Two Books

If I told you Monster Hunter Alpha, Larry Correia's latest release, was a soul-wrenching exploration of four people in their struggle with lycanthropy and a bit of a love story, you'd give me a neutral look while you tried to figure out how loopy I'd gone.

Never fear; Larry does what he does so well, writing probably the best action sequences in the general SF/Horror genre, in support of a tightly-plotted story "cast," as they say, "in the Gothic mode," which means there's good, evil, a conflict between 'em, and a hero who sorts it all out. The hero of Monster Hunter Alpha is MHI boss Earl Shackleford, who we've met in the previous books. In this one, we get to spend some quality time with the old man; it's time well spent. It's a good book. I read most of my copy straight through! Buy yours via the link at Tam's.


Where Larry Correia's fictional world postulates our world with a barely-hidden subculture of every monster you ever heard of, the only "monster" in Brian J. Noggle's John Donnelly's Gold is a passing mention of the eponymous job-placement company. Nevertheless, it, too is quite an adventure and one that will have you wondering how it all turns out until the very end. It may be his first novel and self-published at that but the writing is quite good (and his proofreading a zillion times better than mine). This is a satisfying story; I don't want to spoil your fun by telling too much of the plot, which concerns laid-off IT workers (a group of very well-drawn characters) and the twists and turns of their efforts at subtly-executed revenge. I got a review copy but would happily pay full price. Recommended!