Tag: Adventure

Predators of Eden (Horizon Alpha: Book 1) by D.W. Vogel

On By JolieIn book review, Future House PublishingLeave a comment
Horizon Alpha: Predators of Eden by [Vogel, D. W.]

Publisher: Future House Publishing

Date of Publication: May 19, 2016

Genre: Science Fiction, Dinosaurs, Adventure, Young Adult, Space Opera, Action, Thriller

Series: Horizon Alpha

High Wire—Book 0.5

Predators of Eden—Book 1

Transport Seventeen—Book 2

Homecoming—Book 3

Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible |B&N |Kobo |Google Play

Goodreads synopsis:

We never would have come here if we’d known.

Two hundred years ago, the great Ark Horizon Alpha escaped a doomed Earth and went searching for a new home. The passengers landed on Teu Ceti e expecting paradise, but instead, they discovered a planet stuck in its own version of the cretaceous period. The humans’ one defense against the dinosaurs ravaging the planet is an electric fence, built from the remains of the shuttles that brought them there.

But Eden’s base has only days of power left.

With most of the adult men dead, rookie soldier Caleb Wilde and his unit of teenage boys leave the electric fences of Eden in search of a reactor core lost deep in the jungle.

The last remnant of the human race waits behind the electric fence for their return. The dinosaurs wait, too–for the electricity to die and the feast to begin.

This book was fantastic!!! I don’t like sci-fi with dinosaurs in the book. The one book I read that used them as antagonists went WAY overboard. It killed my enthusiasm for reading any books of the same.

Well, I am happy to say that this book has righted the wrongs of the other book. From the beginning, when Caleb tells about what happened to Earth, the 2 centuries of traveling throughout space and the accident that fragmented the population of the spaceship onto the new planet (Teu Ceti), and the frightening discovery that the new settlers made, drew me right into the story.

The author makes you feel the excitement and dread of Caleb going on his first mission. Then the terror of the crash and the exhaustion of trekking cross-country to Eden base and losing unit members to the dinosaurs. I had nightmares about the descriptions of the T-Rex and the other dinosaurs.

I will say that I loved the 2 twists in the story. One, I should have seen coming from a mile away, I am good at guessing things like that, but I didn’t. The other one, near the end of the book, well, to be honest, it made me want to cry. Very poignant.

If you enjoyed reading Predators of Eden, you will enjoy reading these books:

Dawn of Procyon (Distant Suns: Book 1) by Mark R. Healy

On By JolieIn ARC, book review, Future House PublishingLeave a comment
Dawn of Procyon (Distant Suns Book 1) by [Healy, Mark R.]

Publisher: Future House Publishing

Date of publication: April 14th, 2016

Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Aliens, Space

Series: Distant Suns

Dawn of Procyon—Book 1

Eclipse of Procyon—Book 2

Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible |WorldCat

Goodreads synopsis:

In the midst of an interstellar conflict, mechanic Landry Stanton is shipwrecked on a remote outpost planet, stranded along with a hostile alien that wants him dead.

All Landry wants is to forget the woman he left back on Earth, but now he finds that much bigger issues are at stake: the creature, belonging to a species known as the Argoni, may hold the key to turning the tide in the entire war, assuming Landry can live long enough to tell anyone about it.

Pitched into a life and death struggle against the brutal environment and the Argoni itself, Landry is forced to challenge everything he thought he knew about the war, the aliens, and even himself.

What would you do if stranded on a distant planet, running out of air and water, and being followed/watched by an alien?

Would you be able to survive? Or would you give up?

I enjoyed reading this book. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time I read it. I didn’t think Landry would make it at some points in the story. It was a nail-biter!!!

The two subplots were also compelling, and the author did a wonderful job tying them all together at the end.

I didn’t like that it ended on a cliffhanger. I hate them with a passion. But the cliffhanger got me wondering what will happen in the next book (if there will be a next book). And that means I need to read it to find out. Sigh.

If you enjoyed reading Dawn of Procyon, you will enjoy reading these books:

The Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith

On By JolieIn book review, David Meredith, Non ARCLeave a comment
The Reflections of Queen Snow White by [Meredith, David]

Publisher: David Meredith

Date of publication: October 2nd, 2013

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Adult, Retellings, Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Retellings, Magic, Adventure, High Fantasy

Purchase Links: Amazon | Audible

Goodreads synopsis:

What happens when “happily ever after” has come and gone?

On the eve of her only daughter, Princess Raven’s wedding, an aging Snow White finds it impossible to share in the joyous spirit of the occasion. The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished, and opulently decorated for the celebration. It is already nearly bursting with jubilant guests and merry well-wishers. Prince Edel, Raven’s fiancé, is a fine man from a neighboring kingdom and Snow White’s own domain is prosperous and at peace. Things could not be better, in fact, except for one thing:

The king is dead.

The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old.

It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what “happily ever after” really means?

Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.

I have always wondered what happened to the fairy tale characters after the tale’s end. What was their life like after the words “Happily Ever After” were written? I know I am not the only one who has thought this. I mean, it’s hard not to think about it.

If you are like me and have wondered about “Happily Ever After, “ you should read this book.

It was a wonderfully written, descriptive book about Snow White and the aftermath of Prince Charming’s death. It also tells how she finds the Magic Mirror and uses it to see her true self. The flashback scenes are all heartbreaking. The author, for the most part, stayed very true to the fairytale.

The ending was not what I expected, and it did delight me.

If you enjoyed reading The Reflections of Queen Snow White, you will enjoy these books: