Escalators to Hell: Shopping Mall Horrors

This anthology's theme is horror stories that have some connection to shopping malls, those dying bastions of consumerism. Not that consumerism is dead, mind you. It's that we're transitioning from roaming their vast corridors of myriad wares to surfing the digital versions on our phones and laptops. To wit, the editors thought that the demise of shopping malls would make for an excellent theme for a horror anthology. And I thought so too.

The stories cover a wide gamut of horror sub-genres, so it isn't all about gore. There's a "Content Warnings" section—something I've never seen in a horror anthology—which I thought was odd. I mean, it's horror. If your mental health is such that certain things will trigger a traumatic emotional reaction, maybe you shouldn't be reading horror. I know that there are certain aspects that I won't read because of my issues. So I guess a content warning is considerate of the authors, can one find it before purchasing it?

Author representation is quite diverse. While North American authors are present, there are stories from African and Asian authors. Also, there are many non-binary authors in this collection.

Ok, onto the stories. Of the 22 stories in this collection, I liked 15 of them. Of those that I didn't enjoy, a good deal of them were too focused on gender identity, with the mall serving as mere setting. A couple of the others were too esoteric or allegorical to connect with.

On with the good stuff! The opening story, "Hard to Be a Mall God," was excellent. It deals with a demonically possessed escalator. "The Intercessor" shows how retail associates deal with trollish customers. "Why I Won't Eat at the Food Court" is part of the Generation Dead series. It drags in some cosmic horror for teen mutant superheroes to deal with but doesn't forget to add a dash of humor. "A Plague Upon Both Our Houses" is Romeo and Juliet with Zombies in a mall. "A Quick Trip to Ryan's" delves into masochism on a whole another level. "Kim, Ray, Trey, and Morgan" delves into drugs as a mind expanding experience with a dash of cosmic horror.

Some stories confront serious matters. "You Must Drop Buy" tackles the subject of rampant materialism and false promises made by deceptive marketing. In "Poseurs," a teen girl deals with her father's suicide by re-enacting a drama with mannequins.

In case anyone feels I'm being unfair to non-binary character stories, there were good stories that had non-binary characters and authors. These stories didn't lose sight of the objective. For example, "The Basement of Crowley's Artefacts and Interests of the Occult" has some non-binary teens dealing with demonic invocation in the supply room of an odd store in the mall. "Cherry Cola Lips" features a woman reflecting on her first crush back in high school, a girl who wouldn't come out and later disappeared. Rumors are that she was murdered, but the truth is stranger.

My favorite story was the closer, "The Temple of All." Makoma is forced by ritual to take her dead husband's remains into the ancient ossuary. It's a post-apocalyptic story with a touch of Handmaid's Tale where the ultimate act of rebellion is to live.

Yes, I'm glad I read this anthology. While I wish some of the stories were better, the good stories made it worth the price and my time.

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Full Disclosure: I backed this book on Kickstarter and received a digital copy as a reward.

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DED

The Human and the Hunted by R.A. Burg

Earth. 11,000 BCE.

A galaxy wide war between sentient machines rages and Earth is in the crossfire. Oblivious to the deadly peril above, Far Runner and his tribe face their own struggles. An unstable climate forces the group to migrate south and into the sights of a ruthless human foe.

A merciless attack tears Runner away from his family and friends.

A wounded alien cyborg soldier is stranded on Earth. Her views and identity are challenged when she finds herself face to face with a determined human named Far Runner.

As if there weren't enough problems, Moorr, a radioactive four-legged freighter pilot, prospector, and drug smuggler, is displaced by a relic of the war. Lost, he searches for his kin, but finds Earth instead. The defenseless planet is ripe for exploitation.

There's only one way for Far Runner to save his People. There's only one way for the stranded soldier to return home. And only one way Moorr's dangerous presence can be dealt with.

Earth is in peril. Time is running out...

Yeah, the cover isn't so good, but the story is. Rather than depicting an alien over a galactic backdrop, it would've been better if it had portrayed a scene from the book that included the alien.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Runner (human), En (alien #1), and Moorr (alien #2). Each brings a unique perspective to the story, and Burg gets points for how she handles them. The people of 11,000 BCE strike me as realistic, and the aliens are definitely alien. The humans are in transition from Paleolithic to Mesolithic—given to spirit worship and demonstrating a limited understanding for how the world works. En, the cyborg, is pictured on the cover. "Her" species was saved from extinction by a faction of sentient machines who don't believe that organic life sucks and has to die. Moorr's species are guided by taste and odor, and that's been built into the instrumentation of their spaceships. Moorr expresses surprise that life arose in water on Earth, but I don't recall if it was explained what Moorr expected. And Moorr's biology functions with radioisotopes. Yes, they're radioactive. That sets up an obvious problem when Moorr encounters humans.

Neither Moorr nor En is the omnipotent alien that is often portrayed in non-invasive human-alien encounters. Both aliens stumble in their attempts to understand human language and behavior, not to mention Earth's other native life. En even attempts to dispel Runner's belief that she is a sky spirit. The misunderstandings aren't limited to human-alien interactions, but alien-alien behavior as well. The confusion makes for some light humor when it's harmless, but when it turns serious the tension rises.

A good deal of the novel is centered on En helping Runner find the members of his tribe that were kidnapped by raiders. In the process, Burg showcases how Runner's hunter gatherer tribe's ways are losing out to those that have settled down and built villages. The rise of agriculture and the prospect of a steady food supply has a strong allure towards those who wake up each morning wondering where they'll find their next meal, or if they will at all. While this has some appeal from an anthropological perspective, it slows the pace down. One village is interesting; three becomes a bit tedious.

As for the technicals, the manuscript could've used another round of proofreading. Unfortunately I found plenty of spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, and punctuation errors. At times, Burg is guilty of too much telling and not enough showing. The end of the book had a couple of chapters that would've been better suited for the next novel in the series. It takes away from the feeling of closure for this book. But if these things don't bother you, then ignore me.

Despite these flaws, The Human and the Hunted is a good story and makes for a solid debut. Burg avoids first contact clichés and delivers two interesting aliens and believable prehistoric humans during a time of major sociological change.

For more information, please visit the author's website.

Union of Souls by Scott Rhine

Reuben Black Ram has been a hacker for Special Forces, a DJ for pirate radio, and a real pirate who hotwires spaceships. The richest Goat in the galaxy, he is being asked to give up everything to save a race of alien mimics and his Human girlfriend. To accomplish this, he must cross Union space to reach the Convocation of Souls. The space battles, spies, and dangerously experimental tech don’t bother him as much as what MI-23 expects of him—to grow up and become a world leader. Reuben still has a few tricks up his bulletproof sleeves, including a psi talent that up until now has only made him an object of ridicule.

Before I get into the review, I'd like to comment on the cover. Each of the books in this series has been told from the POV of a different character. In the first two books, that character was human and featured on the cover. Not this one. The main character is a "goat"—humans have applied Terran animal nicknames to many of the alien races they've encountered—but we don't get to see him on this cover. I was disappointed by that decision. And the spaceships on the cover don't look like the one the heroes fly around in. It's just a generic sci-fi cover. Don't get me wrong; it's a competent cover. I was just hoping that the main-character-on-the-cover trend was going to continue.

I've enjoyed watching Reuben evolve over the three books in the series. In Void Contract, he meant well, but was a screw-up. Max saw potential in him, especially considering his lineage, and made him his pupil. By the time we're knee deep in Supergiant, Reuben has matured into a responsible member of the crew, though one that wears his heart on his sleeve.

Early on in this book, Reuben is forced to come to terms with the events that came at the end of Supergiant. While he's still young and emotionally malleable enough to adapt and prepare for his destiny, Reuben faces many challenges along the way. There are many temptations, and he knows he has to resist them, well, most of them anyway. He longs for what he's lost and on come the temptations of sex and booze. He feels a burning need to right the wrongs that were inflicted upon his people by Phibs and Bankers and on comes the temptation to misuse the power of government to exact revenge. Rhine deftly steers Reuben through these challenges in believable ways.

Whereas Void Contract was primarily about the assembling the cast of characters, the series' plot lines were introduced, though Rhine barely scratched the surface. Supergiant went into detail about those plot lines and their implications. The stakes were raised, and the urgency of our heroes' mission was understood. Those plot lines are (mostly) resolved in Union of Souls, and it is Reuben who is the key to accomplishing this. So it totally makes sense for Union of Souls to be told from his perspective. Unlike Supergiant, which was told from Roz's perspective and where many action scenes took place "off camera", Reuben is in the thick of it. The reader doesn't miss out on anything.

Rhine's writing continues to be efficient. There are no wandering tangents or paragraphs of purple prose. Dialogue, internal and external, serves to advance the story or provide insight into the characters. The same goes for the action scenes.

The manuscript has been meticulously edited and is of professional quality.

Union of Souls is the best book in what has already been a great series. Reuben is an immensely likeable character due to his relatability. He has flaws like everyone else, but is thrust into a situation of great political power with debauchery and corruption tempting him all the time. Rhine does an excellent job resolving the plot lines he introduced in the first book. Switching the narrative character POV with each book has been a smart move as it enables the reader to be in on events as they unfold. It will be interesting to see who narrates the story in the next book in the series, Glory Point.

For more information, please visit the author's website.

UPDATE 7/27/16: The author informs me that he and his cover illustrator tried to come up with a proper sketch for Reuben, but they were unable to make one that did him justice. The cover is actually a scene from the huge convocation at Giragog that takes place at the climax of the story.

Cloud Country by Andy Futuro

Well, that could’ve gone better. Saru had found the blue-eyed girl alright, but she’d blown up half of Philadelphia in the process. Whoops. Now she was a fugitive, robbed of her implants, relying on her "wits," hunted by aliens, Gods, and the monstrous spawn of fornicating universes. It was a crap deal, but it wasn’t all bad. She’d stolen a plane, a luxury model with a fully stocked minibar. And she had company, a rogue Gaesporan named John. And there was something strangely liberating about having screwed up so badly you couldn’t really do worse.

Cloud Country is the sequel to No Dogs in Philly and picks up within hours of its end. The story reads a bit like a bad acid trip version of Alice in Wonderland—I don't mean that as a complement. It's all about Saru wandering around aimlessly in real and imagined landscapes, encountering people, aliens, and monsters who want to do her harm. It isn't until about three-quarters of the way through that the point of it all was made clear. And that's far too long. If the first book hadn't been so good, I wouldn't have finished this one.

Saru remains an unlikable character. I like strong female characters, but I don't want them to be petulant brats. In the first book, I rooted for her. In this book, I was rooting against her. Self-confidence is sexy, but self-absorption is a turn off. I wanted her to fail so that maybe a shred of humility would creep into her consciousness and make her aware of how much of a jerk she is. I felt sorry for (almost) every other character that had to deal with her. Again, it was at that three-quarters point that we see any glimmer of hope that she realizes that it's not all about her. She actually cares about her native city of Philadelphia, though I'm not sure why. At the climax of the story, she finally shows some compassion, but I don't know if it made a lasting impression on her soul.

Unfortunately, the editing in this book is terrible. My experience was marred by comma problems (missing or too many), capitalization issues (gods not Gods), a lack of transition from narrator's voice to Saru's thoughts, scene inconsistencies, and run-on sentences. Sometimes Futuro tried to cram as many adjectives and phrases into his sentences as possible. It was like he was having a Special K power trip and was feverishly writing everything down that came to him. Here are a few examples:

She howled and leapt from her crouch at the nearest doctor, and the pain raced up to her brain, where it echoed like a tolling bell and grew and grew, so that her vision shook with its vibrations, and her legs spasmed like skewered insects, and the blackness filled her head again, her few seconds of consciousness swallowed by pain.

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There was a whoosh and skitter, and tentacles wrapped around her body, ankles, shins, thighs, navel, breasts, arms, neck, wrapping tight, barbs digging into her skin with hornet-sting pain.

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She took deep breaths, the stench bursting the vessels of her nose to gush blood, the air cutting her throat and jabbing acid holes in her seared lungs, lips burned and curled away, eyelids burned, the eyes steaming and boiling in their sockets.

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She remembered this, this conversation, the two of them huddled in their makeshift sleeping bags in the tree fort back in the woods, the secret fort to get away, to hide, clinging to each other to stay warm, ears pricked, hearts pounding at every snapping twig and scuffling squirrel, alert, alert, alert, waiting afraid.

If the editing in No Dogs in Philly didn't bother you, then it won't here either.

In summary, Cloud Country is a disappointing sequel to No Dogs in Philly. The hard-boiled cyberpunk Lovecraftian vibe is gone, replaced with a bizarro fantasy that wanders aimlessly for far too long before getting to the point. This is reflected in the author's tendency to make sentences as long as possible through the use of commas and conjunctions. There's the kernel of a decent story here—you can see it in the imagery the author evokes—but the manuscript needs to be sent to an editor to bring it out in some coherent fashion.

For more information, please visit the author's website.

Supergiant by Scott Rhine

Find an exploit; hack the universe.

Chief Engineer Roz Mendez pilots a ship with a revolutionary star drive that could travel ten times as fast as current technology. The job has given her a chance to find riches, romance, and earn a reputation that will counter the discrimination she’s felt her entire life. All the ship needs to make history is a few repairs and a renowned physicist who can adjust the jump equations. The trick is finding the professor without tipping off the Bankers, the species with a monopoly on faster-than-light communications. Just making a profit at each port without getting arrested is hard enough.

This is the second book in the Gigaparsec series and thus this review may contain spoilers for those who haven't read the first book.

In Void Contract, we were introduced to Max, a war weary ex-special forces operative looking to make a life for himself in the civilian world, errr, galaxy. While on a job, he encountered Echo, a Magi (the mysterious race that gave humans the initial push that eventually led to their interstellar leap) who helps him with his PTSD, and discovered a stowaway alien unrecognized for its primitive sentience. Along the way he recruited a wide variety of misfit specialists from various alien races whose goals in life were compatible with his. They all have good hearts, but they're willing to bend the rules and break a few laws to achieve their goals. A bit like Firefly in that regard, but with aliens and without the signature dialogue.

The book is mostly a series of "jobs" that the group must undertake to achieve their overarching goal of finding said physicist. While there is no single villain to play the antagonist—unless you count the Bankers, who remain in the background the whole time—there are several minor villains along the way, but they're merely minor hurdles to surmount. The complexity in the story isn't so much in the plot as it is in operating a commercial starship, which is very much a business. The group spends a good deal of time figuring out what goods they need to purchase from one world to sell on another to acquire the starship parts or writs to undertake certain actions they need to get to that physicist.

While the first book was told from Max's perspective, this one is told from Roz's perspective. That's her on the cover. She was one of the last people recruited to join the crew in Void Contract, and there's a bit of chemistry between her and Max. Roz is a pilot and engineer, her technical background means that her role is mostly a non-combative one. Unfortunately, too much happens off camera that Roz (and the reader) is often told about things after they've happened. She's privy to things that matter in the overall plot—the ship's game changing improved FTL drive, secrets of the Magi—which others aren't. But for the most part, these metaplot revelations aren't as captivating as the off-screen action.

Characterization remains solid. All of them have depth and distinct personalities, drives, and ambitions. Their interactions with one another strike me as realistic. In particular, I found Roz's narration to be genuine. Her mindset and technical background brings a fresh perspective on the group dynamic. She's an everyday woman, the sort that you know from work or you've been friends with for years, with everyday concerns that you would expect, just set in a distant future.

As for the technicals, editing is solid. I only found 13 typos, which is on par with a traditionally published book.

Supergiant is a solid sequel to Void Contract. Rhine showcases his talent as an author by switching narrative POV without losing the essence of the overall series storyline. In fact, he broadens its depth by providing a fresh perspective on the interactions of the characters and makes them relatable. While the story is mostly about performing a series of minor jobs to advance the metaplot, it still makes for an entertaining read. It would not be difficult to turn this series into a TV show. Considering the current sci-fi friendly climate, Rhine should consider pitching a screenplay to the networks.

For more information about the book, please visit the author's website.

UPDATE 3/19/16: The list of typos was sent to the author, and he has informed us that he has made the corrections to the manuscript.

Void Contract by Scott Rhine

A veteran of the Gigaparsec War, Dr. Max Culp catches alien war criminals with his skills as a !Kung tribal hunter. Suddenly, his only surviving teammate is kidnapped. To free his friend, Max is forced to take a mob contract on a Saurian fugitive hiding at the borders of Human space. But Max is tired of wet work and alien conspiracies. Can he find a path back to civilian life without losing what’s left of his soul or those closest to him?

This is the first book in a new series, but it takes place in the same universe as Jezebel's Ladder, just 400 years later. While several books followed Jezebel's Ladder, they are not required reading for this book. However, if you enjoy this book and want to know how Earth got to this point, then you should consider picking them up.

The book starts off with a fair amount of action. Rhine does a good job introducing us to Max and the universe he lives in without drowning us in background. Once Max is forced to accept the job from the alien mobster, the action is replaced by intrigue as Max rides a starship to find the fugitive. While there's FTL travel, it's slow enough (weeks instead of years) that Max has time to work on a way to manipulate the situation to accomplish his goals. The action returns in time for an early climax. The last 20% of the story, while still interesting, serves more to set up the next book in the series.

The blurb made it sound to me like Max was an old world bushman living in the Star Wars universe, but that's definitely not the case. Max may have grown up among the !Kung, but he has a modern education and has been culturally assimilated. He was given a new name to fit in. "Max Culp" is actually derived from mea maxima culpa—through my most grievous fault. The story is told from Max's POV, and Rhine is adept at revealing his character and why that name suits him. His past haunts him and affects how he conducts himself. When it comes to planning operations or assessing a rapidly changing situation, Max is sharp as a tack. But when it comes to relationships with women, not being around humans for several years has left him weak. He grovels at the feet of the first one and is hopelessly naive with the second. He's a bit too much the perfect gentleman with the third, but there's still hope he'll get it right.

Rhine makes good use of dialogue to advance the story, and the pacing is solid. His characters have depth, even the aliens. While Rhine tries to keep the story accessible to most adult readers, he's smart about how he does it (i.e. alien foul language gets mistranslated by translator tech). And while there's plenty of the usual sci-fi stuff like spaceships and cool tech, it never steals the show. With Rhine, the plot and the characters keep us engaged.

Rhine has kept busy since Jezebel's Ladder, writing over a dozen books since then. While he's been prolific, I can see that his writing has matured as well. It's nice to see an indie writer work to improve his craft instead of just churning out product.

For more information, please visit the author's website.

Eden by Martin Roy Hill

"If this is Paradise, how bad could Hell be?"

A sandstorm uncovers a long buried secret in the Iraqi desert, an ancient Sumerian temple dating back at least 6,000 years to the beginning of civilization. An American army patrol sent to investigate the ruins is trapped inside the temple’s eroded walls, first by an insurgent ambush then by another, even more powerful sandstorm. When an enemy mortar shell blasts an opening into a hidden burial chamber, Captain Adam Cadman and his soldiers take refuge deep in the ruins. What they find hidden inside threatens to destroy every belief about the beginnings of mankind—as well as modern civilization as we know it.

Eden plays in a sandbox whose basic foundation is similar to the one that the Stargate movie and TV spinoff shows played in. Both were inspired by Von Däniken's controversial theory that Earth was visited in the distant past by aliens who helped shaped our early history. Whether or not you believe that, I find that in the right human hands it can make for entertaining stories. In the wrong hands, you get the slop put out by the History Channel (but that's a discussion to be had elsewhere). Fortunately, Hill belongs to the former group.

The army patrol is headed by an archeologist, Cadman. His is the level-headed response to the discovery in the ruins. Most of his team, while alarmed by what they've found, respect the chain of command and trust Cadman to do the right thing. One member, Thomas, does not. He's a literalist when it comes to interpreting the Bible. Cadman isn't necessarily an atheist, but when the evidence before him challenges his beliefs, he takes a rational approach.

From the outset of Eden, Cadman and Thomas clash. But Cadman knows the Bible better than Thomas and uses it, along with the chain of command, to keep Thomas in line. But the discovery in the ruins slams the walls of Thomas's belief system, and he's ill-equipped to deal with it. I know guys like Cadman, and I know guys like Thomas. I found them to be solid characters.

A good deal of the story is told through flashbacks. We're taken back to the ancient civilization that built the temple. Hill switches back and forth from showing and telling what happened. I think it would've worked better if he'd spent the whole time showing. Eden is listed as a novella (109 pages), so there was plenty of space to devote to further development of the flashback part of the story: flesh out the setting a bit more, maybe develop some characters from that time period, see things from their perspective.

Eden is a solid sci-fi story that entertains yet carries a message. While there are soldiers and there is action, this is more of a philosophical engagement than a militaristic one. The cultural differences between Cadman and Thomas struck me as being just as great as those between human and alien. Until we can overcome those differences without resorting to bashing in each other's skulls, we won't be ready for the treasures awaiting us in the cosmos.

Eden is available from Amazon. To learn more about Martin Roy Hill or his other books, please visit his website.

Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells

Fluency by Jennifer Foehner Wells is what 2001: A Space Odyssey would’ve been if the monolith had actually talked to the crew.

NASA has known about an alien spaceship parked in the Asteroid Belt since the 1960s but has kept the information from the public.  All efforts to establish radio contact have been met with silence.  In the early 21st century, NASA finally develops the technology required to send six astronauts to the ship to discover its secrets. 

Dr. Jane Holloway is a linguist and a reluctant astronaut recruited by NASA to communicate with any possible aliens.  As soon as their capsule docks with the mysterious ship, she begins to hear voices.  She not only has a hard time convincing herself they are real, but most of her crew as well. 

When the mission takes a disturbing turn that not even the highly trained astronauts are prepared for, it’s Jane’s connection to the ship that becomes their only hope for survival.

Fluency was a finely written derelict spaceship story.  Wells’ style and language are beautiful and descriptive without relying on cliché.  Wells does not overly explain the science behind the ship's gadgets, but gives us just enough to make them all seem plausible without bogging the story down. 

I liked how the alien cultures that the ship reveals to Jane Holloway sounded very different from one another, even among individuals within a species.  Too many sci-fi stories depict aliens as one monolithic culture where all individuals share the same values.  I prefer my aliens to be, well, more human and unique between individuals.  Besides drone-like insectoid aliens, that just seems more realistic to me and Wells does a fine job of it in this book.

I only had some minor nit-picks.  The main characters ruminated too much for my taste, making me skip pages at a time to get back to the action.  I also thought the ending was too abrupt; I got the feeling I had just read the opening chapter of a longer work rather than a complete work in itself.  Fluency's sub-title is "Confluence Book 1," so this was obviously by design, but I'm not a fan of the style.

Fluency is Wells' debut novel and an impressive effort that I enjoyed.  It hit all the right notes that a derelict spaceship story should hit.  The novel only hints at the strange galaxy awaiting humanity, so I look forward to the alien wonders that Wells introduces us to in the sequel.

Fluency is available on Amazon as an ebook and paperback.

[Note: Fluency was purchased by the reviewer.]

Trust by Mary Sisson

Trust is the second book in the Trang series. The story picks up two weeks after the first novel ends. The shape-shifting alien known as "The Magic Man" has completed his conquest of the planet of the aggressive Cyclopes. Due to his world's experience with many forms of government, Trang has been tasked by the Magic Man to establish a government for the Cyclopes. Despite queasy feelings about imposing his political views upon another race, Trang reluctantly accepts. If he fails, the Magic Man may perceive that the entire race of Cyclopes are "diseased" and kill them all.

Sisson has retained her soft sci-fi feel, but made Trust stronger than its predecessor. While dialogue continues to drive the story, she has added action and built up suspense to avoid lulls in the story's pace. Although this book is just as long as the first one, at no point did I feel it was dragging.

While the first novel introduced us to all of the aliens on the space station, there was little room for Sisson to go in depth with any one of them. There were a couple who were vital to the plot, but even these left me wanting more. However in this book, the focus is on the Cyclopes as Trang must come up with a system of government that they will accept yet won't get them killed. There are several great discussions about government between Trang and various Cyclopes. Democracy is an alien concept to them; meritorious dictatorship with periodic assassination is more their style. Sisson does an excellent job in presenting the alien viewpoint in these debates.

Another time, during one of the book's action scenes, Trang and his bodyguards have crash landed on the Cyclopes' planet on the "Lightning Continent," whereupon they are hunted by a large beast ("Giant Mankiller"). But the scene isn't told from the human POV. It's told from the POV of Daring Attack, one of the Cyclopes who's chosen to live far from the "Civilized Continent." It's well done. Not only do we get an in depth look into the psyche and culture of the Cyclopes, but we also see the failings of the Translator that the Hosts (the aliens who run the space station) have provided from an alien's perspective. The misunderstanding could go horribly wrong but Sisson uses it for humorous effect. What's even better is that the reader comes away knowing more about the Cyclopes than the humans in the story.

Characterization and dialogue remain strong Sisson traits. All of her characters, even the aliens, have distinct traits which make them unique. Trang evolves, as does his relationship with Shanti, the military head of the operation. They see themselves less as antagonists and more like team members. Sisson demonstrates this camaraderie through a sub-plot involving Trang and Union Intelligence.

As for the technicals, Sisson utilized an editor this time. The manuscript has dramatically improved, not only in typos but in sheer readability. The narrative flows much better and there are no side trips that lack bearing on the plot or character development. In fact, Sisson ties it all together in the end in a very satisfactory fashion.

The telltale sign that an author has written a great story is when, upon reaching the end of a chapter late at night, I feel compelled to keep reading when I should be sleeping. Sisson's writing has achieved that level in Trust. I'm looking forward to seeing where she goes with this series.

Trust is available in paperback and various ebook formats via links on Sisson's website. There are sample chapters as well.

Jezebel's Ladder by Scott Rhine

Reading this alien manuscript changes you; it can make you a millionaire or mad man. At the lowest point in her life, Jezebel is thrown into a conspiracy to collect its pages.

A Vegas magician’s assistant with a drinking problem, Jezebel is being chased by the men who murdered her fiancé. After she reads an odd, golden page, she wakes with the ability to sense other actives within thirty feet. Benny, the handsome former actor, is the only one she thinks that she can rely on, but even he has secrets. Each page stretches the mind beyond what our civilization has discovered, sometimes too far. Each could give you the next Nobel Prize or a ticket to the psych ward. Strong-willed, smart, and sexy, Jez acquires pages faster than anyone. She uses her new paranormal talents to climb the corporate ladder. Now, companies and governments are killing people to find and keep the secrets that will guarantee supremacy for the next century. Jezebel needs to adapt fast if she's going to survive success.

This book would make for a good TV show on the SyFy Channel. Not only does it have the sci-fi stuff like mysterious alien tech and geeky science discussions, but it also has action, a sexy leading lady to provide sexual tension, soap opera drama, and no bad language. There's also plenty of meetings chock full of minutiae and board room filler to help keep costs within budget. Patients recovering in hospital rooms are such a common occurrence that they could get a discount rate for use of the set from one of the many existing hospital oriented TV shows (including soap operas).

There are so many minor characters that come and go that viewers would know that everyone was expendable and this week's walk-on might be dead, transferred to a different division, or just fade into the background in the next episode (a bit like Lost in that regard). Except for the major characters, there would be few long term contracts to pay for.

Rhine expertly uses dialogue to move the story along. Adapting this to a screenplay would take very little effort.

The sexual tension between Jez and Benny would draw in viewers each week as they wondered if they would finally "do it." With all the wardrobe changes Jez makes (and shoes!), the Sex and the City crowd might even check it out. And women will get to see how an ex-magician's assistant and exotic dancer climbs the corporate ladder of a secret organization (The Ladder Project) whose goal is to start a colony in space to greet the alien intelligence that created the near magical, brain power unlocking pages. Along the way she'll also provide expert managerial advice.

There's a Christian theme underlying all this too. None of the good guys has sex before marriage, but if they do they immediately commit to getting married. Jez and Benny go through rehab for past alcohol problems (though neither was really shown to be a lush) and are thus reformed (sinners who are cleaning up their act). Replace aliens with "God", the Golden Pages with the Bible, and the goal to better ourselves for when we meet the aliens with bettering ourselves for the Messiah's return. The cover is certainly a dead giveaway (Jacob's Ladder instead of Jezebel's).

It's all rather clever and thus it might make for good fiction for adult Christians (that's not to say it's G rated. Not by a long shot!). Too many submissions here of that nature are dull re-treads of the same old stories we've heard before (The Job was a nice exception). Jezebel's Ladder is refreshing in that regard. I've never read the Left Behind series but I suspect that Jezebel's Ladder would appeal to its fans who are looking for something less gloomy.

Links for buying Jezebel's Ladder can be found on the author's website.

Lacuna: Demons of the Void by David Adams

Lacuna: Demons of the Void by David Adams starts with a bang. Literally.

One day in the year 2029, three Earth cities -- Beijing, Tehran, and Sydney -- are destroyed in a sudden and vicious alien attack. Accompanying the attack is a brief transmission from the aliens: “Never again attempt to develop this kind of technology.”

Fast-forward eight years. Earth has ignored the alien threat and used its naughty technologies to build three massive starships, each armed to the teeth with nukes, rail guns, and blast cannons for close fighting. Each ship has anti-gravity technology that enables normal Earth gravity on board. And each has the ability to “jump” to any position in the universe. It's that jump technology that has the aliens so annoyed.

Chinese Navy Commander Melissa Liao captain's one of the starships, the Beijing. Her mission -- hit back at the aliens and make them sorry they kicked the human hornet's nest.

Adams has written an action-packed story that doesn't get bogged down in detailed descriptions of the science behind his contraptions. To many SF readers, that's a bug and not a feature. But I'm among the SF fans who feel story trumps gadgets, and Lacuna does that with just enough plausible science when it's appropriate to the story.

The tale is told exclusively from Melissa Liao's point of view, and her actions are consistent with her motivations throughout the novel. Among the other primary characters are James Gregoire, the Belgian captain of the Beijing's sister ship, Tehran, and Liao's love interest; Summer Rowe, an Aussie scientist with a nerdy (and typically foul-mouthed) rejoinder to any attempt to order her around; and Saara, a captured alien that adds insight into the Toralii, the aliens who attacked Earth.

While Lacuna is a solid first effort by Adams, it could have been better in a couple of ways.

First, it could've used another round of copy editing. The version I read had numerous places where words and periods were repeated and/or missing, a few instances of awkward phrasing, and inconsistent italicizing of the ship names.

Second, I was looking for a brief explanation on how the world could build three, 500-meter-long, interstellar warships in the year 2037 with an America in economic collapse. Now I can buy that, but I would've liked a quick paragraph on how the EU, China, and Australia survived the elimination of a quarter of the world's GDP, yet still had the resources to build these warships from scratch. It's not a huge deal in relation to the story, but it's something I wondered throughout the book.

Lacuna: Demons of the Void is a fast-paced, entertaining read that kept me hooked all the way to the end. Highly recommended for fans of straight-forward alien invasion stories.

Lacuna: Demons of the Void is available on Amazon Kindle.

Trang by Mary Sisson

In Trang, by Mary Sisson, a missing satellite orbiting Saturn leads to the discovery of a mysterious portal. After several years of communicating with the aliens residing in a space station on the other side, a diplomatic mission is sent through the portal. The expeditionary force consists of a diplomat, the titular character Philippe Trang, and a squad of Special Forces, headed by the feisty Shanti, to provide security. Once at the station, humanity's representatives meet other alien races and eventually get pulled into a crisis that threatens to start an interstellar war.

Trang struck me as a throwback to 60's sci-fi. In particular, it runs in the vein of soft or social science fiction. While the aliens are quite "alien" in appearance, they are intrinsically civilized in a familiar way. The technology comes across as magical, with nary an explanation as to how it works. It just does. Action is light as dialogue carries the story. While this will be a turn off to some, particularly the hard sci-fi crowd, they'd be missing out on Sisson's strengths.

Sisson's strengths lie in characterization and dialogue. All of her characters, even the aliens, have distinct traits which make them unique. Trang is a borderline effeminate, elitist bureaucrat who can't stand the grunts that have been assigned to the mission. Their uncouth behavior, as compared to the Union Police he normally works with, rankles him. Shanti is the no nonsense CO of the Special Forces unit on the station. She drops F bombs with abandon, but is 100% focused on her job and has the complete respect of those under her command. Sisson invests as much time resolving their conflict as she does establishing relationships between the humans and the aliens.

This is a dialogue heavy novel, and the conversations feel authentic. As mentioned above, Trang is a virtual minefield of F bombs and other profanity. However, at no point did I feel it was gratuitous. In fact, there was a fair amount of barracks humor. On the non-profane side, Trang speaks the language of diplomacy with ease and genuine amiability. Communications with the aliens is handled effectively: the years between first contact and the meeting on the station were spent programming a translator, but it isn't perfect. Every so often the words "cannot translate" pop in to highlight its shortcomings.

As for the technicals, there are plenty of typos and typesetting errors. A second set of eyes would've cleared these up. Also, the story also runs a bit long. While 370+ pages isn't necessarily a lot, I feel that the story would've been much tighter had it been about 20-25% shorter. There are whole sections (the discovery of the portal, the hate mail from Trang's ex-girlfriend) that didn't add to the story. An editor would've been able to help cut out the filler.

Trang is a clever return to the social sci-fi days of yesteryear. Convincing dialogue and strong characterization drive the story, with action forced to ride in the back of the bus. While the story could use some tidying up and a tighter fit, it's still appealing enough to give it a try.

Trang is available in various formats through the author's website. Sample chapters available too.

Update 7/25/12: Sisson has informed me that the book has been run through an editor since this review.