Book Review: MJ-12: Endgame by Mike Martinez
The MJ-12 series (MJ-12 Inception, MJ-12: Shadows) comes to a successful conclusion in Mike Martinez’s MJ-12 Endgame, where a plot by Lavrentiy Beria to take control of the Soviet Union after Stalin’s death will help decide the fate of Variants across the world. MJ-12: Endgame does not waste any time in dropping us into the world of Mike Martinez’s MJ-12 ‘verse, an alternate world where people given superpowers by two mysterious vortexes at the end of the second World War are recruited into the intelligence agencies of the USA and the USSR to covertly thwart the plots and plans of the other side.
Book Review: THE ART OF STARVING by Sam J. Miller
A few years back I quickly fell in love with the short fiction of Sam J. Miller. Published across a spectrum of electronic genre venues (Shimmer, Apex, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Clarkesworld, Uncanny), Miller also gained recognition in print with “Calved”, originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction and reprinted in multiple ‘Year’s Best’ anthologies. I’m drawn to Miller’s fiction for several reasons that tie together. Foremost are his characters: strong and unique voices that reflect points of views not frequently explored in genre fiction. Even though these characters may often be very different from myself – with conditions or experiences I’ve never faced – Miller excels at making them universally relatable. His themes focus on the strengths and weaknesses of their basic humanity. Beautiful mixtures of fragility and fortitude, Miller’s characters compel reader empathy and emotion, even if the character’s specific situation is personally unfamiliar to the reader. This character-driven realism gives Miller’s insightful explorations a mainstream, literary tone. Yet, Miller’s stories are firmly in the genre camp. It is this deft balance between literary realism and the uncanny or speculation of SciFi/Fantasy/Horror that I enjoy so much.
Book Review: MJ-12 Shadows by Michael Martinez
Syria, in the Middle East, is full of turmoil. Violence, political chaos, powers outside the region meddling and backing various factions and individuals, only enflaming and extending the conflict. The government there is on the edge of collapse, as outside agencies and internal struggles threaten to destroy Syria entirely. Good people trapped in a horrible situation that there seems no way out of, and everything even the United States tries to do just makes it all worse. A novel detailing the modern-day tragedy there? Sadly, no. The year is 1949, and we are in the midst of an alternate history, a history where the end of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War was marked by the emergence of paranormally gifted individuals, individuals who are scooped up by the espionage apparatuses of the United States and the Soviet Union, as the game of espionage takes a fantastic turn.
