Tamara Thorne wrote The Sorority trilogy as the literary equivalent of a teen exploitation horror movie. It has dozens of girls in a sorority house, an evil sorority president, sex, ghosts, oral sex, dead football players, group sex, human sacrifice, and chipmunk sex. Reading a book like this makes me cry. In college I couldn’t get laid to save my life.
Reviews
Review: “The Hades Project” by Justin Gustainis
Readers will find The Hades Project, by Justin Gustainis, a tight and exciting read. He has created a wonderfully over the top villain, and has added a supporting cast to match it.
However, this is a debut novel, and it shows in the writing.
Review: “The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy”
I heard recently that eighty-one percent of Americans believe they have a book in them. I believe if you polled fantasy fans, that number would be in the nineties. And I’m just talking novels, I’m not including all the movie and TV screenplays we have in mind. It’s one of the best aspects of being science fiction and fantasy fans: you live a big chunk of your life in your imagination.
But, ask anyone who has ever tried to write fantasy, and he or she will tell you. It ain’t easy. How do you make a fantasy world? How do I make up a type of magic that doesn’t seem stupid? How do I make interesting characters? And on, and on, and on.
Review: “The Book of Daniel” by Lynn Terelle
Imagine an entire world populated only by men. The oldest have only recollections of their wives and mothers. The youngest have never even seen a woman except in old movies and photographs. Who would hold all the cards in a world like this? The one who could bring the women back.
Review: “Peace & Memory” by Mark W. Tiedemann
What does Mark W. Tiedemann’s Peace and Memory offer? It has an interesting, well thought out universe, a bizarre and entertaining ensemble of characters, thought provoking dialogue on social and political issues, action, adventure, twists, turns, irony, and a hair raising finale.
Which is why, for the life of me, I can’t understand why I didn’t like it more.
Review: “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J. K. Rowling
A million people pre-ordered Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I guess that makes me one in a million! (Thank you, I’ll be here all week.)
Honestly, though, you can’t imagine how I felt when I opened my door mid-Saturday morning, and found the box from Amazon.com sitting there. I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. For the next two days, I didn’t turn on the TV, didn’t shave, barely bathed, and left the house only once or twice to get a couple of snacks (and didn’t bother to brush, my teeth look nasty).
Review: “Calculating God” by Robert J. Sawyer
If you read science fiction, you have to read Robert J. Sawyer. That’s all there is to it.
Calculating God explores such mundane questions as “Was the universe designed by an intelligent creator?” “Is there a God?” “Does he influence the affairs of man?” “Why is there life in the universe?” Sawyer’s answers are the most imaginative you will ever read.
Review: “The Dragon DelaSangre” by Alan F. Troop
Alan F. Troop writes well. His prose has a nice, tight style, and he tells a well constructed, if somewhat convoluted, story. I enjoyed large portions of the book. But the story suffers from two miscalculations that makes the book unfulfilling overall.
Review: “Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana”
The idea of reading a book written by two people who had never even met was too cool to pass up. And I also felt like I should be supporting Bookcrazy and The Dragonpage by actually buying their authors’ books. So I sent Amazon.com my $23.95 (dear Lord, for a PAPERBACK! BTW, it is now available for $19.95). About six weeks later, Morevi: The Chronicles of Rafe and Askana was sitting in my doorstep, wrapped in a plain brown package.
It was worth every fucking cent.
This is a good book. Not a good “first novel”. A good novel. Tee, Lisa, you should be very proud of yourselves.