What to read while waiting for the next P.S. Power book

[Pyottl]

I can't be the only one who thinks that those books are way too badly written to actually enjoy ...

[ArgyrosfeniX]

[Pyottl]

I suppose any publicity is good publicity, but I'd still be conflicted about this one

Anyway, have some more obscure indie authors (in the sense that there's more of them, and in the sense that they're more obscure):

Nel Havas' Sekma
Taking place in ancient Egypt (Early Middle Kingdom perhaps?), this follows a Sumerian slave sold to an Egyptian princess. It's told from the slave's perspective, which is an interesting technique: she has literally no agency in the plot, and, ultimately, has little relevance to the outcome of, well, anything. She could've easily been replaced by someone else.

But since she's the body servant of Sekma, she gets to know a lot of things that are going on in the Egyptian palace, and what's going on is mostly intrigue, assassinations and such.
Sekma is, of course, the real star of the book - she's completely and utterly ruthless. She's very much a "the end justifies the means" person, and if she has to butcher a bunch of innocents to help revive a stalling Egyptian kingdom she'll do so.

It's not a happy book, although not everything is doom and gloom either (there's even a little F/F romance). Writing is OK; good enough not to distract from the plot anyway.

Either way, bonus point for being something different.

James Hanlon's The Star Pirate's Folly
A Scifi adventure, about a young girl trying to get revenge against the man who killed her mother. It's in a way, pretty stereotypical; revenge + pirates + adventures ... but I don't really have anything huge to complain about, either. Maybe a bit of a teaser for a sequel, which just seems unnecessary (the revenge plot seems to be done).

[Ronald Dukarski]

Hey Argy, I've been reading "Kutherian Gambit"too. Saw Michael's use of the reviews as well. My first thought was " we should get these guys together!"

After about the third book, I checked out Michael's forum on Amazon and some of his blog, it seems he went through a lot of what Dale did. But I think he may have had a different take on things, and came through with a better taste in his mouth in the aftermath. Maybe Dale could use that kind of support on occasion.

Dale, if you read this, check this guy out. You two are, or seem to be, a lot alike. His name is Michael Anderle, and he might be your analogue in a different reality.

[Shadelit]

Think we'll have to agree to disagree with the Kutherian Gambit books being good or bad. Cause I've read every single one of them. "

Brent Roth is back from his illness recovery. hesitates to give a definite day for the release of book four for the Dragon's Wrath but it's getting there.

Critical Failures by Bevan are hilarious in a wtf kind of way. (Also known as Creatures and Caverns )

Whole lotta Modern Paranormal stuff released like book 2-3-4 for the Dark Magic Enforcer series. and a couple more yet by various authors for their respective series. Which can usually be found in the "customers who bought this, also bought" list.

[ArgyrosfeniX]

[David]

Your confused Argy, Pyotti said they were bad, not shadelit.

I think they're both right. They are badly written, but they're also fairly entertaining.

[Pyottl]

Some would say that if something is enjoyable it can't be bad, but I'm rather of the opinion that no matter how bad something is someone will still enjoy it. I'm no exception - McDonald's food is bad, but I like it occasionally. Lots of 80s/90s movies are bad, but I like them occasionally. Counter-Strike is bad, but I played that a lot, too.

Kutherian is not among those things for me, though. Wouldn't even know where to start criticizing with that series. Quite frankly, if I sell a product on Amazon, all other considerations aside, I should at least respect my costumers enough to use a simple spell checker. ^^;

Anyway, if I want to read about vamps, I'd at least pick something like Athanate or re-read the Eve ones or something ...

[David]

I can agree with that, both the Eve series, and the Athanate books which are done by Mark Henwick are much better vampire tales and much better written.

As for Kutherian, I obviously can tolerate a lower bar of grammar quality for a good story than you can. No big deal, everyone is different that way. Oh, Wendy's burgers are so much better BTW... plus ceasar side salad instead of fries... and don't forget the frosty.

[Shadelit]

To be fair, when comparing Henwick's with the Kuths. It's like doing apples to oranges. One is more 'serious' the other is more 'comedy'. You just can't compare like that and the blanket effect be something that's a reasonable deduction. As for the spelling. Name me a single author even from the big publisher companies that do one book every four years. That have had a book go through completely typo free. You can't. Heck, I love the SpellMonger series, and that one is.. Good god almighty utterly riddled with problems at points. Cause we get sick of waiting, and the author releases them without being a polished product, cause we demand it. Still makes for a great read.

Back to the Kuth books. There are SOME Points where I want to yawn through it, and skim a couple pages until it's over the scene that it was putting me to sleep with. Not saying they're perfect. No book is perfect. But they're still an entertaining read for their offered as bracket.