Raymond M. Rose
Virtual Home of a Fictional Author
The President’s Shadow by Brad Meltzer
Honestly, I’m a pretty big Brad Meltzer fanboy.
From comic books, novels, to children’s books, I adore almost everything that he puts out. Around my house, I just refer to him as ‘Brad.’
Does my love for All-Things-Brad extend to his newest novel, The President’s Shadow?
Yeah, it does. Read More
Mrs Poe: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Lady
Dear Mrs Poe,
(Disclaimer: I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)
How do I love thee,
let me count the ways…
Never in the wild world of my imagination would I ever have thought of writing a period romance with Edgar Allen Poe as the love interest. And with good reason, popular consciousness likes to paint Poe as some drug fiend/drunkard with a fruit basket of psychological conditions who liked to dabble in writing occasionally. I think that it scares us to think that this man who made such a massive impact on literature (he invented the mystery genre, for starters) and delved deep into his own personal horrors could have done so sober. We need him to be drunk or high.
To think otherwise frightens us. Read More
Clean Burn: Read This Book Before She Burns
Dear Clean Burn,
(Disclaimer: I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Wow! I mean can I just say that again without being too redundant?
%$&*ing WOW!
You were not an easy book to read. Not because you weren’t written well or because your dialogue was clunky, character descriptions weak, or were, in any way, a bad book.
You were a #$%^king amazing book!
You were hard to read because… HOLY @#$% did you put your characters through hell! Read More
Go West, Jedi: Star Wars Kenobi
Dear Star Wars: Kenobi,
(Disclaimer: I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Can I just begin with a little geekgasm? Glee!
When I found out that a book was going to be written about Obi-Wan Kenobi set after his self-appointed exile and acting-guardian of look, I did a little dance. Throughout the Prequels, Obi-Wan has been the most fascinating. His character arc is much better than Anakin’s and the writing of his character has been, for the most part, quite sharp. Not to mention Ewan McGregor’s portrayal…
However, after I stop hyperventilating, I began to worry. I was excited about this. It had the potential to be great. This was Star Wars in the Prequel era… It was going to be horrible!
Oh, Kenobi, how you proved me wrong. Read More
The Crown Tower puts the Epic in Epic Fantasy!
Dear The Crown Tower,
(Disclaimer: I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)
“Holy Schnike!” was about the only words I could muster when I finished you last night. Late, late, late last night.
You were quite the fun read. Whether it was ongoing intrigue, wondering what the characters were going to do next, surprising bouts of humor, intense action, dread, wonder at your perfectly-detailed descriptions, or just the sheer joy of reading about two characters who enjoy pissing each other off, I loved reading you.
Quick Sketches That Set Your Imagination Soaring — Three, Book Review
Dear Three, 
(Disclaimer: I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)
Never in my long life as a reader have I ever been given so little information and been so happy because of it.
You are a wonderful novel, full of intrigue, twists and turns, and a world that is as fully-realized as I can imagine it to be. That might sound confusing at first but consider that when a Sci-Fi novel paints in vivid details the world that the author is envisioning, they are also limiting what the reader can imagine because everything is being painted.
You, Three, are like a sketch. You are quick pencil drawings that deliver the barest of information to make the story understandable. You are like a fine Japanese print in which things are carefully laid out in thin, delicate strokes.
You make the reader work a little. And that is a wonderful thing.
Beyond your scarce data, you give us characters and relationships that we can fall in love with. You give us a hero who is flawed in so many ways, yet we care about him and we want him to succeed not only because of the stakes but because of who he is trying to be.
You are swift, at times frightening, haunting, beautiful, a joy to read, impossible to put down, and, in the end, leave us wanting so much more.
My only gripe with you, dear novel, is your ending. Your build up, your layering of excitement and confrontation and anticipation isn’t served well by your ending. In many ways, you fall flat at the end.
Of course, the rest of you, the journey the characters go on across this desolate wasteland hunted by telepathic thieves and cyberpunk zombies is so rich and delicious that the problem with your ending is pale in comparison.
You, Three, deserve the moniker ‘Epic’ right before ‘Sci-Fi.’
Space Opera With Equal Parts Space And (Soap) Opera! — Book Review of The Darwin Elevator
The Darwin Elevator is going to get compared to Joss Whedon’s cult-fav TV/Movie series Firefly/Serenity. They both have a quirky team of shipmates, a cool but rugged ship, a dashing/complex captain, space, earth or earth-like planet, and, of course, zombie-esque creatures. Because of these elements, comparisons are going to be made.
And they are worth it. This book is worthy of that comparison.
The Darwin Elevator is a hell of a ride.
It’s been awhile since I’ve read a space opera SF/F novel that I didn’t want to put down and couldn’t wait to dive in. The world he creates is complex, gritty, and feels solid under our feet. The characters are rich and interesting, nobody hogging up scenes that I wished they weren’t in.
As the beginning of a series, I can’t wait for the others. I have no idea where he’s going with this and will eagerly follow along to see what happens next.
It can only go up.
Beware Fanboy gushing ahead: Blue Blazes by Chuck Wendig
Chuck… Chuck… Chuck. Seriously. Is there anything you can’t write?
How do you take a main character that seems about as unsympathetic as you can get (just short of him being a pedophile serial killer) and make me rooting for him by the end of the book? I mean standing-up-and-hollering-like-a-fool rooting for him! I thought I was going to have to drudge through with Mookie as a character, but I loved him! That lug…
Chuck is an amazing author. And The Blue Blazes is some of his best work yet. He weaves story themes that you know and have come to trust in with his own sense of humor and gifted storyteller voice to create a fantastic book that feel fresh and exciting. A cast of characters (and, let me tell you, what a bunch of characters they are) that each feels fully-realized, different, and all acting as if The Blue Blazes is their damn book and not the Big Lug’s.
In the end, The Blue Blazes is a wild ride underground with an author that keeps delighting me and making me crazy jealous with each book. I thought he had me at Miriam, but he’s got me at Mookie too.
Bastard.
(Now, Chuck, here’s your next writing project: Adolf Hitler as orphanage caretaker. Go!)
God Save The Queen… and the Urban Fantasy!
Vampires. Werewolves. Victorian England. Steampunk. Girl Heroine.
So many these same ingredients have been used in other novels that it feels like it’s getting boring.
But not God Save the Queen! No bloody way!
God Save The Queen is a kick-ass novel that takes these tired ingredients and makes something new and fresh. It’s like an apple pie with jalapenos! Xandra is a wonderful character, rich and complex, and she takes on a whirlwind tour of her world that leaves no prisoners behind. Locke (or any of the other pseudonym’s she goes by) deftly reveals information in little clumps, never overwhelming her reader with info dumps and keeping the action tight and the dialogue crisp to make the book flying along.
I ate this book up and can’t wait to dive into the rest of the series. They are going to be little delicacies (much like a leech) that I will snack on from time to time.
Keep it up, Kate!
Thief of Thieves Book Review: Ocean’s 11 Redux
**Disclaimer: I received an eARC from the wonderful people at Image Comics (through NetGalley) to read this book.**
It would seem that nowadays crime comic books are the new superhero comic books. As if the moment that Brian Michael Bendis (and Michael Avon Oeming) released Powers and Frank Miller published Sin City, the comic world has been repeatedly leaping head-first into the noir world of crime comic books. Stories of murder, betrayal, lust, and the occasional decapitating, comic book fans are hungry for the respite from company-wide crossovers where characters die only to be brought back to life six weeks later or publisher reboots that aren’t called reboots but clearly are reboots… you get the picture.
Comic book readers want things dark, complicated, and messy… much like life.