DB Books and Reviews

Empires, immortals, and God... After the author kindly offered me an Audible code for this new release, I was excited to immediately work it into my listening schedule. Even though I really appreciate receiving a free copy of this book, my gratitude does not impact the honesty of my review. HOW I RATED IT  4/5  Though this sequel to VERMILLION FLAMES initially seems like it will be a fairly predictable yet chaotic, space adventure, it ultimately culminates into something far more layered and engaging with elements of military space fantasy, holy wars, space opera, and rebellion. NOTE : While I will aim to avoid spoilers for ASHEN DAWN , I will be mentioning characters and events from the prior book that could be considered spoilers for that story.  CHARACTERS The prior book ended with Kaya and Silas's stories converging and many of the major side characters from each perspective coming together to form one big party of rebels. Things pick up pretty much where they left o...

Forgive me if you can... After enjoying THE CRIMES OF ROOKER FLYNN , I've been looking forward to the release of it's sequel. This month felt like the month to treat myself to it, so I did.  HOW I RATED IT  5/5  Even though this book ends on another vicious cliffhanger, I felt as though it was everything the second book in a trilogy should be in that it was a satisfying entry in the series while still leaving me desperate for the true conclusion to this turbulent tale. Please Note: While I will be aiming to avoid spoilers for THE TRIAL OF ROOKER FLYNN , I will likely mention characters and events which could be considered spoilers for both the first book in this trilogy as well as the original THE LEGEND OF BLACK JACK .  CHARACTERS We once again find ourselves with the notorious Rooker Flynn as the book kicks off with another flashback of him from when he still went by his birth name of "Pip." We also meet the original "Rooker" in this prologue, but his ult...

Who you were before does not matter... Tori Tecken's new book has been on my radar for a little while now, especially because Andrew D. Meredith serves as the narrator for the audio edition. Once my listening schedule opened up, I knew I wanted to jump right into this, so I did. HOW I RATED IT  3/5  This slow burn start to a new epic fantasy series was an intriguing introduction to the characters and world even if none of it engaged me to the extent I hoped it would.  CHARACTERS As with most epic fantasies, there are an assortment of characters who we follow in each chapter. Even though there are a handful in total, Gehrin and Syndri are who I would argue are the main characters, mostly just due to their having the lion's share of the page time. Of the two, I definitely liked Gehrin a lot more. He's taken from his family as a young boy and slowly molded over time into sort of like a brainwashed elite guard. It's hard not to sympathize with him due to all the horrible tr...

Shadows, spells, and subterfuge... I'd backed this book during its Kickstarter as it was fairly reasonable to back and had a very interesting premise. I received it quite some time ago and am just now getting around to checking it out.  HOW I RATED IT  4/5  As with any anthology, some stories within this collection are absolute fire and some proved to be extremely lackluster. Overall though, I think there were far more engaging tales spun here than there were forgettable flops.  CONTENT This collection features fourteen short stories written by fourteen different authors ranging from around twenty-ish pages to fifty or so, though most do not exceed thirty. As you might expect, the unifying theme tying these different tales together is that each of them has something to do with assassins. In some cases this means that the main character is an assassin, but in others they are actually trying to stop an assassin from doing their deadly deed. There are a number of storie...

Class Zero... This was a selectable reward from the Square Enix website at one point which I'd used accumulated points to redeem. I've never really read a Manga before, but since I only had to pay the cost of shipping for this, I figured this would be a good way to give it a try. Many years later, I've finally given it a shot. HOW I RATED IT  4/5  While I don't think this is going to knock anyone's socks off, nor does tell the most satisfying and complete story, I still had a good time with the storytelling, art, and overall reading experience.   CONTENT I believe that this Manga functions as a sort of prequel to the videogame it's tied into. I did give that a try years ago on my Xbox but it was just a rather rough experience both graphically and in terms of gameplay since it was so painfully obvious that it was a portable game given a fresh coat of paint. Needless to say, I didn't get very far in it, but I thought the overall vibe of the characters and worl...

My faith is strong... After years of not having stepped foot in a library, I finally decided I would go to get a library card and peruse their shelves. In doing so, I stumbled across this little book by an author I recognized and decided to give it a read.   HOW I RATED IT  4/5  This fascinating science fantasy novella by the author of THE DISPATCHER series, which I've enjoyed, gets darker and weirder until it's horrifying finale.  CONTENT The story stars Ean Tephe who is the captain of a ship which is powered by a defeated god who's been enslaved by the god which Tephe and his people worship. Things start off with the prisoner-god causing a stir by attacking an acolyte and Tephe getting into a little bit of a power spat with the ship's assigned priest, Andso. Things get a bit more concerning as Tephe learns from the priest that theirs is not the only god who's been acting rebellious as of late and a trip to their home world to see the heads of their religion s...