A collection of 'It's ok' aka 2-star stories (Part 2 of 2)

I've often wondered what to do about stories that I classify as 'It's ok' (2 stars out of 5) or worse. Should one review them for the sake of the unsuspecting public, or should one veil them in the shadows to spare the authors a severe downrating?

Anyhow, I've decided to review them anyway. Unsuspecting public, take a bow. Please remember, YMMV. You may like different stuff than me. I picked up all these because they were rated at 4 stars or better by at least two reviewers, plus the blurb and/or the cover art looked interesting.

Science fiction | Redeemed | Steve Matthew Benner
⭐⭐

A political story. Other than featuring alien species, not sci fi. And given that those are humanoid to the extent of sharing mistresses with the hero, not all that alien either.

What's with writers who assume future rulers will all be male only and also be so incompetent in relationships as to need to buy the services of prostitutes?

I wasn't too impressed with a hero who apparently established a record of integrity over two decades, was fooled by his boss in the intro scenes and then proceeds to lie and scheme for the duration of the story. It doesn't gel.

The story proceeds smoothly enough if you accept these premises.

You can get it here. Still free.


Horror/science fiction | The Meek | Brian S Wheeler
⭐⭐

It's grim. Four misshapen people push a drill across the desert to attack the fatcats who shifted to virtual reality and left behind flying buzzkills to kill the rest of humanity which was too poor to transition. One of the four is a hacker. Only two stars because I couldn't relate to any of the characters or the ending.


It's no longer available on Smashwords.

A collection of 'It's ok' aka 2-star stories (Part 1 of 2)

I've often wondered what to do about stories that I classify as 'It's ok' (2 stars out of 5) or worse. Should one review them for the sake of the unsuspecting public, or should one veil them in the shadows to spare the authors a severe downrating?

Anyhow, I've decided to review them anyway. Unsuspecting public, take a bow. Please remember, YMMV. You may like different stuff than me. I picked up all these because they were rated at 4 stars or better by at least two reviewers, plus the blurb and/or the cover art looked interesting.


Science fiction | Faster than light: Dobriathar | Macolm Pierce
⭐⭐

Space opera, part 2 of a series. (Wonder why I didn't read part 1 first? Oh, well).

Talking stars and bucolic planets.

The writing isn't too smooth, using, for example, ‘governess’ to mean female governor of the planet instead of someone who minds and tutors children, causing dissonance all along. Some scenes feel like dreams or fantasy, and it's confusing to try to distinguish them from the rest of the story.

I think I have book 1 of the series, but I'm unlikely to read it now. You can get it here. Still free.


Science fiction | Death's Twilight | A.J. Leavens
⭐⭐

I originally rated this as 3 stars, mainly for writing quality.

A fast paced action story, it has ninja organisations, deadly assassins, high tech, chases across the world, secrets that can break the world order.

What is doesn't have is depth. Things are too pat. Like big budget Hollywood where twists are there for shock value, not because they make sense.

If you like popcorn stories that don't tax your brain, this is the first of a series as Slade and Hotaru take on a System that has framed them.

The reason it lost a star? Too much senseless killing. And I mean senseless. It made no sense from any angle.

You can get it here. Still free.


Science Fiction | Running: The Alien in the Mirror | Lazlo Ferran
⭐⭐

Now this story? Popcorn. Full of corny stuff. Androids who become conscious, humans trodden down by androids, a big rebellion, waving of lasers in sewers. Staple tropes from Hollywood movies.

You can get it here. Still free.



Horror/science fiction | Sunfall: Episode 1 | Tim Meyer
⭐⭐

A yucky-horror story. People start to burn up, screaming all the way. The hero realises instantly it's because they are standing in the sun. It's a series of descriptions of slices of everyday life with people dying gorily. Not for me.

You can get it here. Still free.

Government cracks down on Teens. Really??

Young Adult Dystopia | Fated | Teri Terry

⭐⭐ aka It's OK

It's a prequel, so I was happy not to worry about spoilers if I read the series.

Well written, aimed at the teen market.

Where it fails is the sheer impossibility of the plot premise. That a crooked politician could create emergency conditions and take over as absolute dictator is plausible. But that the first few executive orders thereafter are to create a police state aimed at teenagers, to have all teens carry ids on lanyards, and kids below age 16 prohibited to have a mobile phone begins to stretch credulity. To then go on to jail terms for having mobile phones, searches in schools begins to become ridiculous.

But to have death sentences for kids 12 and above? Public hangings? For supposedly opposing Brexit? Come on! That's too absurd. I give up.

A Western written in the 21st century

Western | The Revenant | Michael Punke

⭐⭐ aka It's OK

You see the map and you realise how BIG the continent of North America is, and how much travel the people did, a lot of it by foot. And yet, the story itself didn't move me much.

Partly, it may be because I expected to read a Western in the style common in the last century. But nowadays, they are better researched,  there are less 'varmints' in the dialogue, and there are not a lot of shootouts fastest-gun-in-the-West style at all.

On a continuum between Max Brand and Louis L'Amour, this one is beyond Louis L'Amour. Not as much fun, though.

Bastards do not beguile

Detective/Thriller | The Hollow Man | Oliver Harris

⭐⭐

The mystery is well done, the detectiving is fine. The writing is pacy and atmospheric, the editing is taut. That should easily get a book 3 stars.

The reason it does not, is the ‘bastard of a hero’ as the blurb too charitably puts it. I found the detective (Nick Belsey) to be an appalling human, greedy, addicted, manipulative, conniving, misusing his position for personal gain, dishonest in every possible way (and yet he manages to con the investigative journalist into falling in love with him, despite lying to her at almost every step).

Deal breaker. It’s only curiosity about the mystery that saw me through the whole book. Next time, I’ll watch a train wreck instead.

So, the rating is the average of 1 star (I hated it, that’s Nick Belsey), and 3 stars (I liked it, that’s the mystery). It’s a shoddy compromise, leaving me feeling vaguely unclean. Like the book itself. More accurately:

   2 stars and a pile of poop.

Insufficient genius

Fantasy | Coldmaker | Daniel A. Cohen

⭐⭐

'Cold' as something tangible that falls from the sky and is the measure of wealth is a new concept. However, the treatment is not sufficient to make this the kind of wow experience that Brandon Sanderson (one of the author's role models, as per the afterword) did in the Mistborn series.

There are unresolved points (is the Utopia dreamed of by the slaves real or imaginary); the kind slaver is two dimensional; the hero is a genius inventor who can invent and prototype system-changing innovations in, literally, days; the heroine is mysteriously independent, bold, able to get unconditional support for no reason that the reader can see while the hero has to prove himself...

Yet, there are plus points. The basis for the excessive cruelty of the slaver class is realistic (religion can cause people to put aside empathy and be cruel by godly demand). You do care for the hero and the heroine. There are sympathetic characters. Some of the villains are somewhat understandable. The 'science' of the Cold seems to have some (if flimsy) basis. At a few points in the book, you can feel the heat that pervades the World Cried (that's what it's called).

I'm ambivalent whether I want to read the next book in the series or not. I fear the plot is being dragged to generate more volume. It may not stand up to the strain.

2 stars = it was ok

Advertising will make consumerist zombies out of us all. Halp! Yawn.

Science Fiction | The Space Merchants | Frederik Pohl and C Kornbluth

⭐⭐

This is one of the books based on the 50's worry that advertising would make consumerist zombies of us all that hasn't dated very well.

Capitalism has run amok. Great corporations own the world and the people are slaves. They think they are not, because they get paid, but the Companies supply all their needs, at increasingly exhorbitant rates, so they’re always in debt. Sounds a bit like the USA today, doesn’t it?

Except that it’s all so over the top that it’s dated. And not well.

2 stars = It’s ok

Edit: This was first published in Galaxy Science Fiction as Gravy Planet, in serialised form. All the issues are now available as free download from several websites.

Urban fantasy of the type 'super strength people hidden amongst us'

Fantasy | Ghosts of Winter | H.B. Lyne

⭐⭐

These days, I tend to struggle through urban fantasy of the type "magical people with super strength, hidden among us". 

YMMV.

There's a lot of: Then they all went to sleep. Then they woke up and ate breakfast, which X had bought on the way to the hideout/Y had cooked Z things. Then they all went to do their daily jobs. After some time, I'm muttering: enough already.

Of all the characters, the new one, James, was the most 'real' to me; not the protagonist, Stalker. The Alpha of the pack didn't do much, neither did the fairy godthing. Stalker keeps feeling she's losing her humanity, the rest don't seem to care. I never quite got why the pack was doing what it was doing. Maybe because I came into the series with Book 2. But...

2 stars = It's okay...