November's Book Reviews & Previews

Happy Holidays and welcome to the November edition of Book Reviews & Previews.  This month, we have reviews of a fantasy, a couple of thrillers, and even a how-to book.  Hopefully, something for everyone. 

Red Wrath (Blood of the Masked God Book 1) by Gerhard Gehrke

Superhero Abilities with Supersized Character Flaws Make this Book Fly

Once superheroes were unswervingly virtuous, while supervillains were, without exception, rotten to the core.  It was all so simple – pure good vs. absolute evil.  But that hasn’t been true for a while, with even Superman, the archetype for all superheroes, turning evil multiple times, sometimes from necessity, sometimes from choice.  Author Gerhard Gehrke in Red Wrath focuses on that gray area where a superhero (Chronos) who is adored by the masses also has a dark, alter ego.  And the main character, Lily (aka Jade or Red), is obsessed with getting even with him after he killed her parents in one of his dark fugues.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2RR6EYK


CRISPR by Lincoln Cole

An intricate plot woven around a potential, technological nightmare

In terms of doomsday scenarios, editing human genes with horrifying, heritable results has to be near the top of the list.  That, in a sentence, is the scientific terror featured in Lincoln Cole’s latest technothriller, CRISPR.  And in case you think this is all in the imagination of a creative author, note that if you search for CRISPR in Amazon books, his fiction will appear right alongside the laboratory manuals and academic tomes on this gene-editing methodology.  There’s more truth to Cole’s fiction than we might want to admit.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2ONiVvq

City of Endless Night (Agent Pendergast series) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

A Familiar Formula that Fails to Yield Drama this Time

City of Endless Night is the seventeenth installment in the Agent Pendergast series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.  It follows a formula found in several of their earlier works, as FBI Agent Pendergast faces a previously unknown type of foe, which has been shaped by forces in the gray area between science and the supernatural.  But unlike the monsters he pursues in the museums and caves of earlier books, Pendergast’s adversary in the City of Endless Night seems little more than a man.  An intelligent, cunning, and extremely disturbed one, but a man nonetheless.  There is science run amok in the book and it was apparently intended to provide the ‘disfiguring’ stresses on this individual, but it never achieves Preston and Child’s trademark blend of the bizarre, the natural, and the paranormal that keeps the pages turning.  Basically, the story ends up being a murder mystery.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2Q0jgQJ


Now, something for would-be authors out there:  A Wordy Woman's Guide for Writing a Book by Dawn Husted

A Guide for Succinct Guys, Too!

I admit to being drawn to this book initially by the title – just what kind of guidance does a ‘wordy woman’ need to write a book?  Don’t get lost in subplots?  Of course, I suspected the title was intended to be catchy rather than descriptive of the intended audience.  And after reading it, that’s true – succinct guys could use this guide as well.  The work is, simply put, a solid, beginner’s guide for writing a book.  See the complete review or get more information on Amazon:  https://amzn.to/2RxUW4W