable thing that I had with the entire book was all of Bajor was quarantined with a deadly plague. So when Ro and Kira go to track down the source of the plague, they go down to the planet and risk infecting themselves to find it. OK, maybe they were being brave and yeah, DS9 became infected also, but it still seemed a weird thing to have happen.

Star Trek: New Frontier by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published February 1998 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on March 19, 1998
• I actually waited until they reprint all four of the novels into one easy-to-handle format. I also didn't want to be getting each of the smaller version when I could get all four at once. This compilation is also the start of a unseen chapter of the Star Trek mythos. We follow the adventure of a new captain as he takes control of the starship U.S.S. Excalibur and explores a new sector of space. Any one who has read any Star Trek novel by Peter David will know what a talented writer he is and how is story can be played in your head like a movie. This story is no different. It also includes his sense of humor and the fun that he embeds into his characters. We get to see pot-shots taken at Voyager, the film Star Trek: Undiscovered Country and a tribute, of sorts, to Gene Roddenbery. All in all, an excellent start to a set of wonderful characters whom I hope to see a lot more! Ideally they could tie them in with Deep Space Nine or the next movie. Or even better, make it the next series after DS9 or Voyager get canceled for running too long. But then we all know how fickle Paramount is, so I'm not hoping for much more than more novels. If you are concerned about the order to read the New Frontier stories, this set contained books 1-4.

Star Trek New Frontier: Being Human by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published November 2001 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 09, 2003
• Book #12 of the New Frontier
  I suppose that one of the problems with having an author pay a lot of attention to continuity and building upon the character growth across the novels is that readers are never satisfied with just one or two novels at a time. Granted it doesn't help when the novels seem to always end in a cliffhanger and we have to wait a year before it is resolved. And in case I was a little too subtle for you, yes, this book ends with a cliffhanger. It picks up after the surprise wedding of Calhoun and Shelby as they are now both Captains of spaceships in neighboring sectors. And before long we run into the villain of this story arc, the goddess Artemis, sister to Apollo who met with Captain Kirk oh so many years ago. And this is where we benefit from having an author pay a lot of attention to continuity as we find out that Apollo was not alone and some of the cheesy explanations provided during The Original Series are now better explained. And it's just as the action starts getting really good and I can barely read fast enough, that the book ends. Sigh. Guess it's time to wait a year until the next two books are released.

Star Trek New Frontier: Dark Allies

• Purchase it here
• Published November 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 01, 2001
• Book #8 of the New Frontier
  I'm almost unsure of what to say for this review. The book is on par with David's usual witty style and humor. The characters are themselves and continue to evolve and grow; I did enjoy having the Calhoun's son still staying around instead of disappearing. He makes for a welcome addition to the cast of the series and is a good breathe of fresh air. The story is good, contradictory in nature due to them helping their enemy but at the same time leaving things in a state they will continue to be enemies. And it is all wrapped up with a cliff hanger that will leave you very curious as to what happens next. Overall, a good book that I would recommend but not David's best.

Star Trek New Frontier: Fire on High by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published April 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 18, 2000
• Book #6 of the New Frontier
  And the New Frontier universe continues on. This is another thrilling and funny story involving the crew of the Excalibur. This time we focus on discovering details about Lieutenant Robin Lefler's mother and a sub-plot of the relationship between Selar and Burgoyne which most definitely includes a setup for future novels. There was one part of this novel that I thought was weak but then it wasn't really David's fault. In his column in Comic Buyer's Guide, he commented that Paramount did some editing and re-writing of a few parts and those corresponded to the weak parts. Let me try to give the gist of what should have happened, as detailed by David in his "But I Digress" column and remembered by my sometimes faulty brain. In MARTYR, after Commander Shelby saved the Excalibur and before she fainted, she saw "colors." What she should have seen was bunnies. Then in this novel, while she was on the bridge and before everyone applauded her, they should have been hailed by a ship of bunnies who wanted to speak to Commander Shelby. They would have said something along the lines of they had heard of her brave deeds and wanted to pay tribute and thus were there to give her a 21 bunny salute. At which point she would have got that it was a joke simulated on the view screen by the Captain and then everyone should have applauded her. The rewrite of it sucks. The rest of the novel though is still great.

Star Trek New Frontier: Gateways by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published October 2001 (Pocket Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 11, 2005
• Peter David definitely makes his Star Trek novels an enjoyable read. Once again we get to dive into the lives of Captains Calhoun and Shelby; the premise this time is that the Gateway devices that allow people to jump through time and space are being used for villainous means and the Captains need to explore why. In addition to our usual cast of characters from all the previous New Frontier novels, we get to meet some new ones that join the Shelby's crew on the Trident. And like usual, David makes these characters interesting and exciting and leaves us wanting to see more of them. And as become normal for most of David's Star Trek novels, the ending is a major cliffhanger that left me annoyed because I now have to buy the next book in the Gateways series, a book I hadn't bought and wasn't expecting to. But, of course, I have to have the cliffhanger resolved. Sigh. A victim of my own addiction.

Star Trek New Frontier: Martyr by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published March 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on September 13, 2000
• Book #5 of the New Frontier
  We have here another excellent Star Trek story by Peter David. Here he continues his saga about Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and his crew. Unfortunately it has been a while since I read Book 4 and thus I wasn't immediately familiar with all the characters. Luckily enough though David is a good enough writer that it didn't take long before I was remembering everyone. The focus in this book was about religion: a common recurring theme in David's works. Captain Calhoun is considered by the residents of one world to be their saviour due to the events from Book 4. As he tries to use his perceived status to his benefit to end the world's centuries long civil war, problems arise due to other prophecies. Apparently Paramount has given David a pretty free hand in this sector of the universe since many of the events in this novel are obviously sub-plots for future novels. Which is great because it means more excellent stories to read.

Star Trek New Frontier: Once Burned by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published October 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 09, 2000
• Book #6.5 of the New Frontier
  The problem with authors that are really good is that when they keep turning out excellent book after excellent book, you begin to run out of new things to say. Luckily enough Peter David falls in to this category. Once more he has brought his skills to the development and characterization of all the people in his novel. Each are very real and present with their own personality. His plot in this novel is a little simpler than usual but it might be because this novel is part of the "Captain's Table" series and follows that format. Basically there exists outside of time and almost space, a bar which is set aside for anyone awarded the title of captain. The bar appears and disappears at whim, thus allowing for visitors at only certain times. If a captain is lucky enough to have a return visit there, then he must "pay" for that visit with a story of himself. The story this time around is from Mackenzie Calhoun and involves the events leading up to his court martial trial. If you are a New Frontier fan, this is a must read. If you are Star Trek fan, this is a must read. Hell, everyone should consider it a must read. :-) Oh, by the way, if you look at the cover of the book you can see a picture of Peter David; he's the only one on the cover with glasses.

Star Trek New Frontier: Quiet Place by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published November 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 26, 2001
• Another exciting chapter in the lives of the crew of the Excalibur. This time out though the majority of the action takes places with only three crew members: Soleta, Si Cwan and Kebron. And actually the majority of the action really involves a new character Xyon who I kept hoping would make it to the end of the book and further. OK, mild spoiler warning here but he does make it to the end and based off the second to last paragraph, he'll be around for a while. We also have another character introduced who will probably be around for a while. All around this book was yet another solid chapter in the New Frontier world. Even though this makes no difference and since I don't get around to reading them for a year or so, I wish that David would make each of these novels a bit thicker. It seems sort of a rip off to be getting only 250 pages in a book. Oh well. And if you are concerned about the order to read the New Frontier stories, this is book 7.

Star Trek New Frontier: Renaissance by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published September 2000 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 02, 2002
• And again, David continues not telling us the complete story behind the destruction of the Excalibur. We find out a hint near the very end of the book but not much more than that. Continuing the trend from Requiem, book 9, we follow the lives of the command crew while they experience down time before being re-assigned. Burgoyne and Selar work out the nature of their relationship and the status of Xyon, their son. While interesting, this plot did not involve me as much as the other story. Robin Lefler and Morgan, her mother, have fun on planet Risa and actually get to meet another Star Trek legend while they are there. The dangling thread of Si Cwan appears in Robin's story near the end of the book, again being left unresolved and dangling for the next book. This story had more potential and kept my interest so of course it was the one that gets left to be concluded next book. One more thing to look forward to. This is Book 10.

Star Trek New Frontier: Requiem by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published September 2000 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 26, 2002
• When last we saw the crew of the Excalibur, it was minutes before the ship blew up. Frustratingly, we don't find out here what happens. Instead the book picks up days(?), weeks(?) later after the investigation and all the questioning so naturally none of the characters want to discuss what happened. A clever and effective ploy to delay the telling and to keep the interest of readers. After an opening scene which features the command crew minus Captain Calhoun, the rest of the novel is broken up to tell three different stories. Soleta visits her father and ends up reuniting with her father. A very nice story that shows a lot more depth of Soleta but which ends in a surreal manner. Next is an undercover investigation by Zak Kebron and Mark McHenry. Not quite as much insight in to their past but a surprise visitor poses some very interesting questions about McHenry. And finally Si Cwan and Kalinda deal with the death of an old teacher; this was the only story left with a dangling thread, other than the mystery around the Excalibur exploding. The novel keeps up with David's usual well delivered style and plot and continues to be recommended. A minor issue but I kind of wonder how any new readers would jump in at this point. Hopefully they start back on book 1 instead of starting on this book which is really book 9.

Star Trek New Frontier: Restoration by Peter David

• Purchase it here
• Published November 2001 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 03, 2003
• Book #11 of the New Frontier
  At last we finally find out what happened on board the Excalibur during the final moments before it exploded. It had to be dragged out and teased at for over three books but it is here. And of course we also find out that Captain Mackenzie Calhoun also survived and why we hadn't heard from him while the rest of the crew moved on with their lives, basically he was marooned on a, mostly, desert planet. At the same time we get the remaining pieces filled in from the other remaining mysteries over the last couple of novels: Lefler's adventures on Risa and Shelby's promotion to captain of a new spaceship. Overall, this was another good novel that cleanly continues the adventures of the Excalibur crew. My only regret was that it was broken up over three novels instead of squished into one fat book or even two bigger novels. Or maybe they could have released all three books within a short period of time. It would make it easier to remember all the things happening.

Star Trek Next Generation: Crossover by Michael Jan Friedman

• Purchase it here
• Published December 1995 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on February 29, 2000
• While not awesome, this novel is better than Friedman's other novel that I recently finished: STAR TREK NEXT GENERATION: KAHLESS. There was more character development in this novel as well as the writer having more fun with the characters. Maybe it was because this novel included more familiar characters: Scotty, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the TNG cast. Maybe there was more action thus making this story more interesting. Whatever it was, the novel was pretty good. Not very complex but not all of the Star Trek episodes were complex either. And it was definitely nice to see Scotty get some more "air time" rather than continuing to languish in space flying just a shuttle craft.

Star Trek Next Generation: Double Helix: Double or Nothing by Peter David

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• Published August 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 03, 2001
• This was part of a series of six book, specifically it was number five. I did not read any of the other books so believe me when I saw that it stands by itself. And like all of David's books, it is extremely well done. It includes everything that you would hope to see: in jokes that a fan of the TV series will get, meetings between characters that should meet more often, and a real portrayal of each character just as you remember them. The story involves a criminal mastermind who assumedly in the previous four books distributed a virus throughout the universe and in this book wants to activate that virus, killing off the entire Federation. This time it is both Captain Picard and Captain Calhoun saving the universe. I'm not too sure what is involved in the sixth book of the series since this one seemed to resolve everything. I don't plan on picking it up so whatever happens can stay there. With regards to the other New Frontier books, this best fits in as book 6.75, so right before STAR TREK NEW FRONTIER: QUIET PLACE.

Star Trek Next Generation: I, Q by John DeLancie and Peter David

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• Published December 2000 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on December 01, 2002
• Who better to do a story about Q than John DeLancie, the actor who portrays Q, and Peter David, one of the most popular Star Trek novel authors? And exactly as the title suggests the story is about Q as told by himself, thus I, Q. The story starts by focusing on a depressed woman walking along the beach as she contemplates death and killing herself. But as she's walking she finds a bottle washed up on the shore and inside that bottle is a note. A rather lengthy note written by Q. So she starts to read the note and that takes us to Q's adventure. What kind of adventure could be exciting to the omniscient and omnipotent Q? An adventure that threatens to shake up and destroy the entire Q Continuum, oh yeah, and the rest of the known universe also. And to accompany Q on his journey, Picard and Data join him. While the story was entertaining and it was woven through with many puns on the letter Q and with many insights, the whole thing just didn't grab me. It might have had to do with the bulk of the book being told in the first person as if by Q. So while we're in the midst of what could be a really good scene, we'll get Q being his usual sarcastic and belittling self. And while this usually plays very well, it just didn't ring true especially when he would prefix it with the thought that he didn't really mean it. Instead each belittling moment turned into a forced situation and one that yanked me out of whatever atmosphere I had going while reading. So while I can't say that the book was bad and should be avoided, I can't really recommend hunting it down as a must read. If you get a chance and an opportunity to read it, do so but don't expect too much from it.

Star Trek Next Generation: Kahless by Michael Jan Friedman

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• Published July 1996 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on February 23, 2000
• This novel is about the Klingon hero Kahless. Half of the story is about how the clone of Kahless uncovers a conspiracy again Gowron, the leader of the Klingons. While the other half is about the past adventures of Kahless and how he becomes a hero to the people. Weirdly enough the older stories about Kahless are more realistic, believable and interesting than the modern story. The conspiracy in the modern story seems extremely half baked through most of the book. It wasn't until close to the end that I believed that the conspiracy really did exist and wasn't just something that the Kahless clone was imagining. As such a lot of the modern story half had an "unreal" feeling to it. So over all the novel is entertaining but it does suffer from being unbelievable and not pulling the reader in to the story.

Star Trek Next Generation: Q-Squared by Peter David

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• Published August 1995 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 10, 1997
• It is my humble opinion that Peter David is the best Star Trek writer around! No one else can make the characters come half as alive as David does. No one else can make a novel like this which surpasses anything that the TV show can give! If you don't believe me, just read IMZADI or Q-SQUARED. In this case, Q-SQUARED give you more for your money's worth than any other Star Trek book out there. Not only does David bring Trelane into the modern mythos for Next Generation and make him fit in perfectly, but he brings back Q, kills Riker, brings back Tasha Yar, and so much more! There is so much packed into these pages that it is unbelievable. Things are tied together with The Original Series so well that you think the half dozen plot holes from the TV series and movies were left there on purpose! OK, let me slow down on the praise and tell you a little of the story. Trelane, the Squire of Gothos, is revealed to be a child of the Q Continuum and his Godfather/caretaker is none other than Q. Chaos reigns through the novel as Trelane learns about responsibility and control and the lack there of. Trust me, this is a must-read that should NOT be missed!!

Star Trek Next Generation: A Rock and a Hard Place by Peter David

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• Published January 1990 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on October 20, 1998
• Yes, this is an older novel and there is a lot we have learned since this takes place. And yes, it does not give as much interesting or relevant background material as IMZADI, PROBE or countless others. However, these do not take away from the enjoyable read which this novel is. David does a superb job of bringing the characters to life and staying consistent with their on-screen personalities. Although the end result of the novel is that it compares to a fill-in episode (nothing really happens and the characters are the same at the beginning and end), it is still a good read. And one of the better fill-in novels written by one of the best Star Trek novel writers.

Star Trek Next Generation: Triangle: Imzadi II by Peter David

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• Published October 1999 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on April 13, 2001
• While I don't have it reviewed here, I did read the first IMZADI book and it was excellent. And luckily enough David continues the trend once again here. (It's not really luck since I've liked all of David's Star Trek books but I don't want David to think that he's always going to get a free ride.) The first IMZADI was about Deanna Troi and William Riker and their relationship, basically filling in all the questions not answered by the show of what happened before and why aren't they together now. In that same vein, IMZADI II is about how the relationship between Troi and Worf and how those two broke up and what part Riker had in that relationship. I do not want to give anything away but let me tell you that the two books are similar in nature and totally fall in to continuity of the show. And like most of David's books, they address those missing points that you knew existed and at the same time fills in empty points that you didn't realize need filling in. Add this novel to all the other Star Trek books written by Peter David as yet another one to not miss.

Star Wars by George Lucas

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• Published 1976 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 21, 1997
• The original movie/book. A very excellent, if not as exciting, read. I say not-exciting because after seeing the movie numerous times, the book hardly compares. It gives you the feel of the movie but not quite the enthusiasm. Definitely makes me want to go watch the film now. However, I kind felt like I had to read the original series since I'm getting into reading the rest. One good thing that reading the novel did do was help clear up who Biggs and Wedge are and their relationship to Luke.

Star Wars: Allegiance by Timothy Zahn

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• Published December 2007 (Ballantine Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on April 1, 2010
• While not as great as his "Thrawn Trilogy" or as good as his "Hand of Thrawn" duology, I still find this an enjoyable book. Since the book is set between "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back", it's kind of hard for the story or characters to develop too much. Han and Leia can't fall in love because they aren't at that point yet. Luke is still a budding Jedi instead of having powers. Most of the development needed to fall on the characters not seen in the movies. In this case five disillusioned storm troopers and a more capable than she probably should have been Mara Jade. First though, the basics of the story. The five storm troopers become involved in an accident and desert the empire only to stay idealistic enough to want to continue defending the citizens of the Empire; their disillusionment is rooted in the corruption of power with which they must deal. Trying to be true to their ideals, they take it upon themselves to track down some pirates who are smuggling Imperial supplies. Meanwhile Mara Jade, acting in the role of the "Emperor's Hand," is tracking down a world governor who is stealing Imperial tax money. There is a lot more to the plot as Han, Luke, Leia and Chewbacca become first indirectly involved for political reasons and then direct participants. The story is tightly written with multiple angles and views to the events. Unfortunately the characters end up a bit flat. I think most of that is due to the timing of being squished in between two of the movies. I did find it difficult to remember key characteristics of each of the five troopers but if you consider the size of the cast (at least 15 different key characters), it's hard to give each of them something unique and easily memorable in only 400 pages.

Star Wars: Champions of the Force by Kevin J. Anderson

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• Published October 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 6, 1997
• Chapter 3 of the Jedi Academy Trilogy. A nice strong finish to a large collection of events. Things smoothly tie up at the end for those things which got started in the first chapter. Everything comes to a powerful, believable and enchanting closure. Things are also prepped for another series involving numerous of the characters. In fact there are several things I would like to see carried through: a romance, some weapons, certain people. I'm trying to be vague so as to not disclose the ending. The only negative thing that I have to say is that I got sick of all the straight homages/quotes from the movie. Things like Han Solo repeatedly saying "Don't quote me the odds" or references to Yoda's "There is no try. Do or do not." I know that Anderson was probably only do that to help make the reader remember the characters better, but it began to get annoying. They started to sound like broken records instead. Other than that, these are enjoyable additions to the Star Wars universe.

Star Wars: Dark Apprentice by Kevin J. Anderson

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• Published July 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 25, 1997
• Chapter 2 of the Jedi Academy Trilogy. OK, so Anderson took a bit longer to build up the complexity than I expected. It is now here. And like any middle chapter, this is the most darkest with regards to what happens: a prime character has her memory wiped clean, Han Solo loses the Millennium Falcon, Luke Skywalker is struck down by one of his students, and the head of state, Mon Mothma, is quickly dying. And these are just a few of the things happening! There is so much more going on that I can't list it all! All of it though is very enjoyable and kept me on the edge of my seat. Now I'm dying to read the final chapter!

Star Wars: Jedi Search by Kevin J. Anderson

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• Published March 1994 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 13, 1997
• Chapter 1 of the Jedi Academy Trilogy. I was expecting this trilogy to be as complex as Timothy Zahn's trilogy, but unfortunately so far it is not. However, it is still extremely entertaining, involving and very easy to picture in your mind. Right from the start we have exciting things happening as Han Solo and Chewbacca are captured. Plus all the other characters make appearances and have exciting things happen. Luke starts an academy for Jedis, Leia has duties as Minister of State, Lando chases a gambler and countless other things occur. Overall the Star Wars mythos is continued and you become entranced with events, eager to learn more. This ended up being a really good novel and I am anxious to get to the two remaining chapters of this trilogy.

Star Wars: New Rebellion by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

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• Published December 1996 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on October 3, 1998
• OK, I admit it. I am a sucker for Star Wars stories in a nostalgic desire to continue experiencing that feeling from the original series. And yes, I'm looking forward to seeing the new movie (Star Wars: The Phantom Menace) when it comes out next year. So as long as the stories are not incredibly stupid, I'll probably like most Star Wars books. And this one is far from stupid. It is very fun and interesting and exciting. Plus it's nice that everything is compressed into one novel rather than spread out over three books. The story is involving and a welcome blend of old characters and new, with solid effects which will be felt in all future stories. That is something that I definitely admire and respect. And as a result, this is a book that I recommend.

Star Wars: Specter of the Past by Timothy Zahn

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• Published September 1998 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 14, 2000
• Of all the Star Wars authors, Timothy Zahn has given us the best stories and the most interesting plot lines. He also develops the characters and each acts as what you would expect them to do. And this is another example where he does all the right things. And to top it off, he brings back the best character / villain in a way that will make you wonder why no one else has done something similar. I only have one regret: that I finished it too fast and there's not more too read. Well, there is the second book which concludes the story so I guess I can also regret that there won't be a third.

Star Wars: Survivor's Quest by Timothy Zahn

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• Published January 2005 (Ballantine Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 05, 2006
• Zahn continues the Star Wars legacy as it pertains to Thrawn, one of the best villains and most interesting characters in the Star Wars universe. The story focuses on Outbound Flight, a flight sent out by the Old Republic years ago and thought destroyed by Thrawn. The Chiss (Thrawn's race) find the ship and seek to return it to the New Republic, specifically Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker. The only thing is that there ends up being four different factions involved and each has their secrets and their hidden agenda. It ends up reading almost as a murder mystery as plot after sub-plot is revealed and a simple task gains in complexity. If you like Zahn's other Star Wars books, don't skip this one. As a bonus, the publishers included the short story Fool's Bargain. It tells a tale of the Imperial 501st Legion. It's a good story and tells a fun tale but short stories don't seem to work well for Star Wars. I think that it's because the story / idea has so much depth and mythos to it that a short story leaves you wanting more and feeling like something is missing. Mix that up with it being placed at the end of the book and it's lack of depth becomes obvious; you can't help but compare it to the rest of the book which you just finished.

Star Wars: Tales From The Empire edited by Peter Schweighofer

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• Published December 1997 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on October 16, 1999
• While I thought that this would be a pretty interesting and fun collection of short stories about the Star Wars universe, I was wrong. It was story about the Empire and includes a lot of side characters which are better known from the novels plus many new ones. However the majority of the stories were not fun; instead they proved tedious to get through. If it wasn't for Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole, then the collection would be an almost total loss. As it is now though, I would say that it is only for the truly hardcore Star Wars fan. The three stories that make it worth the while to read are ...

  "First Contact" by Timothy Zahn - A smuggler's band begins to form (ties in to Zahn's trilogy)

  "Slaying Dragons" by Angela Phillips - A recruit decides to become a rebel

  "Side Trip" by Timothy Zahn and Michael A. Stackpole - Admiral Thrawn proves to be devious and intelligent as a complex plan comes together

Star Wars: Vision of the Future by Timothy Zahn

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• Published September 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on May 06, 2001
• This is the second of a two book series by Zahn with the first one being STAR WARS: SPECTER OF THE PAST. And Zahn continues to demonstrate superior character growth, more complex plots, and a vision that is more in line with the Star Wars universe than most of the other Star Wars authors. This picks up from the previous novel and continues with Thrawn's reappearence and his subsequent attempts to rule the Empire. My only real regret, and I seem to do this all the time, is that I didn't read the two books back-to-back. I know that I lose a lot of details about what has happened in the first book and the first 100 pages or so are me picking it all back up again.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

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• Published February 1999 (hardcover edition)
• Finished reading it on December 11, 2000
• It's hard to continue to come up with good things to say about writers that are consistently good. Gaiman is one of those writers and STARDUST is one of those novels. The story is well done and enjoyable. The fantastical elements are fun to read and follow. And the plot keeps you interested. The story is about Tristran who goes forth to return a fallen star so that his true love will love him. Actually the story starts some years before that since we need to find out the history of Tristran. And that portion helps to explain his journey for the star and how he fares in the adventures that he meets. The only negative that I might have for the book is that the plot for it is simplistic, similar to how NEVERWHERE is plotted. I didn't really see it as a problem, but something that I noted once I finished with the book. So it did not distract me from enjoying the story. And shouldn't distract you from the same.

Starfish Girl by Athena Villaverde

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• Published October 2010 (Eraserhead Press paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 10, 2011
• I found it arduous to get into this book. Primarily there were two factors that caused me issues. First was not being able to figure out the setting for the story. All the characters are based on sea creatures (starfish, sea anemone, sharks, ...) which led me to believe they lived in a city under water, a la Atlantis. It turned out instead to be an underwater city which was covered by a dome, still air breathing. Big picture it doesn't make a difference but I was hung up on that point until it was resolved. The other factor was the cute but not really factor. Much of the book read as a YA book; the style and feel had a fun and innocent feel to it. But then there would an intense scene involving sex or violence or both. The two styles were a bit too conflicting. Fortunately there was not too much saccharin nor too much violence so the conflicting scenes weren't overly highlighted. As for the story, Ohime, the starfish girl of the title, is searching through the underwater dome of her home to find some nice people to take to a better world. Ohime is cute, sweet and super innocent. After running into some bad people, Ohime is rescued by Timbre, a sea anemone-mutated assassin who has gone rogue. In the tradition of buddy-buddy films where the hard-nosed buddy helps the sweet innocent buddy, Timbre follows and helps Ohime by making sure she is not killed during her nice people hunt. The plot is kind of generic but at the same time it did interest me enough to keep reading until the end. This wouldn't necessarily be on my recommendation list but you could also do worse.

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

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• Published May 1987 (Ace Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 13, 2004
• I'm probably going to annoy a lot of Heinlein fans by saying but I preferred the film by Paul Verhoeven more than the book. The book was too slow moving and much more interested in raising philosophical issues than in moving the story along. And while some of the points might have been interesting to discuss, I was not interested in reading about them, especially in a work of fiction. If I did want to read about them, I would have picked up some essays or non-fiction book on war. Instead the potentially interesting story of Johnnie Rico keeps getting side-tracked, thus making it harder for me to care about him. Additionally I found it fairly difficult to differentiate the other characters; they all seemed to blur into nothing since I couldn't tell one from another. Overall I would have to say that I'm glad that others saw the potential and good in this book so that the movie could be made so that I could enjoy that because I sure wasn't too happy with the novel.

The Stickmen by Edward Lee

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• Published February 2000 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover signed, numbered and limited to 1,000 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on February 5, 2011
• Edward Lee has a few very different styles that he uses when writing. Sometimes he's extremely blunt and in your face. These books are often explicit with violence and sex; you'll have scenes that will stick in your head for a while. For example, PORTRAIT OF THE PSYCHOPATH AS A YOUNG WOMAN and THE BIGHEAD. Then he does more mainstream but at the same time not too mainstream. These books are still explicit but not quite as populated with explicit scenes. Think CITY INFERNAL and SLITHER. And now there's THE STICKMEN which contains the least number of explicit scenes (none?). This one was fun with no gross out or major sex scenes; at least none that come immediately to mind. Harlan Garrett is a conspiracy theorist reporter who's been fired by virtually all the trade rags for going too far. He's just about at the point where he's beginning to doubt himself when he's abducted and taken to the deathbed of a General. And not just any General but General Swenson who has been running disinformation to Garrett over the years. The General's request starts Garrett on a quest to uncover evidence about the truth. Evidence that makes Garrett the target of a hitman. Will Garrett be able to save himself and an 8-year-old boy who is at the center of the alien conspiracy? Read the book and find out! I really enjoyed this book. Garrett is fleshed out and a fun character to follow, especially all the "truths" that he spouts out: where Hoffa is buried, Kennedy's assassination orders against Castro and numerous other theories. The situations he finds himself in are great. I'm not sure what else to say except go out and read this book.

Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson

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• Published September 1999 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 14, 2001
• I thought that I knew basically what to expect when reading this book. I had seen the movie and thought that it was better than the other major ghost movie that summer: The Sixth Sense. And knowing and liking Matheson's novels, I had high hopes. Unfortunately they weren't quite satisfied. Instead I got a book that was interesting but also annoying. The story is about Tom Wallace, a man who mistakenly has a psychic power awoken in him after a bout of hypnosis by his brother-in-law. And rather than being a fun capability, Wallace can't control it and his life is thrown into a shambles. And that is the bulk of my problem with the book. For the majority of the story, Wallace is denying his power and wondering what is happening to him despite all the clues that are present and everything that he can do. And worst, his wife is a whiner who is also too dumb to realize the extent of what is happening. Ok, so maybe part of the wife's personality is due to when the novel was written (the copyright is 1958) but it is still annoying. If the two of them could have dealt with the powers in a more useful and/or understanding way, then it would have made all the difference. Instead of a richly powerful story, we end up with good concept and characters that annoy. Definitely not one of Matheson's better works.

The Store by Bentley Little

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• Published July 1998 (Signet paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 13, 2001
• This is the kind of horror story that I love! It starts off small and with a relatively simple concept: the new store being built is evil. No real explanation as to why, just lots of little things that the main character doesn't like. Then as the story progress, we see that it really is evil. In this case, a chain store a la Target name The Store comes to a small town in Arizona and slowly takes over. The suspense and thrills grow slowly throughout the book until near the end it becomes a rapid page turner! The biggest problem that I had was that it began to reach the unbelievable point a couple of times. The Store had too much power and control over the town with no other outside influence. For example, The Store bought the local radio station so the town could then listen to only them; granted I live in the Bay Area and we easily have a dozen radio stations broadcasting but I still think that in the middle of BFE, you could get more than two radio stations. Don't let little things like that stop you from reading the novel; I didn't and I still enjoyed it. Plus I now need to hunt down more of Little's work.

The Story of Noichi the Blind by Chet Williamson

• Published November 2007 (Cemetery Dance Publications hardcover signed, numbered and limited to 1,500 copies edition)
• Finished reading it on December 5, 2009
• Not yet reviewed

Strange Highways by Dean R. Koontz

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• Published August 1996 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on November 19, 1998
• A while ago I vowed not to buy any more Dean Koontz books since he really pissed me off with the heavy handed manner in which he was writing. The readers were being forced to suffer through all these comments on how bad society was and how much meaner people are now. Well this collection of short stories luckily does not fall in to that trap that his novels have had. Maybe it's because the stories are generally not long enough to include all that extraneous and needless information. Maybe it's because his writing style for short stories is just different. Whatever the case, these actually turned out to be pretty enjoyable. There were a few duds, just like there are in almost all anthologies, but on the whole they are really solid. My favorites were ...

  "Strange Highways" - A nice start but after the third or fourth time jump, it was overdone and all suspense was lost

  "Bruno" - A story of a dimension traveling cop bear trying to catch a criminal

  "Hardshell" - Although I read this one someplace else beforehand, it is still an enjoyable read about a hard-ass detective with more than one side

  "Chase" - A story which definitely feels like early Koontz: different but still his same style from his later novels

Strega by Andrew Vachss

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• Published February 1996 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on May 11, 1998
• Book 2 of the Burke novels
  Originally this was published in 1987 and as a result is one of the first Burke stories. It's pretty nice to get a lot of the background for characters that I am already well familiar with. Like when Max and Immaculata first meet or when Burke first introduces himself to Wolfe. It's enjoyable to get that kind of information. As usual Vachss does a awesome job of getting his characters across with a minimal of words. His story is quickly told with just the right amount of everything (excitement, violence, sex, and suspense). Another definite thumbs up recommendation.

Succubi by Edward Lee

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• Published May 2004 (Necro Publications paperback signed and limited edition)
• Finished reading it on May 8, 2009
• One of the things that Edward Lee is great at is building a complete reality in which his characters interact. There is no doubt that he has thought things through and knows what their world is like. I suppose though when his characters are interacting with demons and hellish creatures that he needs to have a clear understanding of what mythology he is creating. Most of the time it is fun to discover his rules and what is being done to all these characters. The problem this time was that the language issues kept throwing me off. In addition to several key words used during the various ceremonies and rituals, there were entire phrases and additional vocabulary used. In most books it adds to the mystique and the basic meaning of the word is understood. This time too much vocabulary is used and I kept getting lost in what the words meant. And it wasn't until the last fourth of the book that we truly found out their meaning; unfortunately when we did it became more like phrases from a dictionary. "This word here, husl - it means to sacrifice. ... What about wreccan? Slave." And so on in the same manner. The conversation does have a natural flow between the characters but it was too many facts in too short of a time period to remember and apply in the last few pages of the novel. It wasn't bad enough to be used as an excuse to skip reading the book but it is something for which to prepare your expectations.

Suckers by J.A. Konrath and Jeff Strand

• Purchase it here
• Published April 2009 (Amazon Digital Services ebook edition)
• Finished reading it on April 8, 2011
• I love reading books by Strand! I've been reading his books for a while and I love them. And now that I read this one, I started buying books by J.A. Konrath, aka Jack Kilborn, with the expectation that I'll like his books too. So far I've only read AFRAID; that was real good but it was also a true thriller/horror novel, not the same humor type story that are included here. SUCKERS has a lot of humor. Much of it tasteless and gross but still funny if you have a bent sense of humor. Originally SUCKERS was sold as a limited hardcover edition by Delirium Books; this ebook contains not only the novella SUCKERS but it also contains three short stories by Konrath (all Harry McGlade mysteries) and three short stories by Strand (all Andrew Mayhem thrillers). In total it's a good collection by two guys that know how to be funny. And horrific. I'm not sure which of the stories was my favorite. Konrath's were a bit more hardcore while Strand's followed a crazy progression that made them funnier. Konrath's "The Necro File" was definitely the most tasteless but at the same time had me smiling the whole way through. If you are a fan of either author, get this book and enjoy. If you are unsure, buy it anyway. If you are really unsure, read the sample from Amazon; it includes an introduction from both of them and Konrath's first story. That will give you more than you need to decide if you will like the rest of the book or not.

Suffer The Flesh by Monica J. O'Rourke

• Purchase it here
• Published 2002 (Prime Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on March 11, 2005
• Wow! If you want a hardcore book that involves a lot of sex and torture, this is the book for you. Zoey Masterson is minding her own business one day and shopping when a brief encounter with another woman leads to Zoey being kidnapped. She then suffers numerous depravities under the guise of a weight loss program or scientific experimentation depending on which character you want to believe. The bulk of the story focuses on Zoey's survival while being imprisoned. While the character development did progress and there was a story arc, I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the book. It was well written and I did enjoy reading it, but at the same time there were parts that seemed overkill. And I did catch myself thinking how much more torture and pain can this book give its characters? Kind of an ironic thought since most of the book is exactly focused on how much the main character can endure in order to survive. So just like Zoey is pushed to her limits, the readers are pushed to the limits of what to expect in a book. Let me repeat that the book is not a bad book; it's an intense book that will be too much for many people. How much is too much? Give the book a try a find where your own limits are.

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons

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• Published March 1992 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 4, 1997
• This started out as what I thought was going to be a boy's-coming-of-age-over-the-summer type of book, sort of like Robert McCammon's BOY'S LIFE. But then not too far into the story, things got freaky. Weird stuff and then more weird stuff. Pretty soon I was wondering what was happening and how was everything going to be explained. Then it got scary, real scary! It no longer resembled what I thought it was and instead turned into a teenagers-against-the-evil-creatures type of book. It is extremely well written with good characterization and a plot that insinuates itself into you without you knowing it. Additionally core characters to the book get injured and killed leaving you not knowing what will happen or to whom. This is the first book in a while that has scared me while reading it. Something to be definitely enjoyed!!

The Summoning by Bentley Little

• Purchase it here
• Published July 1993 (Pinnacle Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 16, 2003
• This is an excellent novel, very enjoyable. The story might have been a bit predictable but the climax was delivered well and the characters were true throughout the entire book. Bodies start to turn up in the small town of Rio Verde. Bodies that are drained of all their fluids. Relatively quickly people conclude that it is a vampire but the evil starts to influence the town people and worse things begin to happen. While the big evil in this book is a vampire, it's not really a vampire book. More of a "something evil haunting a small city" book. As the title alludes, the book focuses more on the evil being summoned up in the towns people than to the source of the evil. In fact, the evil being a vampire is almost inconsequential since it could have been almost anything. The book does have another twist to the vampire lore though: the American legends are actually twisted information from Chinese folk lore and not everything works the same. So crosses and holy water don't work while sunlight still does. It might sound a bit contrived here but it works very well. Read it and see.

Sunset and Sawdust by Joe R. Lansdale

• Purchase it here
• Published January 2005 (Vintage Crime / Black Lizard paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on February 08, 2006
• For some reason, parts of this novel seemed really familiar. I felt like I had read it before but at the same time it was all new. Maybe there was an excerpt that I read somewhere else; most of the time though I avoid reading excerpts because I know I'm already going to read or not read the book so why waste me time. Whatever the reason for the deja vu, it is still a great novel. Sunset Jones kills her husband while he's raping her and then quickly finds herself taking over his old job as town constable. That in itself causes chaos and confusion in the small camp but then there is a double murder investigation that Sunset takes seriously which starts stirring up some trouble. I don't remember it being explicitly stated but the novel is set around 1900 or so; that same timeframe as his novel THE BOTTOMS. Lansdale's style is perfect for this time period. He makes you feel the dirty that is floating in the air. His comparisons and phrases ring true for period. In fact it's hard to picture the same wording used in a modern setting; it wouldn't go. Lansdale is a master storyteller and his novels should not be missed.

Superstitious by R. L. Stine

• Purchase it here
• Published September 1995 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on January 10, 1998
• This is the first adult-based book by GOOSEBUMPS author R. L. Stine. Hopefully it is the first of many more adult audience books, or at least of several. I must say that I enjoyed it very much. It reads like the average horror story at first, but then it veers off enough to have you start guessing as to why the murders are being committed and how. There's two main suspects, both of whom are too obvious to be considered even though they are the only suspects available. And like any good horror story, there is enough of the supernatural to make sure that you can't really guess what is happening, but you are also not disappointed in the slightest when you do find out. He is also a very fast read. Lots of dialogue and lots of short sentences. I don't know if his is a carry-over from the GOOSEBUMPS novels or not, but it does help to whip through a few of those more exciting scenes a bit faster.

Survivor by J.F. Gonzalez

• Purchase it here
• Published January 2006 (Leisure Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on June 8, 2009
• I didn't plan it this way but this was the second book in a two week period that I finished which happened to be centered around snuff films. The other was Edward Lee's THE HOUSE. It's not like I tried to do so nor are snuff films a usual plot device; it's not unusual but it's definitely not common. Regardless, it was SURVIVOR which I liked more. There is a more believable and solid plot. The story has the gross-out and over-the-top gore that was expected but from characters that are easier to connect with. Lisa and Brad are driving up to Santa Barbara for a romantic weekend away, a weekend where Lisa plans to tell Brad she's pregnant. Instead a crazy driver ends up scaring the couple and places Brad under a citizen's arrest. While dealing with the circumstances, Lisa gets kidnapped by the same crazy driver, leaving Brad stressed and in the dark about what happened. The events from there unfold naturally with additional characters added in, all of them fighting for their lives and numerous twists. Gonzalez did a good job with the twists too because he would set it up so that you think one thing, he would bounce it around so many characters could be the mastermind, and then he would twist it completely and left me shocked. I would highly recommend this book, though you do have to have a strong stomach for some of the scenes described. Some people will enjoy. Others will be grossed out, and not in a good way.

Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk

• Purchase it here
• Published February 2000 (Anchor Books paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on July 19, 2004
• Now this is more like it. After reading Invisible Monsters, I was pretty disappointed by Palahniuk. SURVIVOR: A NOVEL brings us back to an excellent story told in a fascinating way combined with his usual satire; same as with INVISIBLE MONSTERS but this time much more enjoyable. The story follows Tender Branson, the last surviving member of the Creedish religion / death cult, as he journeys from an obedient and subservient child to a modern media messiah. Throw in the usual weird characters (a caseworker obsessed with diseases and cures, a couple that cares for nothing but doing what is socially correct and a psychic girlfriend) and you have a great read. For some reason the book and the chapters are all numbered backwards; you start reading at chapter 47 on page 289. At first I was kind of expecting the story to work backwards in time, similar to the movie "Memento" but there really wasn't any reason that I could discern other than breaking the model of what the media usually feeds you. Or maybe it's a symbol of fate and destiny where the future is known and the interesting parts is really what leads to that future. If you have any ideas on this, please email me and let me know. This is a definite recommendation.

Suspicions by Elizabeth Engstrom

• Purchase it here
• Published February 2002 (Triple Tree Publishing paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on October 08, 2003
• I will have to admit that I was a little disappointed with this book. At first it was my fault because I did not realize that it was a collection of short stories and was looking forward to another novel by Engstrom. Purely my fault since the back cover does say "This collection..."; between buying the book and actually reading it, I just forgot. The other reason I was disappointed was because there was no story that rang as true as the feeling I got when I read Engstrom's LIZARD WINE. This was probably heightened expectations on my side. Plus I think that she does a better job in a longer format. Her characters are so rich and real, even in the short story format, that you just want to spend more time with them. So being limited to only the short amount of space for each story left me disappointed and wanting more. And then some of the stories seemed to be missing part of their story; they were like snippets from novels where there should be much more than just the little that we see. Rather than enjoying them for the pieces that they were, they instead highlighted to me that so much more could be reached instead. I would still recommend the collection but I look forward to another novel from Engstrom.

Symphony by Charles L. Grant

• Purchase it here
• Published February 1997 (paperback edition)
• Finished reading it on August 11, 1999
• This is the start of Grant's Millennium Quartet: four books dealing with the upcoming millennium and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The first involves Death. The story starts off slow but very visually. Every character is easy to picture and comes quickly to life. The problem though was that there were too many characters and with too many different names that it was difficult to keep them straight. Things like taking a couple moments to realize it was the owner of the video store talking instead of the waitress. Just as I was getting a handle on who was who, the suspense started and built up to the climatic and explosive ending. It was as suspenseful as it could have been but definite bonus points are given because of the deaths of unexpected characters. Definitely something that kept me on my toes. I look forward to seeing what havoc the other Horsemen bring.

Send comments or your opinions on these books to mike@kazba.com.

Last modified on January 1, 2016