Category: Science Fiction

Review: One Breath One Bullet (The Borders War #1) by S.A. McAuley

Rating: 5 stars out of  5

One Breathe One BulletThree hundred years of the Borders War has seen the world reduced to five nations.  In the year 2548, a treaty was signed ending the war, and ensuring a peace between countries, at least on the surface.  Now in the year 2558, all nationalities have gathered for the first Olympic games since the war started.  Attention from the world media and citizens are focused on two men and one competition, the Rifle competition which pits soldiers from each army against the other, this time in tournament rather than battle.   And one duel has been raised above them all, that between the Dark Ops officer from the People’s Republic of Singapore, Armise Darcan and  the Continental States Peacemaker Merq Grayson.

Both men were trained from the very youngest of age to be the most highly skilled and dedicated soldier possible, and the most accurate sniper each side produced.  On mission after mission throughout the Borders War Merq and  Armise battled each other as they pursued the goals of their own countries, neither coming out ahead of the other.  And now they face each other once more, only this time on the field of competition.  But while their relationship has always been one of violence and physical brutality, they have also hidden another aspect to their relationship, one neither truly understands but is compelled to continue.

Against the backdrop of peace and the Olympic Games, another conflict is playing out, one that will have consequences not just for Merq and Armise but for the world they live in.  Only their skills and maybe something more will keep both men alive to survive another day.

One Breath One Bullet is only 80 pages long but within its small frame it packs a much larger punch and more powerful story than I could have imagined.  S.A. McAuley has created a world where war has raged for over three hundred years, with devastating results, wiping out half the world populations, reducing the planet’s air to a toxic cloud and numerous environs to desert unfit for human habitation.  McAuley’s descriptions paint a grim and despairing picture of the cost of prolonged warfare on both the planet and it citizens.  It’s a gritty, noxious universe and the author makes it horribly real in every aspect.

This is an intense story and at its heart are the two soldiers from opposing countries and ideologies. Despite being on opposing sides, Merq Grayson and Armise Darcan have much in common.  They are close in age and physique, even closer in their mentalities and emotional makeup.  These are brutal, dangerous predators masquerading as highly skilled soldiers at the top of their professions and yet, they are also something far more. Merq and Armise are also highly complicated personalities with more layers than can be described.  They will dishearten you with their characters and then turn around and astonish you with surprises.  McAuley has created, in Merq and Armise, two characters so real and memorable, that you will be insatiable in your need for more than just these 80 pages and luckily we will get them.

The story is told from Merq’s pov and jumps time periods from mission to mission.  Through Merq’s perspective, we see the world as it has become and watch the past as the two men compete to complete a search for an object both countries desperately want to acquire.  The real measure of each man slowly seeps out like a small blood trail the reader must follow to get to the truth behind the facades erected by man and nation.  Those expecting a romantic love story will be disappointed as the relationship between these men is not for the faint hearted but authentic to the characters we are slowly coming to know.  I don’t think I can adequately describe how compelling these brutal, war hardened men become or how thrilling and suspenseful the plot turns involved.  There are some beautiful twists and turns involved that just make this story and its characters all the more amazing considering the length of the book.

McAuley has created a three page Index at the end of the book detailing time lines, characters, glossary etc.  I am not a fan of this element as readers of my reviews already know.  Happily, I can report it is not necessary to refer to the Index to understand the basics of the world the author has created or some of the war weaponry used in the conflict.  McAuley folds that necessary information into the story just as it should be, making those pages interesting but optional.

One Breath, One Bullet is the opening salvo to a new series, The Borders War and I, for one, can’t wait for more.  The men, their world, and the events to come are deserving of a grand scale series to equal their measure.  I am confident in S.A. McAuley’s ability to deliver it.  Consider this a must have, must read and look for it on the Best of lists at the end of the year.

This is how the sage begins:

I hated the heat of the desert.

The mask on my face was confining, filling with the condensation of each breath I dragged into my lungs and forced back out in shallow gasps. The goggles over my eyes should have protected me from the yellow and grey cloud of Chemsense the Dark Continental Republic Army had unleashed on our battalion, but I could feel my eyes watering, the liquid gathering in pools that threatened to make my skin too damp to maintain the protective seal.

I was on my knees and I couldn’t remember when I’d stopped walking. I wasn’t far enough away yet. The shouts of the DCR soldiers—and the sonicpops of their weapons as they picked off States soldiers—were muffled but still too close. My body tilted, and I planted my hands into the sand without thought. I collapsed into the dune when my right shoulder ground together, bone against bone, tendons ripping. I thought those DCR goons had only managed to dislocate it, but this pain was worse than that—a grinding impact of racking, vision-blackening pain that didn’t ebb even when I flopped onto my back and let my arm lie unmoving in the scorching sand.

My mantra, pounded into me through years of training, repeated in my head as I consciously stilled my body.

One breath.

Inhale.

Hesitation is my enemy.

Solitude my ally.

Death the only real victory.

Exhale.

Cover art by Posh Gosh is disappointing.  Who is that cover model supposed to be?  And that modern shirt?  So many missed opportunities to do justice for such an incredible book.

Book Details:

ebook, 88 pages (includes excerpt from another Total E-Bound book)
Published June 3rd 2013 by Total-E-Bound
ISBN 1781843317 (ISBN13: 9781781843314)
edition languageEnglish
urlhttp://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=2133
seriesThe Borders War #1

Review: The Hanged Man’s Ghost (Night Wars #1) by Missouri Dalton

Rating: 4.75 stars

Hanged Man's GhostFynn Adder’s life is on a downward spiral and he is doing his best to speed it up.  Since the murder of his longtime lover, Flynn has spent his free time in a drunken haze,  the alcohol contributing to his frequent sexual hookups and increasingly disastrous personal decisions. Only his professional life is currently stable, but that is due more to the efforts of his partner, Jack Winchester,  than to his own discretion.  Flynn Adder is a detective with the Chicago Police Department, and a son of a famous Chicago irish police family.  And because of his family name and reputation, Fynn’s actions and career are under greater scrutiny, a fact not lost on Fynn.

When a girl is murdered, the case is muddied immediately when the trail of clues point in the direction of Fynn’s family and the death of his lover.  That case went unsolved and now it appears the two are connected. With his Captain,partner and family expressing their concerns about his erratic behavior and drinking, Fynn tries concentrating on the strange clues he is unearthing, they just aren’t making sense.

As more murders occur, all the clues point to a supernatural rather than rational explanation. Then Internal Affairs agent Daniel Voight enters the picture.  Voight is determined to prove Adder a dirty cop and will let nothing, even the truth, stand in his way.  The only aspect of Adder’s life that brings him happiness is his relationship with his police partner, Jack.  Fynn has had a crush on his married partner for years and been happy to just be included as a friend in Jack’s life.  But even that aspect of Fynn’s life is undergoing a major change.

With all the clues pointing back to Fynn’s past and the murderer taunting him with mysterious messages he can’t decipher, the stress and unnatural events push Fynn past the breaking point.  If the murderer  is to be caught and the killings stopped, Fynn will need to reach out for help and support in places he never expected and soon before he and those he loves are caught in the Hanged Man’s noose.

I loved this book and fell under its spell immediately, as I should have.  But I didn’t come to this series in a straightforward manner.  I started with The Night Shift (Night Wars #2), than the 3rd installment, The Hellfire Legacy, and by doing so, did this series a real injustice.  Trust me when I say this is an addicting, enthralling series with something for everyone to love.  And I would have known that sooner had I read them in the order they were written and should have been read.  Mea culpa indeed.  But let’s get back to the beginning and The Hanged Man’s Ghost.

Missouri Dalton’s characters are a wonder.  Fynn is especially surprising.  He comes from a large irish family in Chicago whose members have always been part of the Chicago PD rank and file.  But unlike his father and brother, Fynn is not your burly Irishman but rather a slender blond with a penchant for knitting and booze.  He is also gay, out with a large supportive family behind him.  Not that it seems to matter when we first meet him.  The author has created a back history for Fynn that is incredibly complex and is only slowly revealed over the length of the book, both to the reader and to Fynn.  He has been existing in an alcoholic fog since the murder of his longterm lover.  Dalton’s treatment of Fynn’s alcolholism is realistic and grim without giving up any of the character’s wry, and sometimes caustic personality.  It’s a personality you will come to love as much as for it’s power of survival as it is for its wry, self effacing facade.  Here is a taste of Fynn for you:

“You need a lift to the station?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

I shook my head. “Nah, I see my bike.” It was parked three feet from a hydrant. Jack eyed the bike. It was sort of a death trap.

“You were at the club last night.”

“Yeah.” I backed out of striking range.

He stepped closer and grabbed my arm. “Were you drinking?” I looked away. “Damn it, Fynn, were you?”

“Yeah.” He usually managed to make me feel guilty about these things.      He shook his head and let go of my arm. “He could suspend you, take you off this case.”

“I know.” At least he didn’t hit me, but from the ache in my arm, I’d bet it was bruising. Sometimes it sucked to have pale Irish skin.

“At least tell me you’re still seeing the shrink.” My silence was answer enough. “If you want to kill yourself, Fynn, that’s your business. But don’t you dare think it doesn’t affect the rest of us.” He stormed off. Good old Jack, still trying to save me from myself.

The weariness of that  voice gets inside of you, and the force of the personality behind that voice makes the reader want to help him out of the gutter he has tossed himself into.  And this is just the beginning.

Dalton starts bringing in Fynn’s large family, each a well drawn character, and the mystery that surrounds them.  We also get to know Jack, his wife and his precocious daughter too, and come to care for at least two of them just as the author intends. And as Dalton grounds Fynn with his family and Jack, she connects the reader intimately with them and we become invested in their survival.  A survival that becomes increasingly precarious as the murderer starts targeting people around Fynn. Piece by supernatural piece starts to position itself in the story, as the plot lines start to crisscross, and some surprising and chilling twists arrive around each plot corner.  Make no mistake, there are some truly haunting and suspenseful aspects to this story, beautifully conceived and written.

The tough thing about this story is that it is so complex and every little nuance will take on greater import as the story and the series progress.  Things I would have overlooked as inconsequential here had I read this book first, now took on a larger role because I knew what lay behind the slight descriptions so casually thrown away inside this book.  The narrative reminds me of that magazine Hidden Pictures.  There are clues and small stories to be found everywhere as the author is constructing a much larger story outside of The Hanged Man’s Ghost.  This just absolutely delighted me with its complexity while never forgetting that the story and the series has a  very human heart, that of Fynn Adder and those he loves.

Another thread that weaves itself through Fynn’s life and the story is his knitting, a subject near to my heart as a knitter as well.  Here is a little taste of Fynn the knitter:

Cassie’s knitting was in a basket on the left side of the chair I had claimed and I needed a distraction from the tension.

A half-finished pink scarf. Probably for Tara. Cassie would likely not finish it in time for Tara’s birthday.

I picked it up and started a new row. It looked like a simple purl knit purl. Jack raised an eyebrow, I kept knitting. He couldn’t knock my knitting; I’d fixed his sweater the day it got caught in the drawer. With pencils no less.

I intend to track down the author and ask about a certain pattern for a scarf that Fynn knits for himself.  It’s perfection but not one that  can be included in this review.  It is just one more insightful and delightful element that is incorporated into a story that just keeps surprising the deeper into it you go.  The Hanged Man’s Ghost is a cop thriller, a supernatural mystery and a love story.   It chilling, and humorous, and filled with angst. And for the many angles and subject matters that are being juggled here, Missouri Dalton does them all justice and then some, pulling them together for a terrific ending that will leave the reader looking for more.

The editing could be a little tighter and the narrative gets away from itself a  tad towards the middle, otherwise this would be a 5 star rating, My love for the characters and plot far outweigh those  issues, so it really comes close to being perfect. Now the series has become a new favorite of mine.  It will become yours too.  Just don’t make my mistake and start in the middle.  Go right to the beginning, and succumb to the many charms and chills of the Night Wars series and Missouri Dalton’s characters.  You won’t be sorry.

Here are the books as they were written and should be read:

The Hanged Man’s Ghost (Night Wars #01)

The Night Shift (Night Wars #02) – please note revised rating and additional comments at the beginning.

The Hellfire Legacy (Night Wars #03)

Alessia Brio is the cover artist for this book and the series.  I think the artist did a great job in branding the series while keeping each cover true to the story within.  Great job.

Book Details:

ebook, 276 pages
Published February 1st 2012 by Torquere Press
ISBN 1610407091 (ISBN13: 9781610407090)
edition languageEnglish
urlhttp://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97&products_id=3507
seriesThe Night Wars #01

Review: Aria of the Eclipse by Vivien Dean

Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5

Aria of the Eclipse coverFor over 20 years Dek has lived in captivity, caged like the songbird he is presumed to be.  Captured and sold to various buyers since the age of 13, Dek has long given up trying to speak and now the only sounds he makes are songs, music that he is prized for.  His owners call him an “it”, and treat him as a highly expensive and desired pet.  His current owner, the Regent, houses him in a gilded cage, brought out to sing to his guests or for his own amusement.  Now the planet Ymoro and its ruler, the Regent prepare for a momentous occasion, one that has not happened in their lifetime, a total solar eclipse.  And Dek’s life is about to change forever.

Tylen Merodine and his older brother Dourack have been invited by the Regent to observe the solar eclipse in the special solarium built for this incredible event.  Tylen has just come to age and unlike his more conservative and stolid older brother, is excited by all the sights and sounds around him.  Then he hears music so painfully beautiful it moves him to tears. Its source astonishes him.  A slender alien singing from a golden cage in the Regent’s quarters, intelligent dark eyes that watch his every movement, pulling Tylen forward towards him.  The Regent tells him it is an Astinian songbird, but Tylen looks at Dek and knows that is wrong, Dek is sentient and wrongfully caged.  When Tylen breaks all the rules and sneaks into the room that holds Dek’s cage at night, and Dek speaks to him , Tylen knows he has to do something but what?

As the eclipse draws closer, all becomes chaos around Dek and Tylen. As events threaten to pull them forever apart, can Dek and Tylen find a way to break Dek out of his cage into a future where they can be together?

I loved Aria of the Eclipse.  Vivien Dean’s incredible imagination and vivid descriptions brings to life an alien unlike any I have met before.  Dek and his race of Astinians captured my heart and mind immediately from the opening paragraphs:

As much as I crave my freedom, I’ve lived so much of my life in a cage that I’m not sure what I’d do with it once it was mine. I have fantasies of mocking those men who think me some stupid animal, but sometimes, when the night is deep and I’m curtained away from any glimmer of civilization, I wonder if I’m becoming what I fear most, if the lack of true companionship is molding me into the creature they profess me to be.

These are my nightmares. These are what force my hand when my cage is on display and I’m instructed to sing. I will not succumb to complacency, no matter how impossible my circumstances seem.

I cannot.

The powerful emotions that ring out from Dek imprisoned in his cage bring the reader intimately into his mindset and we are ensnared along with him.  Dean has created a magical, shadowy world as Dek’s birthplace.  As Dek starts to relay his history to Tylen, we get glimpses of Astinia, filled with his species that migrate, and sing and fly across the waters.  A sentence here and there, they only serve to stimulate our own imaginations to fill in the blanks she has so artfully left for us.  Instead of missing a backstory, Dean has given the reader a wealth of clues from which we can extrapolate a world far more extraordinary than might have been created by words.  Dek is as beautifully crafted, and as imaginative an alien as I have come across.  Just the manner in which Dek creates his music is spellbinding, just as his history is heartbreaking.

This story is told from two points of view in alternating sections, that of Dek and Tylen,an endearing exuberant young man.  While the transition between povs is not always smooth as it should be, the power of the narrative and the reader’s desire to know Dek’s future drives the story forward, along with the author’s lovely way with the language and descriptions of the events unfolding.  Here we listen to Dek as he “sings” his music:

I was lost in the music when the doors swung open and Johaf, the porter, announced the Regent’s first guests. Their approaching footsteps added an unwanted bass to the music, so I closed my eyes and concentrated inward, on the way I tipped and tilted my hands to stir the webbing into the proper notes, on the vibrations in my vocal folds as I sang the lower line. Like most of my songs, this had no words, nothing to distract from the purity of the music. Everyone could understand. Everyone could appreciate.

Everyone listened.

From that passage, we start to get an understanding of some of Dek’s physiology but we don’t really see him until Tylen does, then it all comes together.  This method both stirs our  imagination, and leaves us satisfied with substance.  I won’t spoil the surprise of Dek but leave that to this marvelous story.

Everything works here, from the settings to the characterizations.  But even more amazing is the “aha” moment at the end with the eclipse and Dek as its stars.  I was not prepared for the inspired idea that culminates the story, almost visionary.  It delights me each time I think about it. So too is the ending.  There are two issues for me where I had to suspend that part of me that asks down to earth questions.  One would be how does someone so humanoid be mistaken for a non-sentient being for over 20 years.  The other cannot be asked without giving away a major spoiler for the story.  But my love for Vivien Dean’s tale outweigh such pragmatic issues.

If you love science fiction, this story is for you.  If you love music, all aspects of music, real and imagined, Aria of the Eclipse is for you.  It is magical, conceptually stirring and still full of romance.  And all of that is accomplished in 120 pages.  I wanted more, so much more but am happy with those that I got.  You will be too.  Grab this one up as it is highly recommended to all.

Cover Art © 2013 Trace Edward Zaber.  Just absolutely gorgeous.  One of the best I have seen.

Book Details:

ebook, 120 pages
Published 2013 by Amber Allure
ASIN
B00CIYSG2U
edition language
English