****I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review**** This is going to be an interesting review. “The Reflection Collection” is an anthology of nine short stories that range in topics and varying genres. Everything from sci-fi to cyberpunk to fantasy, with each story written in a style reminiscent of a dry textbook assigned for class reading in college. The stories range in length, but none are particularly long, and only a few are related to one another, otherwise they are their own self-contained universes. Some of the stories are written with a dry humor that you’ll miss if you aren’t paying attention, and some are a bit more “crass” than others, so they really do run the gamut. It makes it hard to review as some stories were more enjoyable than others, but because there are nine of these short stories, I won’t be reviewing each one individually because that will end up being longer than the book itself. So I’ll be looking at the book as a whole, and needless to say, it is definitely best suited for a particular kind of reader…
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“In The Clearing” is the third book in the Tracy Crosswhite series and while each of these books is its own self-contained mystery, where you can kind of pick up anywhere in the series and not be lost, book two was best following book one due to the nuances in the story that carried over and affected book two's plot. Book three breaks that mold. Unlike books one and two, there are no elements from the previous books that make an appearance in this story that you’d be confused by. Dugoni does a nice recap of everything that has brought Tracy to this point, so if you read this book out of order, you’ll be fine. This story follows Tracy as she endeavors to solve a cold case that followed a friend’s father to his grave, with something about the case always nagging at him. Tracy agrees to look into it for her friend, and embarks on a forty year old crime that reminds her of her sister’s own disappearance and death. Unfortunately, that was the problem I had with this particular book in the series, it felt like a story I had already read. ****I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review**** “Seeking Dr. Magic” is a genre bender, meshing aspects of a crime-drama with pure magical fantasy in a clever way. We follow along as ex-FBI agent, Tony Hetfield, tries to figure out who is behind bizarre magical acts happening all around the world, and why they are happening to begin with. Tony has the fortune, or misfortune depending on how you look at it, of naming this mysterious being responsible for these phantom ninjas, drawing the attention of Dr. Magic, who doesn’t enjoy the new title. Tony is used to the limelight from other high profile cases, but even this is getting to be more than he can handle as government agencies around the world try to catch Dr. Magic, and Tony by proxy, in order to eliminate him as a potential threat. It’s a cool concept, and Dr. Magic has some awesome abilities, but the book just needed … a bit more. ****I received a copy from the author in exchange for an honest review**** Much like Heldt’s other stories, “The Mine” follows the soon-to-be-graduating-from-college-ladies’ man, Joel, as he and his friend Adam return from a road trip across America. When a traffic incident prompts Joel to convince his friend to take a service road to get around it, and then explore a dilapidated mine, Joel’s life changes forever. The stars align and the mineral composite in the mine sends Joel back to 1941, just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The reader watches as Joel pieces together where he is, how he got there, what he can do about it, and then what happens when his life gets even more complicated by falling in love. Heldt creates an endearing story about a young man who has to make some genuinely tough decisions: does he change the past and risk potentially his own existence for the woman he loves? Or does he break both of their hearts and return to where he belongs? While some sections of the book felt a bit slow, I genuinely enjoyed this version of Heldt’s time travel series! **** I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review**** “Season 7” is a bit like what I’d imagine “The Truman Show”, “Hunger Games” and the “X-Files” all having a baby and raising it together to be like. We follow along as Richard has the worst day of his life, a rival gets promoted at work, he gets fired, and just as he attempts to wash away his troubles at a bar before returning to his slob of a roommate, he gets abducted by an alien who promises him that he is the chosen one of his planet, destined to be king. With promises like that, how could Richard not believe his luck was about to turn around? Except Richard is wrong, so very, very wrong, and his bad day gets infinitely worse. It’s an intriguing concept and the aliens D.F. Nightshade creates are all very unique for the short time you see them, but this books creativity is bogged down by some very correctable issues. |
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