Review: Six Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher

Per Goodreads.com:

This title will be released on January 22, 2013.

"Buffy meets Deadwood in a dark, wildly imaginative historical fantasy

Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.

A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn…and so will all of Creation."

My first thought was that the book was a little bit busy. There were too many main characters, too many religions/mythologies, and too much action all at once towards the end. But then when I really thought about it, I felt that somehow it all seems to balance out. Each person involved represents one of the ideologies. Each area of town also seems to have its own belief system. And as for the fight scenes, fights do happen all at once and not so much in a linear fashion. As such, I thought that R.S. Belcher handled the fight scenes well after reflection.

You meet the main characters at a slow enough pace and with enough background to make them memorable and well developed. Some are so memorable, like Maude, that I would love to see more of them in future books. And some of them there is so little, that I would like to learn more about them in future books, such as Deputy Mutt and Sheriff Jon Highfather.

When trouble begins, Maude's neighbor asks her when Maude returns home muddied from an incident in town, "Is it regular trouble or Golgotha trouble?" The townspeople have experience with this sort of weirdness, so it's not surprising when they work together to battle the evil that is threatening to end all existence. I do wonder if H.P. Lovecraft is one of the authors that influenced R.S. Belcher. The monster itself is reminiscent of Lovecraftian horrors. 

The book is aptly called a "weird western" by Mike Resnick. I think it's weird in a good way - part western, part steampunk, part coming of age story, part horror. The characters are interesting and well written. The world is built well and will stand up to repeat visits. I hope that R.S. Belcher visits Golgotha again.
I give this book 4 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for my unbiased opinion.

Review: Forever Werewolf by Michele Hauf

Forever Werewolf  by Michele Hauf is really a compilation of 2 books: Forever Werewolf and Moon Kissed. 

Forever Werewolf is kind of a sweet love story between a werewolf, Alexis, and a werewolf/vampire, Trystan. It's almost a Romeo and Juliet set up. Alexis belongs to a pack and is the leader's daughter and acts as if second in command while her father is so very ill. Trystan's family is on it's own since his mother is a vampire and his father is a werewolf and he has acted as courier to bring something to help Alexis's father. Alexis finds herself drawn to Trystan for so many reasons among them his helpfulness when there is an avalanche. She also finds he just might be the one to help her change to wolf form completely, something she has been unable to do, but her father forbids her to become romantically involved with Trystan. The subplots add to the story making it more intriguing and fleshing it out. It's an enjoyable read.

Moon Kissed comes across as a little more dangerous in some ways and passionate. Honestly at times it seems there is power play involved between the main characters of Bella and Severo because they are both fiercely independent. To begin with, Severo saves Bella from 3 vampires who were chasing her on her evening run. He crushes her to him and holds his hand tightly over her mouth. And at the end takes a kiss as payment and tells her that he can find her any time because he has her scent. In other words, he is in control. On another occasion at her apartment, he relinquishes control to her. And back and forth they go.

Bella didn't even know that vampires existed until that night. When she tells her best friend Seth about what happened, he not only confirms they exist, but says he is dating one and that her encounter was most likely with a werewolf. To me, she seemed to accept the existence of these supernatural creatures a little too easily.

The rest of the novel is a combination of romance, power play, and vampire vs werewolf. There is a subplot involving her best friend, but it doesn't really add much to the story in my opinion. Still, overall I found it to be enjoyable reading. It is a little sexier and a little more passionate than Forever Werewolf. Fans of one might not like the other because they are so different from each other while others might enjoy both like me.

I gave the book 3 stars over all. It's likable. It's enjoyable.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Review: The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

The Devil in Silver  is a literary horror novel. It is literature, horror and also a bit of social commentary as well. It even manages to include a brief romance. It is really an amazing book. The monster - is it minotaur or man? Is it the devil that some patients claim? But that's not the only monstrous thing going on in the book.

Pepper has got problems. He "accidentally" assaults 3 cops. He didn't know they were cops at the time. The cops don't want to do the paperwork when they arrest him because it would mean working off the clock. So they bring Pepper to New Hyde Hospital to the psychiatric ward. There he is supposed to be kept for a mandatory 72 hour observation period. After the intake session, he meets Dorry who will be a close friend of sorts to him. She gives him a tour and escorts him to his room because, "Everyone should see a friendly face first when they come in here."

The first night after his first full day at the hospital, Pepper has his first encounter with the devil. He sees him as a minotaur with an elderly body and the head of a bison. A nurse interrupts whatever the devil was going to do and gives the Pepper and his roommate, Coffee, sedatives. The other patients tell him the Devil roams free at night. Dorry says it is just a man. Is it a shared hallucination or is it what they really see? Or is it a monster either way and it just doesn't matter what it looks like?

When he is a little less than most cooperative, he is medicated more and somehow 72 hours at New Hyde becomes weeks. Pepper has a lot more time on his hands to get to know the other patients. The major characters are all well developed, especially Dorry, Loochie, and Coffee. And with just a few deft details, LaValle manages to make many of the more minor characters memorable as well. For example, there is Nurse Josephine Washburn who worries about her mother being left all alone and resents the doctor constantly forgetting her name.

The social commentary can be a little confusing when it is not just examples illustrated in the course of the story. The author inserts comments aimed directly at the reader. At first I thought these were more of Pepper's thoughts. Sometimes I found that it added to the story and other times I found it a little distracting, but not enough to ruin my enjoyment of the book.

I found the story to be mostly unpredictable and really unlike anything I've read before. I enjoyed reading it. As with the novella Lucretia and the Kroons also by Victor LaValle and also classified as literary horror, I ended up reading the book twice. It really is an excellent book. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Review: Quarantine by John Smolens

Quarantine takes place in the town of Newburyport, Massachusetts  in the year 1796. A ship arrives whose crew has suffered and continues to suffer losses from a mysterious illness. There is hope of containment, but it slips away as the boats row away from the ship under cover of night. Soon people in the town become ill. As the epidemic spreads, fear, greed, and instances of mob rule become common place.

Quarantine is basically well written. The characters you should like, no matter their flaws, are likable. The villains are not. Physician Giles Wiggins who quarantines the port and establishes a pest house to isolate the sick from the rest of the population and Leander Hatch are particularly well developed. Particularly unlikable is the black marketeer from Boston.

While the book basically delivers what it has promised, it does have flaws. The pacing in Part I is faster than the rest of the book. And much of the action seems to be described as if from at a distance.

The inclusion of the nastiness by the religious fanatics was perfect. This would be especially true I think in New England where just a century before they had hung the last witches to be hung in America to the south of  Newburyport in Salem.

The bits and pieces of romance were not really well developed, but were a nice touch. I didn't really see Enoch, Giles brother, vying much for Marie as he was indisposed much of the time due to drink. Giles on the other hand was quite taken with her and it showed.

Apart from the sickness finally ending, there are surprises to the ending of the book. It was somewhat unpredictable, yet believable, which made it more enjoyable.

I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I was provided with an advance copy of this book to provide my unbiased opinion.

Review: Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle

Lucretia and the Kroons is considered literate horror and is an excellent piece of novella length writing. It is also a touching story as it examines the relationship between Lucretia and her best friend Sunny.

Victor LaValle manages to paint an accurate picture of what it's like to be a 12 year old girl. From the beginning with her social concerns about her friends who she sees later "clumped together like socks that had just come out of the dryer" to her personal concerns about appearance and what people think of her, and her longing for Sunny to come back and make it all tolerable, Lucretia is 100% a 12 year old.

Sunny has been away getting treatment for an illness. Just when Sunny gets back and things look like they could become a little more normal for Loochie, as Lucretia is known to friends and family, things go sideways. She sees a Kroon on her fire escape who tells her through gestures that Sunny is upstairs in apartment 6D.

Louis, Loochie's older brother, has told her that 6D is where the Kroon's live and how monstrous they are and dangerous. And here begins a real adventure for Loochie. She feels she must go up there and rescue Sunny who is weak from treatment for the illness and being sick. Inside the apartment as she runs to evade the Kroons, she finds trees and concrete and more. Her resolve is tested more than once. She remembers Louis saying, "Horrors come for kids too. Being young doesn't protect anyone."

Lucretia and the Kroons is definitely worth reading. (In fact, I read it twice.) I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Review: DarkBeat by James Solo

DarkBeat by James Solo is a horror novel. Ricardo Sosa witnesses a Santeria ritual as a young teen. A policeman, Chuck Bolan,  mistakes drummer Adrian Lee for a cop killer and nearly beats him to death. Adrian Lee goes to Cuba and meets up with Sosa and begins to learn about Santeria and a kind of circle is beginning to be forged that will eventually be completed.

Honestly, I didn't like this novel that much. Parts of it were excellent, parts not so hot. James Solo handled the suspense in the novel very well for the most part. The tempo in the novel picked up as the novel goes on just the way you'd want it.

The horror parts however struck me as very heavy handed. The descriptions of the 2 sacrifices were very similar and I had a lot of trouble with the sacrifice that Adrian performed. If you are at all squeamish, this book is not for you. I expected the first sacrifice, but not the subject of the second. I lost all sympathy for the character at that point which may have been the author's goal. If I wasn't trying to finish to give my unbiased opinion of the book, I think I would have stopped reading right there.

Plot wise, I had a problem hanging in there in the beginning while the characters were introduced and their relationships to each other made clear. I wasn't sure who was important and who was not until chapters in. And later in the book, things seemed rushed towards the end. Some things were happening suddenly with no explanation or little transition.

Overall, the novel was ok, but not the greatest. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book for reviewing purposes.

Review: That Bear Ate My Pants! by Tony James Slater

That Bear Ate My Pants! is an entertaining coming of age story involving more wild things of the non-partying variety than those that drink beer.

After some introspection admitting his acting abilities weren't the best and examining his options, Tony decided that a trip to Ecuador as a volunteer at the Santa Martha Animal Rescue Center was in order. At any given time, the rescue center is home to a variety of animals from monkeys, parrots, tortoises, big cats, to the bear that ate his pants and more. And according to Tony most of them seemed to want a piece of him, including the plant life.

The coming of age part involves the motivation that the ranch owner used on Tony on multiple occasions. When he wanted Tony to do something that he was reluctant to do, he asked him, "Are you a man?" And Tony would find himself doing whatever it was, no matter how absurdly dangerous he thought it was. And the funny thing is, by the end of his time at Santa Martha, after doing all these manly things and from some of his other experiences, he might find that he had indeed become more mature.

Honestly there is a lot more to it than that. His descriptions of their activities on and off the ranch are humorous for the most part and at the same time fascinating. He also makes a good case for learning more Spanish before a trip like that to Ecuador. There is a definite language barrier that he has to fight.

You need to read the book for the humor, the adventure and for the gems of characters such as Lady, Machita, Jimmy, and Toby. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars for making me laugh out loud on more than one occasion.