Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
They land on Sado Island where they become separated. Carmeron is held prisoner by sentient insects that look like monsters while Jayne is in the same underground chamber of caves trying to find Cameron with the help of a mysterious stranger who knows more than he should about the bugs and their plans. The Japanese warlord Noriyama wants to use the same substance that the alien prisoners are mining to make a weapon that will give the Japanese dominance in world affairs. Jayne, Cameron and the mysterious stranger will do everything in their power to stop them.
Combine the action of a Lara Croft movie with the premise of H.G. Wells book War of the worlds and readers will have some idea what BLOOD AND ROSES is all about. Jayne is a modern day heroine who is living in the 1920’s doing things that are usually the province of men including saving the world. The audience will like Jayne for her loyalty, her humanity, passion and bravery but they will find themselves paying attention to the mysterious stranger and hope he and Jayne will have more adventures in future books. The premise of this tale would make a fantastic movie.
Harriet Klausner
Sword of Orion Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Phobos, Oct 2005, $14.95, 287 pp. ISBN 0972002655
At one time in the part of the galaxy known as the Sword of Orion, the inhabited planets were ruled by the fascist organization known as the Oligarchy until brave men and women rose up and joined the rebellion. In the last battle when the Oligarchy threw all their ships and weapons at the rebel armada, the device rebel leaders Parvair and Banin invented took both fleets out of normal space. This caused the Oligarchy to collapse and democracy sprang up among the former repressed planets.
Parvair and Banin’s infant daughter Jerel, who was a part of the device that caused the armadas to vanish, now lives with her uncle Orned. The sixteen year old girl is forced to flee her home with her uncle, her friend kay and the turlan alien Erazias because the former rebel Chuton now joins forces with those who want the Oligarchy to rise again and to do this he needs Jerel to make the reconstructed device operational and retrieve the armadas. Jerel and her allies jump from planet to planet to escape the agents who want to use her because she and her allies have a plan to retrieve the armada and neutralize the ships of the Oligarchy.
Sharon Lee and Steve Miller can be counted on to tell a compelling and exciting story set in a future world where traveling through space to visit the populated worlds is an everyday occurrence. The alien species are believable and play a key part in the storyline working besides the human for a common goal. Brilliant characterizations, exotic cultures and thrilling chase scenes make SWORD OF ORION a book that is destined to become a classic.
Harriet Klausner
Dragon America Mike Resnick Phobos, Sep 2005, $14.95, 288 pp. ISBN: 0972002693
George Washington sends Daniel Boone to the Ohio wilderness where the frontiersman is to seek his adopted father Chief Blackfish to enlist the Shawnee to the American cause against the British. However, Blackfish is irate with his “son” for escorting settlers onto Shawnee lands; in fact Daniel is banned from the tribal lands. Still the brave frontiersman feels he must make the effort and accompanied by only his minuscule dragon Banshee ventures onto Shawnee territory.
When Daniel arrives at Blackfish’s camp, he finds British colonial loyalist Simon Ginty advising the chief. Daniel requests a thousand warriors, but a reluctant Blackfish offers a couple of hundred. Instead his son Gray Eagle provides Daniel with a counter suggestion that they head further west to the land of the giant dragons and tame these potential weapons of mass destruction to use against Cornwallis' army. Boone agrees and the two men accompanied by escaped Indian slave Pompey journey to the land of the giant dragons.
The structure of the wonderful alternate history DRAGON AMERICA is actually four interrelated novellas that flow brilliantly together to enable the audience to feel events including believing mythical creatures are genuine. The above paragraphs only relate the beginning of the book of Daniel, but are followed by fabulous entries starring George Washington, Pompey's book and Ephram Eakins (working on training a different dragon breed). Mike Resnick shows why he is one of the best fantasists writing today as he adds dragons to the Revolutionary War and makes his book seem like a thrilling historical fiction as much as a fantasy.