Contact email: mesreads AT gmail.com
###Winner Announcement Posts are linked here.###

GIVEAWAYS ARE NOW LOCATED ON THEIR OWN PAGE - CLICK ON TAB ABOVE; Giveaways also linked on right sidebar.
Showing posts with label Pump Up Your Book Tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pump Up Your Book Tour. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Book Review and Feature: Desert Melody by Laura Evans Serna

This story is more romance than sci fi, but involves engaging ‘cult’ society elements.
Desert Melody
by Laura Evans Serna
File Size: 923 KB
Print Length: 226 pages
Publisher: Laura Evans Serna; 1 edition (April 17, 2017)
ASIN: B071R1LKM1
Genre: Romance, Metaphysical, Sci Fi
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0


For generations the Voyan have lived peacefully among Humans, blending in despite their special thought-sharing abilities and unique communal culture. But now a mysterious disease is killing Voyan babies.
Teagan is a Voyan wet nurse saving the lives of newborns. As the mother of a half-Human child, she struggles to fit into the Voyan world. When she falls for Josh, a Human man eager to take on the roles of husband and father, she starts to question her deepest beliefs about her people and her own fate.
Soon Teagan faces threats from unknown and unlikely foes. She must decide what she's willing to risk for a chance at love, security, and a future for her child.


Review:
Few Humans are aware that they share their world with two other races: the Voyans and the Ahns. The Voyans share mind thoughts and thrive in communal living arrangements. Their minds are usually busy with the buzz of thoughts which lessens their ability to study and advance in technical fields. The Voyans are struggling as a disease is killing their newborns. Teagan, a Voyan, has given birth to a half-Human child, Brianna. Teagan continues to be a wet nurse to other Voyan newborns who may only survive with healthy Voyan mother milk.

Teagan did not have a good sexual experience when she conceived and she has not been interested in finding a partner, which is unusual in her society. Teagan has a ‘disability’ as she lost the ability to thought share when she became pregnant. This has allowed her to enjoy college studies, especially science labs.

Teagan meets Josh at her favorite coffee hang out. He is attracted to her exotic beauty and is protective when he spots her trying to avoid another man. Teagan keeps bumping into Josh and soon believes that her ancestral grandmother is guiding her to be with him. They slowly become friends and, for the first time, Teagan feels drawn to a man. Her family is very unhappy with this as Voyans are supposed to find a partner among their own kind.

Josh seems to sincerely care about Teagan. He worries that she is involved in a cult group and wants to get her away from that community. Teagan’s immediate family have determined they need to move to a larger, safer Voyan community. The family is inclined to leave Brianna to be raised by her Human family. Teagan is torn as she wants to be with her family but does not want to be separated from Brianna (even though Brianna spends a lot of time with others while Teagan goes to classes and spends time with Josh). Teagan is also torn because she wants to be with Josh.

This conflict increases as the time for the move grows closer. A strong Voyan man appears claiming Teagan is to be his partner. Now she must make a choice – remain with the Voyans, sacrificing her own desires to the needs of the community, or leave her Voyan family to stay with Josh. Suddenly a terrible secret regarding Teagan’s disability is discovered and Teagan is given a warning exposing a secret about Josh. Teagan is reeling from these new facts, when her life takes a drastic turn.

I did find the cult society issues interesting but felt that the science fiction element was merely a peripheral basis for the conflicted romance. There is a lot of detail spent on the wet nurse aspects that effected Teagan’s day to day routines as well as the times of emergency when she had to help newborns.

The story is written in first person from Teagan’s view and there is a fair amount of telling rather than showing. Near the final third of the book there are twists and action which pick up the pace and make the story more engaging. I felt there were several loose ends. I would recommend this more for romance readers than hard sci fi readers.

I received this title through Pump Up Your Book Tours.

Desert Melody is
available for purchase at Amazon
and
Barnes & Noble.


Book Excerpt:


I lay in bed, enjoying the morning quiet as I watched my sleeping daughter. Her jet-black hair fanned out across our pillow. Thin white drapes over the window swelled gently as the cool morning air washed over us.
I traced the scars up and down my arms and chest, my hand stopping as usual on the jagged scar across my lower back. Would I ever forget? Did I want to? Thankfully, my Brianna stirred just then, bringing me back to the present. She opened her chocolate-brown eyes and melted my heart with her smile. I sent her off into the kitchen with my aunt Eva so that I could begin my morning ritual. I pulled out my electric breast pump and set it on the dresser.
My milk has Factor K, a protein known to significantly improve survivability for weak Voyan newborns. Only about 10 percent of Voyan women produce Factor K. Even without this protein, though, Voyan milk is invaluable because many postpartum Voyan have found they can no longer produce milk. Despite the efforts of a handful of dedicated Human biochemists, no suitable formula has been developed for Voyan babies. Donors save babies from starvation.
The buzz in my head grew stronger. Unintelligible whispers sneaked in to taunt me, to remind me of my damaged state. I could no longer pick up the thoughts of my family, and they couldn’t pick up mine.
I stepped into the shower, letting the thrum of water on my head chase the mumblings away. As I got dressed, Eva peeked her head in. In the light of the morning sun, the delicate scars across her chest looked like fine lace.
“Teagan, I made cinnamon rolls. Brianna’s favorite.” Her voice was slow and sweet.
“Everyone’s favorite,” I said, winking at Eva. She turned to go but remembered something.
 “Going out?”
Eva couldn’t understand my desire to get away from my Voyan family. With the Voyan, I was deaf and mute. I was disabled. Out in the city, I could pretend to be Human.
“I was, unless you need me here.”
“Just a few moments?” she asked nervously. I knew exactly what she meant. Eva wanted me to spend time with our ancestors. Picking up Brianna, I headed to the tiny golden room behind the kitchen.
Brianna was mesmerized by the candles that lit up the small ancestor room. A few silver and gold urns sat together in a corner. I could tell that at one time the urns had engraved designs, but now they were worn from years of being touched and rubbed. They held the ashes of my ancestors as well as those of many other Voyan my family happened to meet.
I closed my eyes, listening for something I knew I could no longer hear. The air was thick, and not just from smoke. I could almost feel the voices of the dead around me, but not quite. And the more I tried to feel them, the harder it was.



About the Author



Laura Evans Serna grew up in Albuquerque wandering the Sandia mountains and enjoying magnificent sunsets each night. She was spoiled by the mountain and desert wilderness and the freedom it offered. Now that she’s lived in Oxford, Washington, DC, and Tokyo, she knows how rare and precious that kind of experience is. 
           
As a teenager Laura would lie on her concrete driveway with her siblings and friends, watching Hale Bopp slowly cross the sky. She discussed science and theology with no reservation. What are the laws of physics, and where did they
come from? What do they mean? Where do humans fit into all of this? What binds society together? Laura believes that these are the questions that make us human. They don’t belong to the scientists, philosophers, or theologians. Everyone has a right to make them their own.
        
Laura started her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of New Mexico. At the time, she was tired of Albuquerque. Until she left she didn’t appreciate the unique mix of cultures or the abundance of intellectual activity of her home town. She married a man in the Air Force and followed him to Colorado, where she spent her time teaching English with Catholic Charities and finishing up a degree in math at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Next Laura moved to the UK where she had the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford. She earned an MSc in Mathematical Modelling while pregnant and experiencing motherhood for the first time. (It was a struggle, to be sure!) Laura found Oxford to be a fantastic, walkable city perfect for pushing a newborn around in a pram. Although they only spent three years in Oxford, she will always feel as if it is a home of sorts for them.
       
Laura spent periods of time teaching math and doing technical editing, but motherhood suits her more than any other hat she’s worn. Her three daughters are a constant joy. She has come to the conclusion that the world over needs more, not less, of the maternal touch, and she wants to write stories featuring strong, intelligent mothers.

You can visit her website at www.lauraevansserna.com or connect with her on Facebook.


Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Book Review: The Heatstroke Line: A Cli-Fi Novel by Edward L Rubin

This presents a climate message wrapped in an engaging story.
The Heatstroke Line: A Cli-Fi Novel
by Edward L Rubin
File Size: 667 KB
Print Length: 229 pages
Publisher: Sunbury Press, Inc. (September 28, 2015)
ASIN: B015XZBTX8
Genre: Cli-Fi, Dystopia, Post-Apocalyptic, Sci Fi
My Rating: 4.0 of 5.0


Nothing has been done to prevent climate change, and the United States has spun into decline. Storm surges have made coastal cities uninhabitable, blistering heat waves afflict the interior and, in the South (below the Heatstroke Line), life is barely possible. Under the stress of these events and an ensuing civil war, the nation has broken up into three smaller successor states and tens of tiny principalities. When the flesh-eating bugs that inhabit the South show up in one of the successor states, Daniel Danten is assigned to venture below the Heatstroke Line and investigate the source of the invasion. The bizarre and brutal people he encounters, and the disasters that they trigger, reveal the real horror climate change has inflicted on America.


Review:
Dan is an entomologist, conducting studies, writing articles and teaching at one of the Mountain America Universities. He has a wife, two teenagers, one intense and one edgy, and his youngest son, a 10-year-old, has fallen ill over the past year.

America suffered a second civil war and, while states were battling among themselves, an attack was made on Canada. Canada retaliated with strong force eventually putting down any attempts to invade its boundaries. America is now a divided country with three main governments: Mountain America, UFA (I never found what that stood for) and Pacifica. There are numerous independent southern states, known as the Confederate States, and areas that are not particularly habitable.

Life in Mountain America isn’t extravagant, but it is certainly better than life in one of the several Confederate States below the “Heatstroke Line”. Climate change has caused temperatures in the southern states to become a deadly 120+ degrees during summer months. Adding to their discomfort, the Southerners are plagued by “biter bugs”, a beetle that shreds skin and is very hard to kill.

Dan is called in to assist a team investigating an outbreak of biter bugs in East Montana where they shouldn’t be. After a failed visit to UFA, part of the team is asked to make a trip below the Heatstroke Line. Dan has been planning to obtain a new grant to study ways to control the biter bugs and although cautious, he is honored and excited to go on the governmental mission.

Dan’s intentions may be good but the people he meets quickly make the trip a nightmare, torturing one of Dan’s friends and kidnapping Dan. Dan is and forced to do research for a lab in Birmingham City. After several weeks, Dan is moved from a cell to live with a local family. The father is a member of the Unity Party which wants to unify the states again, but wants things done with strict American traditions. Dan discovers that the oldest daughter, 21-year-old Deborah, is a reader and a thinker. They share discussions about books and philosophical matters while Dan secretly plots an escape.

The story is engaging but I felt it bounced about a bit. Several of the characters, like Dan and Deborah, are well developed and have an integral part in the philosophical arguments the author presents to the readers. I appreciated that the author is making a statement about the need to be concerned about climate issue as well as making a statement provoking thoughts about whether men will ultimately compete to the point of self-destruction or help each other to achieve success together. There was a wonderful story within the story (written by Deborah) that added a somewhat parallel allegory.

Matters had to come to a head but it didn’t occur until the last 10 percent of the book. Then it seemed rushed and, while some items were tidily wrapped up, there were loose ends that left questions for me. This is an interesting blend of serious thoughts wrapped into writing that reminded me of weaker zombie stories.

I am reviewing this as part of a Pump Up My Book Blog Tour.



BUYING INFORMATION:

Amazon | Sunbury Press  | Walmart | B&N



About the Author:

Edward Rubin is University Professor of Law and Political Science at Vanderbilt University. He specializes in administrative law, constitutional law and legal theory. He is the author of Soul, Self and Society: The New Morality and the Modern State (Oxford, 2015); Beyond Camelot: Rethinking Politics and Law for the Modern State (Princeton, 2005) and two books with Malcolm Feeley, Federalism: Political Identity and Tragic Compromise (Michigan, 2011) and Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons (Cambridge, 1998). In addition, he is the author of two casebooks, The Regulatory State (with Lisa Bressman and Kevin Stack) (2nd ed., 2013); The Payments System (with Robert Cooter) (West, 1990), three edited volumes (one forthcoming) and The Heatstroke Line (Sunbury, 2015) a science fiction novel about the fate of the United States if climate change is not brought under control. Professor Rubin joined Vanderbilt Law School as Dean and the first John Wade–Kent Syverud Professor of Law in July 2005, serving a four-year term that ended in June 2009. Previously, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School from 1998 to 2005, and at the Berkeley School of Law from 1982 to 1998, where he served as an associate dean. Professor Rubin has been chair of the Association of American Law Schools' sections on Administrative Law and Socioeconomics and of its Committee on the Curriculum. He has served as a consultant to the People's Republic of China on administrative law and to the Russian Federation on payments law. He received his undergraduate degree from Princeton and his law degree from Yale.

He has published four books, three edited volumes, two casebooks, and more than one hundred articles about various aspects of law and political theory. The Heatstroke Line is his first novel.


Website & Social Links:

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK


Follow this link for full Tour Schedule.


LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails