Saving Home

After saving the planet Mhakerta The Four return to Aristozonex to find themselves under arrest. It seems the Syndicate Fleet Commander was killed in an ill-fated mission to Cwelt. Separated due to the nature of their ‘crimes’ they must somehow escape before execution and reunite to absolve themselves.

Trattora and Velkan are rescued by Velkan’s former owner, Sarth, with the help of Buir and Ghil. Sarth demands control of the dargonite on Cwelt she feels she is owed from their previous meeting. A run-in with body poachers who are searching for Trattora places Sarth in an unholy alliance with them to share the dargonite. The body poachers also take possession of Trattora and Velkan for safe keeping.

Ayma and Phin have friends inside the Fleet help them escape and take over the stealth fighter once again. They set off on a search to locate and liberate Trattora and Velkan. Finding them is one thing, successfully freeing them and escaping is quite another.

Meanwhile, on Cwelt, Parthelon has somehow become chieftain. He has struck a deal with the Maulers for mining rights of the dargonite. The Maulers then ambushed the Syndicate Fleet. Can The Four come together and return to Cwelt and overthrow Parthelon and the Maulers?

Hinkens’ third novel in The Expulsion Project series, Girl of Blood, is a non-stop, action-packed thrill ride. It’s a good mixture of adventure and romance in a sci-fi universe. There are plenty of twists to keep you interested all the way to the very end.

Nothing Trattora sets out to do is ever straightforward or easy. With guidance from her friends, she grows up significantly and learns to temper her impulses. She grows into the leader her father always expected her to become. Watching her mature over the course of these books has left me satisfied.

And, as Trattora has matured, so has Hinkens’ writing abilities. I applaud her work and look forward to wherever the next adventure takes her. I highly recommend this and every book Hinkens has written thus far.

5 out of 5 stars.

I received this book for free from the author for review consideration. This in no way affected my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Guest Review – Zombie Theorem

Zombie Theorem a Conspiracy Military Survival book: The Culling Book One by James Wallace

The book was well written and edited. The characters are fleshed out and their dialogue is great. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to see where the story goes in book two.

The only negative was the repeated find zombies, kill them and do it all over again and again.

4 out of 5 stars.

Gary Deariso

It Came From Below

Dr. Linda Graves, a forty-four-year-old astrobiology researcher with the University of Washington, falls down a previously undiscovered fumarole on Mt. Erebus. Mt. Erebus is an active volcano in Antarctica. Her research partner, Brett Thompson, a Homer, Alaska native and the team’s mountaineer and safety specialist, repels down to her. While at the bottom of the fumarole Dr. Graves collects eukaryote specimens to ship back to the university. At the shipping dock, there is an accident and the container with the eukaryotes is ruptured. And, that is when the horror begins.

It is the end of the season and winter is fast approaching. The researchers are packing up to go back home leaving only a skeleton crew remaining at McMurdo Station, also known as Mac-Town. When the transport never arrives to take those remaining at the Lower Erebus Hut, part of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory (MEVO), to Mac-Town Dr. Nathan Hunter, the Principle Investigator for the expedition and a professor of geochemistry at NMT, has Brett lead them via snow machine down the mountain. Upon arriving they come onto a scene that can only be described as straight out of a horror movie. There are dead bodies everywhere and a person running at them with a crazed look in their eyes.

Once they realize that there is no one there to help them leave they seek refuge anywhere they can. But, each noise they make brings out more crazed people intent on killing them. These people resemble zombies even though they are still alive and are easily killed. The group stumbles upon Dr. Graves who has been in hiding since the epidemic broke out. She fills them in on what has happened and they conclude that they are alone in fighting this. No one is coming to help.

Bird’s novel, Erebus, is a frightening look at being left alone with a killer at the bottom of the world. He has done quite a bit of research to make the characters and the location as realistic as possible. The suspense is palatable. The horror is unimaginable. Bird has done an excellent job of telling this story.

I am not a horror fan and I hate zombie stories. This book is so well written that I forgot all about that and thoroughly enjoyed it. Bravo, Steven Bird, bravo.

5 out of 5 stars.

The Maid’s Story – 1960s

Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is a white socialite in the early 60s struggling to find a career in journalism while living in the deep South. All of her friends are married and having children. And, they all have black maids. Even Skeeter’s family has a black maid. Some folks treat their maids like family. Others treat them worse than the hired help that they are.

Aibileen Clark is a black maid. She’s a God loving, church going woman. Most of the time she keeps to herself and stays out of the limelight. She is currently working for Mrs. Elizabeth Leefolt, one of Skeeter’s best friends. Mrs. Leefolt isn’t the type of person that should be having children. They are more of a nuisance than a joy to her. And, Aibileen is doing her best to raise Elizabeth’s children to love themselves and be kind to others.

Minny Jackson is a black maid in the household of another of Skeeter’s friends, Mrs. Hilly Holbrook. Minny has a sassy mouth and has a hard time keeping a job. She needs the money with five children and a husband working two jobs. Hilly is a mean, spiteful woman who is the head of the Junior League of Jackson, Mississippi. She treats Minny as though she is a disease.

Skeeter finds herself at odds with Hilly and the idea of outdoor bathrooms for the colored help. The inhumane treatment that she witnesses spark an idea to write the stories of the maids as told by the maids. Aibileen is the only one to agree at first. As things deteriorate in the South with the federal government pushing for desegregation, her editor urges her to get the book to her as soon as possible with at least a dozen stories.

Stockett’s first novel, The Help, is about the book itself being written. It is both funny and sad. The stories are about true love and friendship as well as hate and racism. There is a lot we all can learn from these stories. Social injustice to any group is unacceptable. These ladies worked long hours under almost slave-like conditions just to feed themselves and their families.

5 out of 5 stars.