Michael Coorlim's Book Blather

Delirium is the first episode in the 9-part first season of Susan Kaye Quinn's Debt-Collector serial. This dark future-noir story chronicles the journey of Lirium, a collector of life energy with a ruthlessly mercenary mindset.

Read the review over at Book Nouveau.

The Beam: Episode One kicks off a science fiction serial by Realm & Sands author Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. Like all of the pair’s serials, the first episode is a short novella that establishes the setting’s premise and introduces the principal characters and themes that we can expect to see in the following arc. It ends on a cliffhanger that practically begs you to buy the followup collection of The Beam, and the idea is an enticing one.

You can read the entire review over at Book Nouveau.

I obtained City of Pillars through a giveaway. This review contains mild spoilers.

City of Pillars is a dark conspiratorial thriller by esoteric author Dominic Peloso that reads like Robert Anton Wilson channeling the spirit of HP Lovecraft while Greg Stolze watches over his shoulder offering helpful advice.

You can read the rest of this review over at Book Nouveau!

I obtained a copy of Inner Potential from the author. This review contains mild spoilers.

Inner Potential is a darkly comedic modern fantasy short about Horace, a socially awkward and mildly delusional loser who discovers that he has a dangerously destructive, yet awkward and inconvenient, superpower. Our milquetoast protagonist looks for meaning behind this developing while trying to win the attentions of his coworker Marci.

Read the full review over at Book Nouveau.

I obtained a copy of Black Monastery from the author.

Black Monastery is a historical horror novel by former soldier William Stacey. Set at the end of the 6th century, it tells the story of a Viking raid gone horribly awry. Asgrim Wood-Nose, Viking war-chief and outlaw, sails against the Franks, raiding to raise the fortune he needs to amass in order to pay his blood-debt and return home. On the island of Noirmoutier, rather than the promised silver, he finds evidence of a horrible massacre… and an ancient lurking evil.

You can read the full review over at Book Nouveau. It contains mild spoilers.

I obtained a copy of Tortured Dreams from the author.

Tortured Dreams is a mystery thriller by Hadena James. It tells the story of a self-professed sociopath, a magnet for violence prone to attracting the attention of serial killers. She’s recruited by a US Marshal Serial Crimes Tracking Unit to pursue a murderer who kills using medieval torture methods.

You can read the full review over at Book Nouveau.

I obtained a copy of Forget Yourself from the author.

Forget Yourself is a dystopian speculative fiction novel by Redfern Jon Barrett, an author with a PhD in queer literature. It’s a very polished and well written story that hits on many of my favorite themes – the nature of reality, questions of identity, unreliable narrators, and the subjective nature of thought and idea. Forget Yourself is one of those books whose concepts stood out head and shoulders above the crowd, and upon reading it I was thrilled to found out that the writer possessed a skill equal to the task he’d set himself.

You can read the full review at Book Nouveau. It contains mild spoilers.

I obtained a copy of The Trouble With Rane from the author.

The Trouble with Rane by Robert Beacham is a science fiction novelette thriller, heavy on the action and atmosphere. It tells the story of the eponymous Rane, a Ranger presented as a sort of ultimate bad-ass, as he follows the threads of a conspiratorial plot.

You can read the entire review at Book Nouveau.

Write. Publish. Repeat. is a self-publishing business and marketing guide written by podcasters and authors Johnny B. Truant and Sean Platt.

You can read my whole review over at Book Nouveau.

I obtained a copy of The Truth Beyond the Sky from its author.

The Truth Beyond the Sky by Andrew M Crusoe is a mythic science fiction epic heavily influenced by its author’s Hawaiian environment and elements of Vedic tradition. It’s a multi-layered story that not only draws from mythology itself, but has a mythic quality to its telling without resorting to archaic prose.

You can read the full review at Book Nouveau. It contains mild spoilers.

I obtained a copy of The Survivors from the author.

The Survivors is a superhero thriller about the survivors of a horrific plane crash who discover that they possess mysterious powers and an even more mysterious connection. When one of them goes on a killing spree, the others can tell — though not which one of them it is, and they all suspect one another.

You can read the full review at Book Nouveau

I obtained a copy of The Untimely Deaths of Daryl Handy from the author. 

The Untimely Deaths of Daryl Handy is a fast-paced fantasy thriller novella about a killer jumping from parallel universe to parallel universe to murder his duplicates. Driven by madness and hatred, Daryl’s killing spree is masochistic in nature, self-harm externalized.

This review contains mild spoilers. You can read it at Book Nouveau.

I obtained a copy of Descent Macabre from the author. This review contains no spoilers.

Descent Macabre is not a paranormal romance. Let me repeat that:

Descent Macabre is not a paranormal romance.

It’s a dark, devastating, gripping psychological horror story with supernatural elements, but it is not a romance.

Read the full review at Book Nouveau.

Emergence is a dark urban young-adult fantasy about juvenile monster hunters pitting themselves against the forces of darkness. It’s a very sort of visceral book that doesn’t skimp on the gruesome details.

Read the full review on Book Nouveau.

I obtained a copy of Plague City through a LibraryThing giveaway.

Plague City is set in a world beset by a lethal plague, with the city presented as one of the last holdouts of humanity. We’re unsure if the city is alone in this, as there is no communication with the rest of the world, and no one could leave through the city wall even if they wanted to — the belief among the populace is that it’s all that keeps the plague out.

Read the full review at Book Nouveau.

I obtained a copy of NightmarZ: Asylum through a free librarything giveaway. This review contains no spoilers.

Irma Geddon is writing the Z Series, a series of serial novels. The first of these is NightmarZ, which contains six episodes. The first, Asylum, is a quick 10,000 word novelette. If that sounds confusing, don’t worry; you’ll be able to just buy the individual “series” as complete novels once they’ve been written.

Read the full review over at Book Nouveau. Contains mild spoilers.