Hey everyone. Sorry for the long delay in updates, but I’m happy to announce that my next book, For the Love of Death, is coming soon! It’s the third book of the Angels of Death series. I’ve got it done, edited, a cover, and all the rest, so check back for more in the next couple of weeks!
I’ve also got some updates for the website and general news and I’ll go into that next week. That’s all for now, thanks for reading!
I read JP Wilder’s Schade of Night this past weekend and I wanted to share my review of that. Here’s the book description below:
Schade Lee, ex-FBI agent turned PI, is on a mission to prove her dreams wrong. While on a case to find runaway Kylie Berson, Schade follows a gruesome path where she learns Kylie is in love with a serial killer with animalistic instincts. But what she does not know is that the killer is of supernatural origins, that she will inherit a demonic bloodline on her thirty-third birthday, and that she has had a guardian since birth.
After the killer lures her to a frozen town, Schade meets her guardian, Kenan Quicke, who tells her they are allies with the same goal. But Schade, who has never made a habit of trusting strangers, decides to continue on her mission—just as she learns the killer has set his sights on her. His plan is to recover an ancient artifact and use it to steal her budding power at the height of her soul’s transition. Now, with help from Kenan, she must not only defeat the killer and destroy the artifact, but also face the Sentinels, a shadowy organization that intends to enslave her for their own purposes.
I’ll start this off by saying Schade of Night is very dark contemporary fantasy. The characters live in a twisted, shadowy world where people’s souls are stripped from them, characters lives are taken, and where being a seemingly main character is no guarantee for survival. JP Wilder does a great job of showing that, as every page gives the reader a level of concern about not just how the book might end, but whether this or that character is even going to make it to the next paragraph.
Wilder ratchets up the tension with each encounter and his attention to detail is such that the universe is encompassing and solid, even if, as blood spatters everywhere, you might not wish to be so immersed just then. The violence comes quick and often, and the characters are in the unenviable positions of knowing exactly what they need to do… and knowing they haven’t a hope in hell of doing it on their own.
Schade of Night is a book that embraces the darkness of its own story and comes out the other side giving the reader a sense that, while the world may be a dark place, there are still those who will face that darkness and fight it until the end. It is not a story of happy endings but of calamities averted at great cost. You don’t need to read Schade of Night, but you should.
It’s been a little while since I posted anything like this, but I figured I’d share what I read in my free time (such as it is, anymore). This is a variety of fiction and some non-fiction that I’ve read over the past few months. Most of these books I tear through in a day (sometimes just an afternoon). The fiction books are mostly in series, so if you haven’t started them, I recommend the first books.
Monster Hunter Nemesis: A fanciful tale about friendship and the importance of making new friends… aw, who am I kidding? Agent Franks goes on a rampage as he takes on demons from the pits of hell. I’ll admit, I didn’t like it as much as the other books in the series, but it was still a fun read. It’s the 5th book of the Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia.
Skin Game: The next iteration of the Dresden Files. It was fun, good reading, and proves again why Jim Butcher is one of the leading urban fantasy authors out there. It had great twists and turns and excellent payoffs for long-time fans of the series.
Alternity Player’s Handbook: Because if you’re going to play a SF roleplaying game you might as well select one that’s both out of print and one that almost no one has ever heard of. Even better to use it in a fantasy setting. Better yet, I wrote up my own rules on magic use to fit into the campaign setting my players are in. I love the rules for this game though and know them well enough that it’s easy(ish) for me to apply them to almost any setting as a gamemaster.
Warhammer 40,000 7th Edition Rulebook: Yes, I play WH. No, I’m not a big fan of GW’s background, business practices, or even morality. However, at this point I’m so invested in the game that I might as well keep playing. Because if they made their models out of platinum and gold, they might just drop a bit in value… I even managed to get in a game just over two months ago.
Environmental Engineering Reference Manual for the PE Exam: That one is just as exciting as it sounds. Just a part of trying to improve myself. Actually, it’s not that bad a read, but I find that kind of thing interesting.
That’s what I’ve read over the past few months. Feel free to check it out, see if you like it, or not.
Kal Spriggs 