A too-short novel that handles the delicacy of memory, nostalgia, growing up in the 80s, and ghost stories. Craig Davidson’s poignant and engaging The Saturday Night Ghost Club is an emotional and compelling read. Jake, the story’s narrator relates to the reader a coming-of-age summer as he, his new best friend, the friend’s sister, and…
Category: The Book Shelf
The Facts of Death (1998) – Raymond Benson
James Bond is back. Building off his previous short story, Blast From the Past, the novel, Zero Minus Ten, and his adaptation of Tomorrow Never Dies, author Raymond Benson thrusts 007 into another globetrotting adventure that takes him from London to Texas, and Cyprus in an attempt to stop a viral outbreak and a growing…
‘Salem’s Lot (1975) – Stephen King
I had a tough time with the horror genre when I was a child. My imagination was always much more powerful than any image I may have glimpsed through my fingers and consequently, I couldn’t watch them. But I was intrigued by spooky ideas. It wasn’t until I was 12 going on 13 that I…
August Kitko and the Mechas from Space (2022) – Alex White
Orbit Books delivers a loud space opera with Alex White’s new novel, August Kitko and the Mechas from Space. The first in a new series known as the Starmetal Symphony, August Kitko is a fantastic tale that plays like a jazz fusion anime in the mind’s eye. Combining giant robot action, with a joyously crafted…
The Mote in God’s Eye (1974) – Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven
I’ve been getting more and more into some classic science fiction books, layering out a lot of the modern science fiction I’ve been finding myself reading, and I recall a friend of mine proclaiming that The Mote in God’s Eye is one of the best first contact books they’d ever read. I trust his opinion…
The Apollo Murders (2021) – Chris Hadfield
Retired astronaut and national treasure Chris Hadfield delivers a fast-paced thriller with The Apollo Murders. It’s a look at an all too believable reality as the story follows the training, launch, and mission of Apollo 18. It’s made all the more believable because Hadfield not only knows his subject matter, emotionally and technically, using an…
Gwendy’s Final Task (2022) – Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
Stephen King pairs up for a second time with Richard Chizmar to deliver the final book in the Gwendy trilogy. The book solidly ties itself into The Dark Tower universe as Gwendy now a junior senator, and about to be an astronaut because once again, the enigmatic Mr. Farris has shown up with the increasingly…
Eyes of the Void (2022) – Adrian Tchaikovsky
Orbit Books hooked me with Tchaikovsky’s Shard of Earth so I was very eager to dive into the second novel in the series Eyes of the Void. Once again I was swept up in the fantastically told tale, as Tchaikovsky built on what had already happened in the first novel continued delving into the worlds…
Ararat (2017) – Christopher Golden
Ararat is a horror novel that moves along at breakneck speed whether you believe in the subject matter or not. And that puts the reader in exactly the same situation that the characters in the book find themselves in. When an avalanche reveals an impossibility on the mountain known as Ararat a pair of adventurers…
Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series (1997) – Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens
Simon & Schuster Books takes me back to the early to mid-70s when I was a child and had just discovered the wonder of what was Star Trek: The Original Series in reruns. While I was meeting Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest for the first time, Paramount and the creative minds behind the scenes,…
The Mind Reels 