Farish's Freehold: The Vampire of Rome, Book Trailers, Drinking with Janey Mack and Reviews!

The Vampire of Rome is out!

Small issue with formatting, so expect paperback copies of The Vampire of Rome inside of a couple of weeks. I even have my first review.

Amazon 5 Star Review

Also in the good news department, book trailers for Soulless Monk are now complete.

Here is the short one

And the full length trailer

I was interviewed by Janey Mack, you can find that over here

http://www.janeymack.com/authors/lincoln/

Drinks, questions, answered cogently and pictures of me in uniform; what more could you ask for?

I’d like to say everything is perfect, but alas the porch is still not quite done. One day…one day.

Reviews

Dead Man on Campus

EM Kaplan

Dead Man On Campus

Everyone who has read this blog knows I’m not much of a fan of cozy mysteries. I do have exceptions, and one of those is the Josie Tucker Series. Josie is a snark filled food critic with an easily upset stomach, who keeps being drawn into mysteries. In this instance, Josie has to go back...No, not to the future, but back to college. Randy professors, provincial mindsets, prison riot quality food and questionable hygiene set the stage. Lots of laughs and winces as Josie tries to find out who is stalking and threatening a professor. There were two references that I did enjoy, Scooby gang, and Monks. My ego insists that this is a reference to my Inquisitors.

My quibbles are mostly in the spoiler zone except for the about face by one character that is never examined. The mental U-turn is fine, it’s real and how you turn a bunch of lines of description into a living entity for the reader. People change their mind all the time. However, if someone tells you day after day they will never celebrate Ground Hog day, and then on that day, they are standing next to you screaming for Punxsutawney Phil to hurry up and look for his shadow, you’re going to wonder why it happened.

Because of that and a few other things that are all spoilerish I have to take a star.

I’m still a fan of the series, and I look forward to the next one. Dead Man on Campus is worth a read, and maybe you’ll disagree and this one will be your favorite.

Demon Moon

Brad Magnarella

Demon Moon

I have written about how there are some urban fantasy series which are not derivatives of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series.

RL King’s Alastair Stone

R.L. King's Amazon Page

And Adam J Wright’s Alec Harbinger, Preternatural Investigator series are two examples.

Adam Wright's Amazon Page

I still maintain that while all three have as the main characters guys who do magic, they are not telling the same story with minor twists. Demon Moon, however, could fit easily into the Harry Dresden universe, a review, not mine, from Amazon –“Main hero possesses a demonic entity living inside of him, is on the outs with the magical order he answers to, plays with churches and Angels, and by the end of the novel is a consultant for the nypd's new special crimes division.”

All accurate, all true, but where the above reviewer gave only 1 star I would be kinder and give 3.5 stars. It was derivative, but still a good story over all.

I might buy the next one in the series.

Adam Wright

Dead Ground

Dead Ground

Speaking of Adam J Wright’s Alec Harbinger, Preternatural Investigator series, I just finished Dead Ground, the fourth in the series.

I know not all books will appeal to all readers, and that not all books in a series are equally appealing, however, Dead Ground was, to me, just okay. Very uneven, and weak. Maybe I will re-read it at some other date and change my mind, but for right now, I am disappointed. I never found myself subsumed by the story. It seemed formulaic, the plot predictable, the characters wooden, character conflict was trite (does anyone ever actually spontaneously apologize in real life for being a dick, or does ego keep most of us from ever admitting we were wrong?). The physical conflict was bland. It was almost as though he was phoning it in, or rushing to meet a deadline.

I will probably buy the next book when it comes out, but if the next one is not gripping, I will abandon the series.

A Mage’s Gambit

Andy Hyland

Mages Gambit

I rather enjoyed this book. Malachi English, the main character was cynical without being tedious, secondary characters were deliciously duplicitous, and a constant question as to whether they would help or hinder Malachi. Anyone who has worked in a shadow economy or with-in criminal organizations will recognize the dark world Malachi inhabits. There are rules, loose bands of people who help each other, but there is always a price, and the constant danger that your customer or boss might decide it’s cheaper to rob than to pay.

Lots of monsters, good dialog, pretty tight and plausible plot, it was worth the money and time. I will be looking for the next one in the series.

When it comes to series you need to read, have I told you about mine?

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