Starship Grifters by Robert Kroese

Starship Grifters (A Rex Nihilo Adventure) -

Rex is something of a buffoon.  He has troubles with money.  Troubles with knowing when to quit.  Troubles with the bad guys -- and the good ones for that matter.  But he's also got Sasha.  Sasha can't lie.  She cannot think new thoughts or she'll reboot.  Still, she's Rex's best hope for saving him from himself (and some others).  Together they travel the galaxy in a constant state of trying to escape the last mess that Rex got them into.   They’ll travel everywhere, from a seemingly barren  planet to a prison colony.   They try to avoid just about everyone, including the ship-to-ship missionaries, and yet they still manage to pick up new friends and enemies both. 

Fans of Kroese’s Mercury series won’t be disappointed but it’s also a suitable read for those new to his work.  The same style of wit is here.  Instead of angels and demons his characters deal with other humans and aliens.   My only concern with this book is that is runs the risk of becoming repetitive if the series goes on too long.  

This book is best for people who like comedic sci-fi (Hitchhiker’s, Red Dwarf, etc).   

* Disclaimer: I received this book at no cost in order to review it. I offered no guarantee of a positive review, though I only request books I think I'll like because why read a book you think you’ll hate?

Lost Vegas

Lost Vegas TP By Jim McCann and Janet Lee

I decided to read this comic for one reason and one reason only: it was touted as being the book that reunites the team behind Return of the Dapper Men. Return of the Dapper Men was the book that had such pretty artwork that it made my mom announce she wanted that book. My mom. She’s not exactly known for her comic book habit. That is one winning team to put out a book like that. I probably shouldn’t fall for work where the first lines of the description are basically “by the people who brought you…” At least not without looking deeper into the book. Thing is, in this case the description beyond that sounded like it could be interesting. 

The artwork is lovely, but after seeing the work in Dapper men, it’s a bit of a let down. The story line is bland and forgettable. Basically people who screw up are forced to work off their debts on this Los Vegas style ship. One guy gets tired of it and plots his escape with a little help. There’s no real character development. There are bad guys (obviously) but the worst of them almost seem like page filler while they waste time trying to decide if they’ll let our poor sap escape or not. Actually most of the book feels like filler. I’m still waiting for a story that I care about and it’s sadly just not there. Neither the art nor the story is going to make anyone’s mom a comic book fan. Sad, I had such high hopes.

* Disclaimer: I received this book at no cost in order to review it. I offered no guarantee of a positive review, though I only request books I think I'll like because why read a book you think you’ll hate?

Glitch

Glitch (A Glitch Novel) By Heather Anastasiu

Okay this is one of those that is tough for me to review. I liked some aspects of it and really hated others. Mild mild spoilers ahead.

Some of the things that really bugged me -
Words get used over and over and over and over again. To the point that if I ever read them again I'll probably throw up. I hate that in a book. I don't mind characters or groups having their own slang / favorite words. When I am getting to the point that if I see them so much in one page I feel like I might have to just give up on the book, well, you've used them too much because I'm pretty darned patient.

The love stories were just not interesting. The real love story was eh the fairly typical madly in love at first sight kind of thing you find in many YA novels. From Zoe's point of view the immediate intense feelings could make sense - she was one of the people who had never been truly in control of their own mind. First time she's allowed to think or feel on her own and she experiences a boy as a teenage girl. Blamo. If she thought the greens of the trees were exciting of course a kiss is going to make her crazy. The boy, however, had in fact lived with his own mind in tact so that kind of love was insane from him that quickly.

The second love story, such as it was, seemed to only exist to give us a psycho creepy villain. 

Unless I totally misread a major part of the book Zoe seemed to disable some of age chipped out folk, but then never had a thought about how "Woah I did THAT? Maybe I could do that to my parents' chips"

Still. there is some good. The concept itself is good. The last few chapters were excellent when Adrien's slang wasn't spreading like a virus. None of the good aspects were enough for me to really care about going forward with the series though. In the end the bad beat out the good.

* Disclaimer: I received this book at no cost in order to review it. I offered no guarantee of a positive review, though I only request books I think I'll like because why read a book you think you’ll hate?