This month I read a great book. It was called The Forgotten Ship by J.N. Chaney and Terry Mixon.

I have read a few books by both authors in the past and have liked them all, and both of them have written a number of books so I picked this one up, not realizing it was the first book in a series. I so enjoyed this novel that I bought the second book in the series, Shadow Relics, and read it. I have purchased the next book in the series, but I have not had the opportunity to continue forward yet.

As I mentioned, this book is the first book in The Forgotten Ship series. It looks like there are currently five books in the series, but I don’t know yet if the series is still ongoing.

The series boasts a detailed and complex universe, set far into the future. It is all built into the character-driven story. The main characters are anti-heroes who work in the gray areas of the law to steal antiquities and return them to museums and centers where they can be studied.

But they find themselves paired with some others who double-cross them and leave them on an ancient ship, just before the system’s star is about to nova.

But this is the least of their surprises.

The story is action-packed and keeps you engaged, pulling you through from beginning to end.

The characters are all well-developed, and the world-building is exceptional. You root for the main characters and want them to overcome all the conflicts that keep hitting them.

I loved this book and have moved on to the next in the series and am currently ready to start on the third installment.

If you get the chance to read this series, you should!

But that is just my opinion!

~Jeff

 

He Who Fights With Monsters

 

This month I read a great book. It was called He Who Fights With Monsters by Shirtaloon and Travis Deverell.

I have to admit, this book was recommended to me by one of my brothers, and it took me quite a long time to start it. I was a victim of judging a book by its title. The title seemed too ‘on the nose’ and I thought the book might be a bit of the same. Consequently, it took me over a year to pick it up after it was recommended. But I had several other people recommend it also, so I thought maybe I was misjudging it without taking the time to take a look. So this month I downloaded it on audio and listened to it as I traveled to a writers’ conference. It was much greater than even the recommendations made me expect.

The main character of this novel is a man who wakes up in a new universe one morning and is forced to begin an adventure in a country that he does not understand or really even believe exists in the beginning. This beginning is not different from many other stories that I have read in the past, but the author’s humor and the character’s believability make the story engaging and believable.

This book is the beginning of a series, and I have to say, even after 29 hours of the first book, I was not ready for the first episode to end. I will definitely continue the series.

The characters are all well-developed, and the world-building is exceptional. You root for this character, even though you may not always agree with the way he goes about doing his business. Or maybe you will. Each of us has our own way of getting through life, and you can see where this character has gotten his values and why he does the things he does. The world is so well-created that you can buy into the choices that each character makes and the flow of the story.

This is another author that I will add to my list of ‘to read’.

If you get the chance to read this series, you really ought to do so. 

~Jeff