Tag Archives: short stories

March 23, 2013 · 6:00 am

The Space Between by Diana Gabaldon

 

Diana Gabaldon

 

Okay, let’s be honest – this review is only going to interest you if you’re an Outlander fan. Which you SHOULD be, because the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon is probably one of the greatest things ever written in the history of the universe.

The Space Between is a novella / short story that was recently published in an anthology The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination. I’m not a big one for short stories or anthologies, so I borrowed this book from the library just to read Gabaldon’s story. It’s also featured in A Trail of Fire (a book of four Outlander and Lord John related short stories), which hasn’t been released in the US yet but is available in the UK.

Anyways, The Space Between is about Michael Murray escorting Joan MacKenzie to Paris, where she plans to join a convent. This is taking place at the same time as the end of An Echo in the Bone, so you should probably only read it if you’re up-to-date on the Outlander series. Michael is grieving for his dead wife and another family member, and Joan is trying to escape some things she doesn’t understand. Events take place, which I can’t mention here (it’s surprising how many spoilers are in an 82-page story), but it DEFINITELY gives a lot of food for thought. I’m wondering now if we’ll see more of Michael and Joan’s stories in book #8 (hopefully to be out late this year) and if so, how much events there will affect Jamie and Claire’s main storyline. Just a hint - Master Raymond appears in this story. I find Raymond SOOOOO intriguing, so this was very exciting. I now have a million questions, but that’s to be expected from such a little teaser.

 Man I love this series.

Sarah Says: 4 stars

 

 

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July 11, 2011 · 10:18 am

In the Dead: Volume 1 by Jesse Petersen

(There isn’t a picture yet for In the Dead: Volume 1, so here’s a picture of my beloved books in the zombie-fun series Living With the Dead!)

I’ve been gushing about author Jesse Petersen and her Living With the Dead series for a long while now. (In fact, click to see my reviews for book 1, book 2, and book 3.) This has become a favorite series of mine, about married couple Sarah and David battling zombies and saving their marriage during the zombie outbreak that occurs in the Northwest of the U.S. in 2010. So when Jesse Petersen tweeted one that day she would send a PDF copy of her new collection of short stories coming out to book bloggers that were interested, I jumped at the chance.

In the Dead: Volume 1 is a collection of 9 short stories set in the same zombie-apocalypse world as her LWTD series, but with new characters. Per her website, it will be released on August 1, 2011. I believe it will only be available in e-book format, though I could be wrong about that. And while it’s not available on Amazon yet, it should show up there around the end of this month.

I really, really enjoyed getting these peek into other survivors’ lives, and seeing other parts of the U.S. during the outbreak. Throughout the LWTD series, there are rumors of a Mid-West Wall that was erected and it’s rumored that there are no zombies on the other side. In two of the short stories here, we actually get a glimpse of life on the other side of the Wall!

Overall, these stories are a great addition to this zombified world that Jesse has created. My favorites were…

…Bonewrecker 2, in which we meet a kid who misses the first days of the zombie apocalypse because he’s a video game addict.

…I Call It Lost Wages, in which we meet Sam and Troy – two survivors traveling together to try to find a safe place. (I would be really interested in seeing their story expanded, I sense some romance there.)

…They’re the Lions Now, in which we meet two brothers living on the other side of the Wall.

…and Reality Bites, in which reality TV takes a zombified-turn. I could totally see this happening if a zombie outbreak really occurred!

The great thing about Jesse’s zombie books is that she can be funny, scary, or really thoughtful when it comes to the zombie apocalypse. One minute you’re laughing about a zombie bridezilla, and the next you’re contemplating humanity and the wonder at people helping each other out during such a scary time. There’s just so much to explore.

While I’m still really craving a new novel in the LWTD series (I love Sarah and David), these short stories are a great way to get my zombie-world fix until then.

Also, since In the Dead: Volume 1 isn’t available for purchase yet on Amazon, I’ll make sure to post the link to it when it is :-)

Sarah Says: 4 stars

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*Disclaimer: I accepted an advance PDF copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. I received no compensation for said review.

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· 9:18 am

Two Mini-Reviews

So, for those of you that know me or have been following my blog awhile, you know that I dislike e-readers and I’m not a fan of the whole e-book movement. I really, really prefer IRL paper books. And I will always be willing to spend more on a paper book than on an e-book. Seriously, if I have the choice to buy either of these books in paperback form, even though they’re super short stories, I’d do it. I’d pay regular mass market paperback price. Because I’m weird like that.

There are two authors that I am a big fan of that have put out short stories that are only available in e-book format. Jesse Petersen recently published a short story about the big-shot media during the zombie apocalypse, and Heather Webber put out a short story about one of my favorite romance characters, Lucy Valentine.

And because I adore these authors and really wanted to read these stories, I downloaded Kindle-for-PC onto the laptop and bought these e-books. They only cost me $3 total, but again I would’ve paid more if I could buy them in paper copies. Anyways, here are my mini-reviews for these mini e-books.

I adore Jesse Petersen’s Living With the Dead series, and this book takes place in the same zombie-apocalypse setting but with different characters. Avery Andrews is a tv director, and is filming a telethon to get people to donate money going to research for “The Outbreak”. It appears that some sort of sickness starting in the Northwest and is heading for L.A., but it couldn’t actually reach the city of stars, could it?

I liked Avery, the main character. She had a cool head on her shoulders, and it was interesting to see one person’s perspective on the walking dead reaching such a major city. Also, we get to see a little bit more about the zombie outbreak – symptoms, the time frame it takes to change, etc. Definitely worth the read if you enjoy the Living With the Dead series.

Heather Webber’s series about Lucy Valentine is adorable. (These are cute romance novels about a girl with unusual psychic abilities solving mysteries and trying to date her handsome co-worker.) This mini-book is a short scene in which Lucy shares with her best friends just exactly how she thought she lost her inherent psychic ability, but then rediscovered that it wasn’t lost, just changed. It was nice to get the specifics on that, and to visit Lucy while I’m waiting for a new novel in the series.

These e-books were so short that I’m not going to do my usual star rating on them. But I enjoyed them both, and they were welcome additions to some of my favorite series. If you haven’t read anything by these authors before, I highly recommend them.

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February 4, 2011 · 3:32 pm

The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

 

What a wonderful little addition to the Harry Potter series. I personally love that Rowling published the book mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. And since I was able to read the whole thing in maybe an hour, I bet that the individual stories would be good fairy-tale stories for kiddos (except maybe “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart”.)

This book contains 5 wizard fairy-tales, all uniquely different, and all with the same important messages championed throughout the whole Harry Potter series – tolerance, kindness, love, and selflessness. I especially love Dumbledore’s commentary at the end of each tale, because he’s one of the characters I miss the most and he essentially spells out exactly what each tale is trying to tell you.

Like I said, this makes a great add-on to the series. It also has pretty little illustrations through-out it. My only small disappointment is that Hermione, who (according to the Intro) translated the stories from runes, doesn’t make any small little commentary in the book like Dumbledore. I guess it’s just good enough to imagine that in Hermione’s adult life, she’s still putting energy into academic pursuits :)

And I guess that’s what you shouldn’t expect from this book – don’t expect any new info on what the HP characters are doing in their post-Voldy lives. While this book was great, what we really want (are you listening, J.K.?) is info like…

Did Hagrid and Olympe marry and half-giant babies?
Did Dudley and Harry ever meet and become friends?
Does Teddy Lupin develop some sort of tragic story?
Does 12 Grimmauld Place become Harry’s home ever?
Did Hermione manage to free any more house-elves?
And so on and so forth… I wish I could know everything about how everyone’s lives turned out… sure J.K. won’t ever really do that though ;-)

Still, for this book Sarah Says: 4 stars

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October 9, 2010 · 9:23 pm

>Blackbird House by Alice Hoffman

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You can always count on Alice Hoffman for a great magical read.
 
Blackbird House is essentially a bunch of chronological short stories, revolving around the inhabitants of the same “Blackbird House”, and spanning hundreds of years. This book was full of beautiful descriptions of windy sea weather, the smell of sweet peas and fruit and salt, and some really interesting characters.
 

The first story, Edge of the World, was my favorite. It starts with the family that builds the house, and honestly this one made me misty-eyed. I realized however that on contrast, the last story wasn’t nearly as good. While the very first story was passionate, and the female character was really strong, the very last story had a female character that I had a hard time liking (odd, because she’s pretty cool in a previous story). As the book progressed, the stories got less interesting. I have a feel that has more to do with my fondness for the old settings and people, and being biased against the more modern days. Things just seemed more interesting and dramatic back in the day!

 

(Also, this was my first completed read of the 24-Hour Read-A-Thon, so expect at least one more review today, hopefully two. )

 

4 stars

 

~Sarah

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