New Moon
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown, Sep 2006, $19.99
ISBN: 9780316160193
In Forks, Washington, after having recovered from a vampire assault (see TWILIGHT), Isabella “Bella” Swan celebrates her eighteenth birthday with her boyfriend and rescuer Edward Cullen and his family of vampires that are “vegans”; never drinking human blood. However when Bella cuts her arm, Edward and his kin struggle to control their desire as the trickling red liquid is like catnip to them. They do not harm her, but he realizes they can never be together and ends their relationship breaking her heart.
Bella is depressed until she meets Ford High School sophomore Jacob, a sophomore from her school who belongs to a motorcycle pack. She begins to come out of her funk though she misses Edward. However, she soon learns what the pack truly is and what Jacob will become; a natural enemy of Edward; not just because they like the same girl.
The second Bella tale is a terrific paranormal young adult thriller as the heroine is sort of like Marshall Teller of Eerie, Indiana landing in one bizarre situation after another. This time the vampires show up towards the end of the tale as Bella learns there is a lot more species under the sun (make that the moon) than humans. Although Jacob behaves towards Bella identically the same as did Edward in TWILIGHT even considering the first person filtering of the heroine in peril, fans will enjoy watching what happens on the NEW MOON on the Olympic Peninsular.
Harriet Klausner
Friday, April 11, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Twilight-Stephenie Meyer
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown, Sep 2006, $10.99
ISBN: 9780316105849
Seventeen year old Isabella Swan leaves her newly married mother in Phoenix to live with her father Charlie, the police chief of Forks, Washington on the Olympic Peninsular; a four hour flight to a place she has never visited, but life starts anew for her. Her first day at Forks High School leaves her nervous as there were three hundred and fifty seven students yesterday who know each other. Today there is one more pupil who nobody knows; Bella knows no one.
On that first day in potential purgatory, Bella meets the enigmatic Edward Cullen. She is very attracted to him, but he acts schizoid towards her. One moment he seems to want her; the next he loathes her. She also acts out of character as she spit out her life to this stranger. However, she begins to unravel the mystery of the teen she desires who at times acts as obsessed with her as she is with him. Although she does not fully believe what she has found out, Bella realizes Edward and his adoptive family are vampires whose sustenance comes from animals. Other vampiric clans are not as regimented as they feel vampire superior should dine on inferior beasts including humans; Bella is fair game.
This is an exciting young adult romantic fantasy starring two teens besotted with one another in a taboo love. The story line is driven by the lead couple as their attraction causes problems for each of them and their families especially when outsiders intervene. Although the climax is rushed and too much of what occurred is passively explained instead of actively happening, readers will enjoy forbidden teen love between a purebred human and a purebred vampire.
Harriet Klausner
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown, Sep 2006, $10.99
ISBN: 9780316105849
Seventeen year old Isabella Swan leaves her newly married mother in Phoenix to live with her father Charlie, the police chief of Forks, Washington on the Olympic Peninsular; a four hour flight to a place she has never visited, but life starts anew for her. Her first day at Forks High School leaves her nervous as there were three hundred and fifty seven students yesterday who know each other. Today there is one more pupil who nobody knows; Bella knows no one.
On that first day in potential purgatory, Bella meets the enigmatic Edward Cullen. She is very attracted to him, but he acts schizoid towards her. One moment he seems to want her; the next he loathes her. She also acts out of character as she spit out her life to this stranger. However, she begins to unravel the mystery of the teen she desires who at times acts as obsessed with her as she is with him. Although she does not fully believe what she has found out, Bella realizes Edward and his adoptive family are vampires whose sustenance comes from animals. Other vampiric clans are not as regimented as they feel vampire superior should dine on inferior beasts including humans; Bella is fair game.
This is an exciting young adult romantic fantasy starring two teens besotted with one another in a taboo love. The story line is driven by the lead couple as their attraction causes problems for each of them and their families especially when outsiders intervene. Although the climax is rushed and too much of what occurred is passively explained instead of actively happening, readers will enjoy forbidden teen love between a purebred human and a purebred vampire.
Harriet Klausner
Personal Demons-Stacia Kane
Personal Demons
Stacia Kane
Juno, Apr 2008
ISBN: 9780809572557
Dr. Megan Chase hosts the popular radio call in show Personal Demons. She counsels her listeners by pledging to help them to "slay their personal demons". Her loyal followers fully believe in her abilities to do exactly what she says; so do others who are not exactly fans of Dr. Megan.
Megan is a unique human; perhaps the only Homo Sapiens without a demon. That and her growing notoriety make her a threat to the demon-kind and an adversary from her past the Accuser wants her dead. While the demons compete for her allegiance or her death, Megan and her overly protective lover fire demon Greyson Dante become involved in the seemingly inane but potentially dangerous Fearbusters meetings while a reporter trying to make a name digs into Megan’s involvement in a murder fifteen years ago.
This engaging paranormal thriller will have readers believing in psychic powers and personal demons while wondering when we take a shower do we have a peeping demon and would sex mean a ménage a quatre? Readers will enjoy this lighthearted entertaining urban fantasy as Dr. Megan radio counselor finds out the hard way that there are some creatures out there who literally interpret her motto as a direct threat to their well being.
Harriet Klausner
Stacia Kane
Juno, Apr 2008
ISBN: 9780809572557
Dr. Megan Chase hosts the popular radio call in show Personal Demons. She counsels her listeners by pledging to help them to "slay their personal demons". Her loyal followers fully believe in her abilities to do exactly what she says; so do others who are not exactly fans of Dr. Megan.
Megan is a unique human; perhaps the only Homo Sapiens without a demon. That and her growing notoriety make her a threat to the demon-kind and an adversary from her past the Accuser wants her dead. While the demons compete for her allegiance or her death, Megan and her overly protective lover fire demon Greyson Dante become involved in the seemingly inane but potentially dangerous Fearbusters meetings while a reporter trying to make a name digs into Megan’s involvement in a murder fifteen years ago.
This engaging paranormal thriller will have readers believing in psychic powers and personal demons while wondering when we take a shower do we have a peeping demon and would sex mean a ménage a quatre? Readers will enjoy this lighthearted entertaining urban fantasy as Dr. Megan radio counselor finds out the hard way that there are some creatures out there who literally interpret her motto as a direct threat to their well being.
Harriet Klausner
Night Child-Jes Battis
Night Child
Jes Battis
Ace, May 27 2008, $6.99
ISBN: 9780441016020
She is an Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver Mystical Crime Lab which is part of the Central Occult Regulation Enterprise. They are mages who try to prevent demons from harming humans. Currently the two sides have a working truce that is about to be tested.
In the middle of the night Tess Corday and her partner Derek are called to the crime scene featuring a murdered vampire. The telepath at the crime scene picks up images of the vampire’s last moments filled with fire and a teenage girl. In the vampire’s pocket is a picture of himself and his sire as well as an address. Tess and Derek visit the home of Cassandra and her niece Mia. They are shocked to realize the aunt is a demon and the niece is a mage whose powers remain surprisingly dormant. Mia confides that the vampire was in her guardian’s home. A vampire attacks the two investigators, but they escape unharmed. They get into further trouble when they are warned then ordered by their superiors to stay away from Mia. Tess feels a strong affinity for Mia so she risks her life and her job to keep the focus of seemingly everyone’s interest safe.
NIGHT CHILD will appeal to a wider audience then just the obvious Dresden urban fantasy crowd. The world building is fabulous as the audience will feel like Jes Battis’ humans are caught in the middle of a cold war that could go hot in a nanosecond between mages and demons. Adding to the depth of the characterizations is both sides have good and bad members with their ethics being extremely complex. Fans will appreciate this tour of the Battis universe where the supernatural, the natural, and the hybrid live together in a not so peaceful co-existence.
Harriet Klausner
Jes Battis
Ace, May 27 2008, $6.99
ISBN: 9780441016020
She is an Occult Special Investigator for Vancouver Mystical Crime Lab which is part of the Central Occult Regulation Enterprise. They are mages who try to prevent demons from harming humans. Currently the two sides have a working truce that is about to be tested.
In the middle of the night Tess Corday and her partner Derek are called to the crime scene featuring a murdered vampire. The telepath at the crime scene picks up images of the vampire’s last moments filled with fire and a teenage girl. In the vampire’s pocket is a picture of himself and his sire as well as an address. Tess and Derek visit the home of Cassandra and her niece Mia. They are shocked to realize the aunt is a demon and the niece is a mage whose powers remain surprisingly dormant. Mia confides that the vampire was in her guardian’s home. A vampire attacks the two investigators, but they escape unharmed. They get into further trouble when they are warned then ordered by their superiors to stay away from Mia. Tess feels a strong affinity for Mia so she risks her life and her job to keep the focus of seemingly everyone’s interest safe.
NIGHT CHILD will appeal to a wider audience then just the obvious Dresden urban fantasy crowd. The world building is fabulous as the audience will feel like Jes Battis’ humans are caught in the middle of a cold war that could go hot in a nanosecond between mages and demons. Adding to the depth of the characterizations is both sides have good and bad members with their ethics being extremely complex. Fans will appreciate this tour of the Battis universe where the supernatural, the natural, and the hybrid live together in a not so peaceful co-existence.
Harriet Klausner
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Spectre-Phaedra Weldon
Spectre
Phaedra Weldon
Ace, Jun 2008, $14.00
ISBN: 9780441015931
While walking out of her body one day Zoe Martinique clashed with a Sybiont she calls Trench Coat from the Abysmal plane. She changes into a Wraith when something happens to her or her loved ones. When she is OOB and Wraith, Zoe is not human, but Other. Trench Coat took her voice and gave her his mark on her hand. Zoe is able to use her new powers as a Traveler and a Wraith to work as a private investigator.
Since she hasn’t completed her last assignment for Maherba, she is forced to acceptfor him her them or it an assignment at a benefit at the Atlanta’s Westin Plaza; where she is to listen in on a conversation between Congressman March Knowles and Atlanta based businessman Francisco Rodriguez. She hears about two groups, a shipment and something in it that two groups want. She learns these groups somehow linked to three homicides with missing body parts from each victim. Two groups want to catch Zoe in order to control or kill her, but she does her best to elude them while her powers grow. However even she is not strong enough to override the Compulsion of the Command Eidolon that one of her adversarial group’s leaders places on her. She is his to command unless her friends can free her.
The supernatural beings are fascinating characters in SPECTRE whether they are daimon, symbiont, shade or ghost; as each has a distinct personality. Zoe remains ignorant as to the extent of her powers or how much they will expand, but though she is often more Other than human and the Wraith is her dark side, she remains an independent free thinker trying to do what she believes is morally right for humanity. This is a great urban fantasy that will have fans anxiously waiting for the next installment in Zoe’s saga.
Harriet Klausner
Phaedra Weldon
Ace, Jun 2008, $14.00
ISBN: 9780441015931
While walking out of her body one day Zoe Martinique clashed with a Sybiont she calls Trench Coat from the Abysmal plane. She changes into a Wraith when something happens to her or her loved ones. When she is OOB and Wraith, Zoe is not human, but Other. Trench Coat took her voice and gave her his mark on her hand. Zoe is able to use her new powers as a Traveler and a Wraith to work as a private investigator.
Since she hasn’t completed her last assignment for Maherba, she is forced to acceptfor him her them or it an assignment at a benefit at the Atlanta’s Westin Plaza; where she is to listen in on a conversation between Congressman March Knowles and Atlanta based businessman Francisco Rodriguez. She hears about two groups, a shipment and something in it that two groups want. She learns these groups somehow linked to three homicides with missing body parts from each victim. Two groups want to catch Zoe in order to control or kill her, but she does her best to elude them while her powers grow. However even she is not strong enough to override the Compulsion of the Command Eidolon that one of her adversarial group’s leaders places on her. She is his to command unless her friends can free her.
The supernatural beings are fascinating characters in SPECTRE whether they are daimon, symbiont, shade or ghost; as each has a distinct personality. Zoe remains ignorant as to the extent of her powers or how much they will expand, but though she is often more Other than human and the Wraith is her dark side, she remains an independent free thinker trying to do what she believes is morally right for humanity. This is a great urban fantasy that will have fans anxiously waiting for the next installment in Zoe’s saga.
Harriet Klausner
Unholy Domain-Dan Ronco
Unholy Domain
Dan Ronco
Kunati, Apr 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9781601640215
In 2012, the PeaceMaker virus destroyed the Internet; causing pandemic catastrophes as so much of the world was tied to cyber space with millions dead as a consequence. Over the next decade since this debacle destroyed the global economy, the government has banned the development of new technology outside of what the Feds create. The Technos strongly object to the taboo while the Church of Natural Humans want all technology outlawed.
The Domain has developed new illegal technology with the intention of a coup d’etat to take control of the government; the Church wants to expand its hold on the government. These two groups are ready to take their cold war hot. At the same time David Brown, the son of software guru Ray Brown, the person universally blamed for unleashing PeaceMaker, wants to prove his dad is innocent of these charges. He does not care one iota about the power struggle.
The second PeaceMaker tale (see THE PEACEMAKER) is an exciting follow-up warning to the premise that the destruction of the Internet will lead to many direct deaths and a global collapse exponentially worse than that of the Great Depression. The story line is fast-paced, filled with plenty of action as David (apropos first name) is a human sharing space with two five hundred pound battling gorillas. Although the rampart sexism seems unnecessarily comical and ergo out of place UNHOLY DOMAIN is an entertaining futuristic cautionary thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Dan Ronco
Kunati, Apr 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9781601640215
In 2012, the PeaceMaker virus destroyed the Internet; causing pandemic catastrophes as so much of the world was tied to cyber space with millions dead as a consequence. Over the next decade since this debacle destroyed the global economy, the government has banned the development of new technology outside of what the Feds create. The Technos strongly object to the taboo while the Church of Natural Humans want all technology outlawed.
The Domain has developed new illegal technology with the intention of a coup d’etat to take control of the government; the Church wants to expand its hold on the government. These two groups are ready to take their cold war hot. At the same time David Brown, the son of software guru Ray Brown, the person universally blamed for unleashing PeaceMaker, wants to prove his dad is innocent of these charges. He does not care one iota about the power struggle.
The second PeaceMaker tale (see THE PEACEMAKER) is an exciting follow-up warning to the premise that the destruction of the Internet will lead to many direct deaths and a global collapse exponentially worse than that of the Great Depression. The story line is fast-paced, filled with plenty of action as David (apropos first name) is a human sharing space with two five hundred pound battling gorillas. Although the rampart sexism seems unnecessarily comical and ergo out of place UNHOLY DOMAIN is an entertaining futuristic cautionary thriller.
Harriet Klausner
The Host-Stephenie Meyer
The Host
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown, May 2008, $25.95
ISBN: 9780316068048
They came from outer space without any fanfare. These parasites inserted themselves inside the human brain taking over the host. Disease and war are long gone, but some no infected humans insist this is not Eden as security for freedom is to high a price; the space “Souls” control the body while the human brain activity ebbs. Seekers search for those still independent to turn them over for conversion by the centipedes from space. No place is safe.
In Chicago, one of these human insurgents twentyish Melanie Stryder wants these “Souls” to leave her alone. When the Seekers capture her, a "Soul" is placed inside her brain. She learns the creature surprisingly has a name, Wanderer. Obstinate Melanie refuses to fade into the background. She as the Host persuades Wanderer to find her brother Jamie and her boyfriend Jared missing in the Arizona desert as long as they find the parasite’s significant other too. When the coupling meets up with her loved ones in a secret rebel hideaway led by her uncle, the purebreds suspect both of them sharing her body, but soon Wanda as they start calling the parasite begins to win over the insurgents just like this Soul did her host.
Although first impressions is THE HOST is a futuristic Invasion of the Body Snatchers; in fact Stephanie Meyer’s tale is a much more complex character driven thriller. Relationships are the key to this superb tale that focuses on Wanda-Melanie and those the Host cherishes like her brother and her boyfriend. Jared’s thoughts bring perspective when he kisses Melanie he wonders if he is kissing her, Wanda, or both; geometrically adding to the complications is Ian. Fans who want invasion action and its consequences need to go elsewhere like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers; but those who appreciate a deep look at a personal level will enjoy this fine thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Stephenie Meyer
Little, Brown, May 2008, $25.95
ISBN: 9780316068048
They came from outer space without any fanfare. These parasites inserted themselves inside the human brain taking over the host. Disease and war are long gone, but some no infected humans insist this is not Eden as security for freedom is to high a price; the space “Souls” control the body while the human brain activity ebbs. Seekers search for those still independent to turn them over for conversion by the centipedes from space. No place is safe.
In Chicago, one of these human insurgents twentyish Melanie Stryder wants these “Souls” to leave her alone. When the Seekers capture her, a "Soul" is placed inside her brain. She learns the creature surprisingly has a name, Wanderer. Obstinate Melanie refuses to fade into the background. She as the Host persuades Wanderer to find her brother Jamie and her boyfriend Jared missing in the Arizona desert as long as they find the parasite’s significant other too. When the coupling meets up with her loved ones in a secret rebel hideaway led by her uncle, the purebreds suspect both of them sharing her body, but soon Wanda as they start calling the parasite begins to win over the insurgents just like this Soul did her host.
Although first impressions is THE HOST is a futuristic Invasion of the Body Snatchers; in fact Stephanie Meyer’s tale is a much more complex character driven thriller. Relationships are the key to this superb tale that focuses on Wanda-Melanie and those the Host cherishes like her brother and her boyfriend. Jared’s thoughts bring perspective when he kisses Melanie he wonders if he is kissing her, Wanda, or both; geometrically adding to the complications is Ian. Fans who want invasion action and its consequences need to go elsewhere like The Invasion of the Body Snatchers; but those who appreciate a deep look at a personal level will enjoy this fine thriller.
Harriet Klausner
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