Spotlight on Guest Reviewers

 

 GUEST REVIEWS!

 

As you know, our staff delights in reading and sharing what we are enjoying with our customers. Much of the time it's a two way street, and our customers share their finds and faves with us. Here's a place to share customer reviews with everyone... Want to share your $.02? Just ask a staff member!

 

And watch for Guest Reviews for some of our author event spotlight titles as well.

   

 

Blood Riders (Mass Market Paperback)

$7.99
ISBN-13: 9780062023094
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Harper Voyager, 9/2012

I loved this book! I read it in two days when I wasn’t flying, visiting, walking, etc. The year is 1880 and you meet Detective Allan Pinkerton, Oliver Winchester - maker of the Winchester Rifle, and Abraham Van Helsing – who knows more than anyone alive about vampires. Ring any bells? But of course they do! Jonas P. Hollister is in jail because he told the truth. Soldiers under his command were slaughtered and he saw exactly who did this – blood sucking demons. Well, heck, there were no witnesses and no bodies and the law just doesn’t believe Hollister. Hey – who would??  (I would! Yes – I would. I know all about those blood sucking creatures!! – you do too, right?) Well, so did Pinkerton, Winchester and Van Helsing.  Pinkerton not only gets Jonas out of jail but also promises him a presidential pardon if he finds and destroys these creatures. Because it has happened again and the government wants it handled. A fast moving tale with lots of action – characters that are tough, funny, scary, almost loveable – and believable! Yes, I said it – believable. If you want to take a fun romp through the American wild, wild West with some of the most interesting characters I’ve read in a while, you just hafta read this book. Oh, and one more thing. It does get scary – after all, you’ll find this book in the horror section.   - Guest Reviewer Diane Bader


Villa Triste (Paperback)

$14.99
ISBN-13: 9781455505371
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grand Central Publishing, 1/2013
I loved this book! I'm fascinated by the stories of the partisans and WW2. The characters were amazing and interesting. It takes place in the 40's with 2 sisters and their family in Italy and also in present day. A great mystery that begins during the war and re-awakens in present day. It never dragged anywhere and I found out in the end that it was inspired by real experiences. It takes you through what happened to different groups of people during the occupations and how and what they needed to do to survive. Hopefully this author will continue with Inspector Alessandro Pallioti in a future series...he has possibilities. I would recommend this book in a heartbeat.
-- Guest Reviewer Eva Paul Miller

The Human Division (Hardcover)

$25.99
ISBN-13: 9780765333513
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Books, 5/2013

John Scalzi is a cannibal. Not that he eats the flesh of other humans (so far as I know); but he “use[s] or draw[s] on material of (as another writer or an earlier work)” (Merriam-Webster, cannibalize). As he did with Fuzzy Nation, Red Shirts, and Zoe's Tale, Scalzi has drawn on existing work or ideas to create something wholly new and absorbing. Published online as a three-month digital serial from January to April, 2013, The Human Division is now available as a hardcover. It follows the exploits of Lieutenant Harry Wilson of the Colonial Union (CU) as he deals with other sentient beings in an often-violent, competitive universe (the same universe of Old Man’s War). What this series of thirteen loosely linked episodes (and two extras) brings to mind is the brilliant and funny Retief tales of Keith Laumer. Scalzi even incorporates the satirical humor that characterized most of Retief’s exploits (see especially, Episode 7: The Dog King). These stories are all told against a background that sees the CU in conflict with Earth, as well as with a confederation of alien civilizations that is trying to pull Earth into its alliance against the CU. Assigned as a representative of the Colonial Defense Forces under the authority of various ambassadors and other politicians, Lieutenant Wilson often has to outthink (and sometimes outfight) not only his alien foes but also his own, sometimes thick-headed, fellow humans. These are immensely enjoyable stories—serious yet often laugh-out-loud funny. Highly recommended.

–Guest Reviewer Terry Hertzler  


Three Parts Dead (Hardcover)

$24.99
ISBN-13: 9780765333100
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Tor Books, 10/2012

“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”1

“It was a pleasure to burn.”2

“Call me Ishmael.”3

“Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”4

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”5

“A screaming comes across the sky.”6

“I did two things on my seventy-fifth birthday. I visited my wife’s grave. Then I joined the army.7 “The bureaucrat fell from the sky.”8

 

Great opening lines from great novels. I’m sure you have your own favorites. I just added a new one: “God wasn’t answering tonight.”9 What do you do when a deity dies? That’s the question Max Gladstone addresses in Three Parts Dead, a wonderfully twisted fantasy legal thriller that moves like a massive steam locomotive, gathering power as it combines gods, magic, religion, courtroom drama, vampires, gargoyles and more as it rolls to a spectacular climax in one of the best first novels I’ve read since Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl. This novel is that good. Buy it. Read it. Reread it. Wow. -Guest Reviewer Terry Hertzler

 

1William Gibson, Neuromancer; 2 Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451; 3 Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; 4Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude; 5George Orwell, 1984; 6Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow; 7John Scalzi, Old Man’s War; 8 Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide. 9Max Gladstone, Three Parts Dead.

 


SEAL Team 666 (Hardcover)

$24.99
ISBN-13: 9781250007353
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Thomas Dunne Books, 11/2012
Hooya! Say it again - hooya! With praise from Peter Straub, Joe R. Landsdale and Jonathan Maberry, among others, this book is a great read and will keep you riveted with all the action. Jack Walker is going thru SEAL training and using every ounce of his strength to get it. In the middle of his training, he’s pulled out and given full SEAL status before he completes the required schooling. There is something a little odd about him and he hasn’t shared his secret – but more about that later. The powers that be put him right into Team 666. You know, there really isn’t a Team 666 – but then again, no one would admit to one anyway. The person who pulled him out of training knows his secret.

What I liked most about this book was the reality of the SEAL team – they weren’t composed of magicians, wizards or magic men – they were SEALS in the real sense. But here’s the spark – they fight against evil pure and simple including demons, possessed humans and a diabolic, fiendish cult setting out to rule the world. Read the book to find out Jack’s secret and whether it will help or harm the team. Lest I forget, there’s a fantastic, powerful member of the team I haven’t mentioned. He’s not human – oh but don’t worry, that’s because he’s a dog.  WooHoo!!

- Guest Reviewer Diane Bader


$27.99
ISBN-13: 9780061991042
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William Morrow, 1/2013

Wowzie – What a change, what an adventure, what a story!!! James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell have teamed up to collaborate on The Order of the Sanguines Series. The story deals specifically with the Roman Catholic Church and some beliefs that are held by its followers. Among many of the Church’s convictions, the belief in transubstantiation is at the core of this story. And it is simply a story – isn’t it?  A disturbing find in a buried tomb after an earthquake in Masada, Israel, binds three people together in a search for answers. And an interesting group they are – a Vatican priest, an intrepid archaeologist and a military forensic expert. And away they go - off to adventure, danger and close calls. The group is after a sacred book that was supposed to be in the tomb they searched at the Masada site – a book that was written by Christ himself about the secrets of His divinity. Of course no story like this would be perfect without an ancient enemy who runs after them trying to keep the book out of their hands – an ancient enemy who wants to wipe the small group off the face of the earth. What the group does not know is that someone on their team is not who they think he is – or better yet, not who but what. The Blood Gospel is not a book you’ll soon forget. I certainly won’t and will be anxious to read the rest of this incredible series.

--Guest Reviewer Diane Bader