Brine Book Review

Title: Brine

Author: Adrienne Jones

Publisher: Creative Guy Publishing

Pages: 204

ISBN: 9781894953511

Brine is one of the most inventive, luring, brilliant and thought-provoking books I've read this year.

I have to admit that the first thing that caught my attention when I was browsing through Creative Guy Publishing's book catalog (whose site I would highly recommend visiting), was the beautiful and bizarre cover of Brine. I know that you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but after seeing the cover for this one, I couldn't help myself: I had to make sure it was as kick ass as the cover led me to believe.

Good thing I was quick to judge this book by it's cover!

Not only is the cover bizarre, but so is the story: it follows a year in the life of Elliot Newton, an up and coming painter, whose life is changed forever after waking up one morning from a drunken painting streak the night before. Nursing a hangover Elliot quickly realizes that he's not alone. In fact, he finds that over night his Cape Cod property has become occupied with several creatures not of the human world, but rather of the human mind. With the help of his friend Bobby, the two slowly begin to unravel the truth behind the painted inhabitants. From there the story goes from weird to weider, and ends at extremely weird.

Jones does a marvelous job with keeping the pace smooth, and quick, filling it full of memorable characters, and a kick ass plot that keeps you guessing with each page. I really loved the concept of the first third of the novel, and although it at first reminded me of Stephen King's Duma Key, I was happy to find that it far surpassed anything that King could ever write. And that goes for the remaining two-thirds of the book as well.

Have you ever cracked a book open, begun to read, and hours later realized that you've spent all your time absorbed by the pages in front of you? Well, that's exactly what happened to me with this book. At 204 pages, it's a quick read -- which was a good thing, considering I read it in one sitting -- but the story is so well written that after reading it, it feels like you've just finished reading a 350 page novel. There's so much going for it at once, that even if the characters ridiculous and shoddily written, it would still be one hell of a novel.

Brine was absolutely amazing, and surpassed my expectations by many miles, and then some! That's why I'm giving it 9.5 TARDIS's out of 10.

I absolutely loved Brine, and I can't wait to see and read what kind of other weirdness Jones stirs up and commits to the page in the future. With a few more re-reads, I have a feeling that Brine will quickly become one of my favorite all-time novels.

So, if you're into reading weirdness, I would highly suggest picking up a copy of Brine as soon as possible. You can buy a copy over at Barnes&Noble.com, and at Amazon.com, and while your at it, pick one up for a friend. They'll thank you for it later!

~Rodney

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