Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Amazon Prime Members Read for Free

The Raven Falconer Chronicles, Episode 1 & 2, are available as free downloads with the Prime Membership offered by Amazon.




Review by IABookReviews.com
Brandon writes:
 One anagram will cover this review: O.M.G. This book is probably one of the best Zombie genre books I've read! The way the author keeps the real world in tact while the deadly virus ravages the world was amazing. As an author of a zombie series, I've got a lot I could learn from this author, and I plan to! I will recommend this to ALL zombie fans, period!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Joseph Spuckler Review: Rise of the Huskers

Joe has now reviews three of my works and here is his latest effort:
(Please be aware of a spoiler alert associated with this review.)

The Rise of the Huskers picks up where Operation Z Day ends. Raven and her roommates are still holed up in the cabin. The Huskers are humans who higher brain functions have been destroyed by a virus that now stay alive on instinct alone. The Huskers search for food and their first choice of food is uninfected humans. They are, for all practical purposes, zombies in the traditional Hollywood sense.

Raven and her roommates continue to live in their well armed cabin and continue to meet with RCMP Zygmunt Nowicki, an Afghanistan veteran and the lone law man in the story. The book opens with a bit of a surprise. Eli Falconer, Raven's father, is still alive. From reading the first book, Eli drives off, infected, and shortly afterwards a gunshot is heard. I thought he took his own life to prevent his "turning."

If the Huskers were not enough to worry about, a coup in the neighboring Indian reserve brings to power a new chief who wants all the historical back including the town of Banff. Not only do they want the land back, they want all the town's people off their land. Zygmunt and the girls gather up the uninfected people of Banff and hole up in a hotel to defend against two enemies.

The virus that turns people into Huskers destroys all higher brain functions cerebrum: reason, memory, problem solving. What happens when the virus does not destroy all higher functions? You have a leader and organizer of the Huskers. An extremely dangerous adversary.

A moral question is also brought up. If the Huskers are humans and sick, is it right to hunt and kill them? Can they be cured? Without any government or military help to be found, does it really matter?

The Rise of the Huskers is an action packed and fast paced sequel to Operation Z Day. It is smart and well written. The storyline is one of the most believable "zombie" series I have read. I am looking forward to the third installment of this series. Great characters and a great story make for a great afternoon of reading.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Rise of the Huskers 5 Star Review

Qualified editor and review specialist Hannah Jones recently read and then reviewed Rise of the Huskers.  This is what she had to say:

"I read the first book in the Raven Falconer series a few months ago, having been blessed with a free copy, and I was immediately hooked, which is saying something because I DO NOT READ zombie books. Ever. I'm am a person who does not like gore, even entertaining gore. Well, I was a person who didn't like entertaining gore. I am that person no more. Larsen has changed that with this series.

Larsen is very knowledgeable about what to do in this book. This second installment is much more disturbing than the first, which set up the back story of the heroine and her group of friends well enough that I really cared what happened to them in this book and was truly invested in their lives and struggles, emotional and physical. We get to see the girls in their weakest and strongest moments in this book, which draws some complexity into them and endears them more to me.

Because I like the girls so much and love their personalities, I wanted more of them in the book. The story focuses on three different P.O.Vs, and they were done very well with perfect cross-over, but I wanted more of the friendship from the girls because I'm a dramatist at heart. I would not take off for that, however, as the story is well paced and kept me reading, engaged and intrigued.

The only reason the book is a 4.7 in my book (a rating not applicable for Goodreads and I will not lower the rating of such a well written book) is because I felt that the Native struggle played upon some Cowboy vs. Indian themes that make the Native "other" something not as good, as virtuous, as the protagonist. I do not think that was the purpose, however. I think the purpose was to add a new element to the book outside of the husker scare, and that was successful.

Larsen was actually very careful in handling the struggle, and did show that there were, indeed, some virtuous people on both sides, some scared people on both sides, people on both sides that struggled with something unfathomable. I have a feeling complexity will be integrated into this relationship, and am eager to see how it goes. The struggle certainly adds a dimension of suspense and fear that would not be present with a simple zombie vs. human novel.

I also really appreciate, from this novel, the complexity of the huskers. We get to see the undead point of view and it's not as easy as it seems to be in the stale themes we see on the tv and read in so many zombie books. I love that Larsen added these other elements to bring the zombie novel up to par. This author is a must read in thriller, suspense, drama and adult fiction. I highly recommend this book and all books by Larsen. I read this book in a matter of hours, and I read the first book just as quickly. And now, I have to wait for the third book, which is agonizing."

See more on Goodreads.com