Venice by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The book says they go to Venice, it's true, but it's even more true that they went to Carthage and vast amounts of land in Northern Africa. Fascinating stuff. And it's really worth noting that the main LitRPG character is given some really interesting reversals that limit his powers quite naturally in the plot. It really grounds him. And we make lots of new friends because of it.

Cute ones, especially. And one that stays REALLY close to him.

Tons of great fantasy tropes and especially power-progression tropes, but they all feel really natural in this book. I call that a big win.

This is an extremely strong LitRPG made even more fascinating for being placed in 11th century alternate Europe. With magic. :)



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Portal to Nova Roma by J.R. Mathews
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

While I wasn't quite enthusiastic about an AI as a MC, it really didn't matter after the intro. He's just as autistic as the rest of the LitRPG characters everywhere else. And therefore just nerdy and obsessive enough to min-max his future.

Or in THIS particular case, his trip to an alternate Earth past that happened to develop monster cores and magic and the system.

And he goes to Constantinople. Nova Roma. Or at least, the decaying remnant of the old seat of Holy Power in its full decline. And that's nearly as fascinating as the fantasy/SF features.

Indeed, I had a fantastic time across the board. This is quickly becoming one of my favs.

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Mark of the Fool by J.M. Clarke
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This one might not be for me. I want to like the premise of being able to learn any extra skill very fast, and have loved it in other series, but the way it's exploited here is uneven and kinda slow.

I suppose that's to be expected with a fool, or at least someone with a fool mark, but it just seems to be bouncing off me at the moment. Alas. I usually like things like this. The twist has a lot of promise, after all.



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Carry Me to My Grave by Christopher Golden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What do you get when you have a non-comedic Weekend at Bernies that isn't American Politics?

At great, atmospheric, vampire novel by Christopher Golden.

It's a DIFFERENT kind of road trip novel. That isn't the comedic wonder that was National Lampoon's Vacation. But similar.

Fun stuff. Very serious.

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Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Solid horror. Excellent atmosphere, sliding between body horror and psychological, but the best part is absolutely the atmosphere.

Definitely worth the read if you want that growing unease, like a tumor on your life. One that you can actually release at the end of the book.

I particularly enjoyed the whole alien abduction angle. Fascinating unease.

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The Quantum Dawn by Derek Künsken
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One caveat before I give a full review. I thought the opening, or perhaps even the first sixth of the novel was kinda rough. No great hooks and the only eye-catching things was the SF aspects and not the characters. And this is even after a much-appreciated recap of the first three books.

But after? Once it really gets going?

It just doesn't stop. It gets crazy good on the adventure side, trouncing even some of the best big-scope hard-SF out there. Reynolds and Brin on this level. And in some ways, when we get right into the really great imaginative stuff, it's pretty mind blowing. And that's AFTER we've got quantum analyses on the fly, religious AIs, water dog space pilots, quantum tunneling flora, and a huge ass chase through time that doesn't always follow (or even usually follow) causal patterns.

Indeed, this stuff goes non-linear early on, proving that things HAD to go a certain way because they were puzzling over the EFFECTS already accomplished and had to catch up to events after decoding it through racial alien DNA messages sent backward in time to warn of several future catastrophes that had to happen to force the correct effect. And if that isn't confusing enough, I spotted several MORE instances where this had to happen minus the alien DNA and all of a sudden the whole book sounds more like a sly refutation of religious determinism by positing the infallibility of the determinism in this cosmos.

And all the while, we STILL have to treat it like the mystery it so obviously is. And it's still crazy because we're STILL unable to see the whole picture. Right, Tesseract? Muahahahahahaha.

Did I mention this is a wonderfully nerdy book? So, yeah, forgive the front of it. You'll be in for one hell of a ride by the end. Even if there is no Bel. And even if the whole novel is fraught and tense.

It's still much more exciting than it has any right to be.

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Scion by James Islington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've generally had a some really good experience with fantasy authors trying their hands at SF, so this book was pretty much a no-brainer for me.

As it is, I won't say it's a ground-breaking story, but it IS very fast-paced and it has some twisty-twisty paths to keep us on our toes. Lots of tropes, easy to follow, easy to enjoy.

Like assassins? Clones? Shady shit? Old, irascible women and snarky OP dipshits? I'm sure you'll get along well with this novel.

If it's going to be a series, I don't see myself ignoring it. If it's a standalone, I might wind up feeling a bit disappointed. But as it is now? I would consider it a GOOD START. I'd love to have a good long story based on this.

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