Of Apologies, Snippets, Updates, Reminders and a Mini-Review.

Hey all, before I return to posting reviews, I thought I would take a minute and update everyone on some really awesome stuff that's going on right now, and to apologize for the lack of reviews, both to my readers and the publishers who have been amazing enough to give me free books to read. Schools been rough, with many papers to write, and many books to read. Reviews will start back up here this weekend, so keep your eyes peeled.

And with that said...

Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International has a new book coming out sometime next year called The Grimnoir Chronicles, the first book in this series called Hard Magic. Because Larry is such an awesome person, he's giving the first 7 chapters away for FREE, over at his site. These snippets started three days ago, and will continue for another four, until all 7 chapters have been posted. Then, like the rest of us, you'll have to wait it out, until Baen publishes it next year. Here's Larry's site (which you can also find on the right hand of this screen, along with many other author sites). Some amazing stuff.

Here's something that I was pleasantly surprised to learn about: author John Scalzi, probably most famous for his books Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades and Zoe's Tale, has just dropped a pleasant surprise for all of his readers, especially if their fans of H. Beim Piper. Here's John's site.

And just a reminder, Lucy A. Snyder's Chimeric Machines is being offered for free, thanks to the books publisher, Creative Guy Publishing until tomorrow, so grab a copy while you can! You can download your very own copy of Chimeric Machines from Smashwords with the promotion code: LN79D. And while your at it, why not pick up a dead-tree copy to support not only Lucy, but the amazing people at Creative Guy Publishing (who's site I recommend you check out if you get the chance. They have some pretty wicked books.).

Which, brings me to the very first Mini-Review for this site:

Title: Chimeric Machines
Author: Lucy A. Snyder
Publisher: Creative Guy Publishing
Pages: 92
ISBN: 9781894953559

Last month, Chimeric Machines won a Bram Stoker Award, and now, after having read it, I know why.

Snyder has a way of painting beautiful scenes, weaving in just enough macabre to make any horror fan happy. With an introduction by author Tom Piccirilli, this collection was headed for great things right off the printers!

Snyder does a wonderful job with explaining the definition of a chimera, straight from a dictionary, circa 1913. From there, she breaks her poems up into different parts, allowing each individual part to stand by themselves, while they still manage to work together, as a whole, on an entirely different level than what I would have ever thought. And for those of you who aren't exactly fans of poetry, there's a few pieces of prose scattered throughout that I garuntee will make you just as happy.

There's something for everyone within the pages of this fine collection of poetry and prose. That's why I'm giving Chimeric Machines 9.5 TARDIS's out of 10.

So live a little and download it while you still can! Go on, I dare ya!

~Rodney