Kildar
John Ringo
Baen, Mar 2006, $26.00
ISBN 1416520643

Former Navy SEAL Mike Harmon uses the large award he received for his recent rescue mission (see GHOST) to travel. Currently he is in the Caucasus Mountains touring the former Soviet state of Georgia looking for the Bakuriani Resort when a blizzard leaves him stranded and in need of shelter. He is fortunate as a young girl Katrina rescues him and takes him to her home in a remote area over the objections of her father. The American likes the tranquil area and soon buys the land.

Harmon rules in his fiefdom with kindness towards the natives, but soon finds that Eden has its outside snakes. He organizes the local tribe, the Keldara, to protect them from Chechen raiders and begins to learn their customs and heritage. However though he is their ruler, the Keldara hide some information from their foreign warlord.

Mike Harmon is a fascinating hero who epitomizes the maxim that power corrupts as he learns that moral issues are not simple up and down votes; choices for the good of one person can negatively impact another. The story line is action-packed as expected with a John Ringo tale, but as in GHOST, once again Mr. Ringo provides a thought provoking character driven thriller (not a military sci fi) as his champion finds the paradox of ethics means someone, often an innocent, gets hurt. This is a great sequel from Mr. Ringo.

Harriet Klausner

Red Lighting
John Varley
Ace April 2006, $23.95, 336 pp.
ISBN 0441613643

Over two decades ago Ray Garcia-Strictland’s parents as well as Travis Broussard and his brilliant scientist cousin Jubal fly to Mars using old railroad tank cars and The Squeezer energy drive to make a safe landing. Jubal invented The Squeezer, a free energy source that defies the laws of physics and can only be produced by him. Now Earth has a clean cheap source of energy which allows “Earthies” to visit the colony of Mars and see the sights. One day something going at a phenomenal speed hits the ocean causing a giant tsunami that wipes out the eastern seaboard of America.

Three months later an invasion fleet from Earth lands on Mars looking for Jubal who escaped his “hosts” in the Falkland Islands where he was heavily guarded against kidnappers from other governments. The invaders torture the Stricklands because whoever is behind the invasion thinks the Stricklands know where Jubal is and they want him back so he can produce Squeezer bubbles of energy. The invaders eventually free the Strictlands hoping that Jubal will contact them and when he does it is up to seventeen year old Ray to figure out how to free Mars and keep Jubal safe and happy.

Readers get to see what damage a tsunami can do when the Stricklands fly to earth to rescue Ray’s grandmother. This is an action packed space thriller when one man is so valuable, governments, businessmen and politicians will go to any lengths to find and keep him. Jubal is an endearing child-like man who is heartbroken to see that his discovery has a dark and evil downside. Ray is the narrator and the story is told in the first person and that gives readers a ringside seat to the aftereffects of the tsunami and the chase scenes between the invaders and Ray and his companions. RED LIGHTING is filled with action and populated by characters readers will care deeply about.

The Blackgloom Bounty
Jon F. Baxley
Five Star, Apr, 2006, $25.95
ISBN 1594144516

In 988 Britain, Merlin visits his former apprentice Kruzurk “Boozer” Makshare for the first time in seven decades with a boon to stop another former student the powerful Seed of Cerberus. Kruzurk thinks back to when he and the Seed were pupils of the great mage and he caught his peer stealing Merlin’s tools. For his efforts Boozer was cursed and Merlin was gone.

Kruzurk knows the quest begins at the demon-guarded Blackgloom Keep. On the journey he meets Daynin McKinnon, who shows him a rune-covered headstone, which is probably the legendary Blackgloom Bounty that will gain him entrance into the keep though the lad wants to sell it to replenish his family’s dwindling fortune. While Daynin meets clever Sabritha Kilcullen, Kruzurk uses the young man to further his efforts to destroy the Seed. Others join his adventure not realizing how Kruzurk manipulates them as pawns in his efforts to overcome the insurmountable odds and achieve his boon.

This terrific medieval fantasy with its Camelot connection will elate readers for its fast-paced, action-thrilled story line starring a strong cast. From the opening dream visit of Merlin to the final confrontation and more, the tale never takes a breath yet the motives of the key players are fully developed especially Kruzurk’s desire and Daynin’s struggle between fortune, love and good deeds. Jon F. Baxley adds to the legend of Arthur with this strong medieval Britain fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

Tatja Grimm’s World
Vernor Vinge
Tor, Feb 2006, $14.95
ISBN: 0765308851

“The Barbarian Queen”. While traveling on the Tarulle Barge, Fantasie editor for the last fifteen years of its seven century run Rey Guille buys the illogical stories of Hrala the over six foot Barbarian Queen because they are so popular. However, publicist Cor Ascuasenta has brought a live pre-puberty six foot female who cannot speak Sprak to act as Hrala. Her name as best they can make it out is Tatja Grimm. As they sail onward to their next stop the primitive shows intelligence and strength of character; her plan is to rule the barge.

“The Imposter Queen”. Five years later, Tatja meets thesis candidate Svir Hedrigs and his pet Ancho the dorfox explaining to him she is the science editor for Fantasie. He believes she lies so he fibs about his astronomy experiences. Svir soon sails on the Tarulle Barge but it is Ancho and his ability to make illusions that Tatja finds fascinating as she has out stripped the intelligence of the barge and plans to rule the world.

“Feral Child”. Though she rules the ocean world, Tatja still seeks more. Offworlders seemingly more intelligent than anyone she has ever met treat her like an intelligent pet, but offer her an opportunity to learn the truth of why she feels intellectually superior to those around her as she plans to rule their world.

Tatja Grimm’s World is actually three separate short stories that chronicle the adventures of the title heroine. Fans will wonder if she is evil as she uses people since she believes they are inferior to her. Though somewhat lacking coherence as it is three separate shorts, readers will appreciate Verne Vinge’s look at cultural anthropology.

Harriet Klausner

The Sword of Straw
Amanda Hemingway
Del Rey, April 2006, $12.95, 320 pp.
ISBN: 0345460804

When Anne’s husband died, she followed him into a realm beyond ours and when she returned she was pregnant. When Nathan was born, she knew her husband didn’t impregnate her but a being from that other dimension did. At the age of fourteen Nathan has the ability when he is dreaming to transport himself into parallel universes and last year he brought the Grail back to his own realm and gave it for safe keeping to his honorary uncle Bartley a wizard who lived for many centuries.

The Grail was forged on the planet Eos along with the Sword and the Crown a millennium by the Grandir. The objects were sent to various worlds so they would be out of harms way and will be used at the proper time to save Eos from destruction. Nathan now dreams of a medieval world where the realm is dying due to the illness of the king and the evacuation of the people who fear the hidden spirit sword. Princess Nell and Nathan meet and both care for each other but he has a job to do to save that world and once it is finished he no longer wants to dream himself to that place because he knows he belongs in his own world.

Although the target audience for THE SWORD OF STRAW is teenagers, adult will find this enchanting fantasy very enjoyable. Nathan and his mother are matter of fact about his ability to transport himself physically to another world just as they accept magic exists. This coming of age tale focuses on many characters, all of whom seem very real and act according to their natures. There is much action in this character drawn tale and readers will be eager to read the first book in this fantastic trilogy.

Harriet Klausner

Shivers III
Edited by Richard Chizmar
Cemetery Dance, 2004, $20.00
ISBN: 1587671174

This eighteen story horror collection features tales that first appear in this book though some will have probably reappeared elsewhere since. As were the cases of the previous two collections, SHIVERS III runs the gamut of horror from the supernatural to the psychological to the suspense. Douglas Clegg makes his third appearance with several newcomers to the series like Wrath James White provide entries. None of the contributions are sub par. Especially extraordinary are Meggan C and F Paul Wilson’s “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, Thomas Monteleone’s “Horn of Plenty” (Satchmo – enough said) and the haunting “This, That’s the End of It” by Tom Piccirilli. This is a fascinating anthology especially for readers who appreciate diverse shorts.

Harriet Klausner

The Devil’s Knight
Lucy Blue
Pocket, Mar 2006, $6.99, 384 pp.
ISBN: 1416511954

After fighting for his liege on the battlefield, widower Tristan DuMaine only wants to live the rest of his life in peace with his beloved five years old daughter Clare. He worries about their half finished Castle DuMaine located on the dangerous borders with Scotland made more perilous because his cousin King Henry II took away many of his knights and soldiers for some dispute in Brittany. He fears for his child because of the “bad men” in the nearby woods.

The worst “bad men” in the woods is Siobhan Lebuin, who watched the Normans murder her father; she has vowed revenge and has succeeded in small ways until now. She, her brother Sean, and their brigands capture Tristan. Sean forces Tristan to wed his sister before they take him out to die. However, instead of his death, a demon knight takes bites out of the brigands escorting Tristan killing them. He next bites Tristan, but instead of just accepting his fate, he bites back. Tristan becomes a vampire returning to his home planning to drink Sean’s blood and to finish what was begun with his new wife.

THE DEVIL’S KNIGHT, the sequel to MY DEMON’S KISS, is fabulous medieval vampire romance starring a hero struggling to adapt to the limitations and power of his new “life”. The changing relationship between Siobhan and Tristan is cleverly devised to enhance the powerful paranormal tale while the audience anticipates the confrontation between the two men in her life. Still it is Tristan’s adaptation to the vampiric lifestyle that makes this a fine fresh historical.

Harriet Klausner

Master of Wolves
Angela Knight
Berkley, Apr 2006, $7.99
ISBN: 0425203573

Tony Shay and Jim London were both seventeen when they did their first shapeshifting “Change” together along with their third pal Steve Carson, who died during the Transformation. Now several years later, bail enforcement agent Tony is dead; Jim feels the Clarkston PD is involved as he smells rotten death magic on the corpse of his pal and a similar odor from Police Chief George Ayers.

Vowing to Tony’s mother Mary to uncover the truth, Jim knows that the department needs a new K-9 dog ever since the last one vanished. Taking a page from the book of undercover investigation “written” by his reporter sister Diana (see MASTER OF THE MOON), Jim changes into a German Shepard so that he can listen to the cops talk. Officer Faith Weston is assigned as his handler. As Jim hides who he is and his desire for Faith, she quickly realizes that her K-9 is no ordinary dog. They team up to try to root out the corruption in the department, to learn who magically murdered Tony and to return Tony’s purloined heart to his mother. That is if they live long enough to do so.

In many ways MASTER OF WOLVES is the male equivalent of the delightful MASTER OF THE MOON with its shapeshifting undercover story line. However, the paranormal police procedural romance provides a fresh take on working as a K-9 inside a corrupt police department where everyone except Jim’s beloved handler smells dirty, but he fears that his heart hides the rot of his soulmate. Fans will enjoy the latest fabulous thriller from Angela Knight, grandmaster of the paranormal romantic suspense.

Harriet Klausner

The Stolen Child
Keith Donohue
Doubleday, Apr 2006, $23.95
ISBN 0385516169

Mischievous hobgoblins (an oxymoron) abduct seven years old Henry Day and replace him with an identically looking doppelganger. Over time the human Henry adapts to living with the hobgoblins though he notices major differences between him and his “family” for instance unlike him, they never seem to get older or wiser. The replacement Hobgoblin Henry uses his skills of a copy cat to create a successful musical career stealing the sound from talented humans; he too has adjusted to being a human life.

Still over the years the two Henrys consistently feel out of place in their respective world, and that sense of not belonging grows even as they adjust to their environs. Neither can hold a relationship for even a small time period as their alienation widens. Soon each looks back to their early childhood to try to learn why they feel like such an outsider, but their memories are murky at best and seem impossible to have been real. Impossible that is until decades later when Henry meets Henry.

Though a fantasy, THE STOLEN CHILD is more a deep character study that digs inside the souls (can a hobgoblin have a soul?) of two individuals who have always felt estranged and unhappy with their respective lives as neither believe they belong. The story line cleverly rotates between the Henrys over the years with each passing chapter in their lives just compounding the sentiment of alienation with those around them. Fans will appreciate this powerful yet low keyed (at least the paranormal elements) tale star strangers in a strange land though each has grown up as part of the landscape.

Harriet Klausner

Deep, Dark and Dangerous
Jaid Black
Pocket, Mar 2006, $14.00, 272 pp.
ISBN: 1416516123

Though at the top of her game as a famous in demand actress, Madalyn Mae Simon decides she no longer needs to take the shallow smiles from so-called friends and terrible movies. She needs to escape far away from the phoniness of Hollywood, but wants to stay in the United States so she leaves Southern California for Alaska, but she does not even stay in Anchorage. Instead she moves to a village in the artic where she hopes to regain her mental health.

Her harmony is disrupted when her sister Drake persuades Madalyn that camera in hand, they should explore the wildlife of the tundra. However, they run into Otar and three of his Viking compatriots who abduct the siblings for fear they will reveal to the outside world that beneath the frozen tundra is their home New Sweden; besides they need breeders for the colony. Otar recognizes Madalyn as the actress he secretly has loved for years from the audience and plans to make her his wife; if she refuses she takes her chance on the marriage mart auction. Madalyn begins to fall in love with her new husband, but assumes he loves the screen version and not the flesh and blood real person.

Fans will initially be skeptical of the setting, classifying it with Santa’s North Pole, but rather quickly through the characters and the deep social relationships readers will believe that New Sweden exists underground within the Arctic Circle. This conversion occurs because the strong cast especially the lead couple makes the background feel plausible. The exhilarating story line that never slows down once Otar realizes Madalyn (and Drake) has seen them, which leads the audience seeking the previous romantic fantasy set in New Sweden, the novella Hunter’s Right, part of TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN.

Harriet Klausner