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This is a review based on an advanced reader copy from the author through Rosie’s Book Review Team. The book will be available in early September.   The Dead Lands, which I recently reviewed (https://saylingaway.wordpress.com/2016/06/01/book-review-the-dead-lands-postapocalyptic-thriller/), is the prequel to this book by Dylan Morgan – The Dead City. In the first book, a team of highly trained soldiers from Erebus are sent in response to a radio signal from the sister planet Hemera, indicating that the President of Hemera and his family are awaiting rescue after being in stasis since a nuclear war one hundred years prior. They are sent by the avaricious and pig-like Colonel Paden, who features prominently in this second book. Rather than a barren land with no surviving inhabitants, the team finds a baking, dusty, rubble-strewn wasteland populated by murderous thugs and a completely destroyed capital city of Magna, overrun with hordes of horrifying and ghastly mutants. The sole interest of these mutants is killing and eating the organs of their prey. In The Dead City, another crack team is heading to Hemera and Magna, accompanied by Colonel Paden. He wants to find the treasure in gems said to be hidden within the capitol city, ostensibly for Erebus but in reality for himself.  He brings with him physicians to tend to his health and three prostitutes to tend to his other needs. The team is led by Lieutenant Marshall, a much-decorated soldier revered by his men. Among the team members are Ryan and his sister Jayde, who is also a soldier and very close to her brother, and also the loathsome Murdoch, who has hated Ryan since their training and fantasizes in graphic ways about what he will do to and with Jayde, if he ever gets the chance. This time the soldiers are aware of what awaits them, and the trek to the capitol’s palace is a running of the gauntlet, with the gruesome deaths of both soldiers and mutants. The mutants, who have deadly aim with sharpened metal blades, are held off by a plasma guns (Berserkers), which blow them into bloody bits but which cannot stem their unending tide. Eventually some of the groups into which the team has been split reach the deepest level of the palace, where the President and his family, long since dead, were once housed. Paden then follows in relative safety, at the cost of more men, and the search of the building and sewers for the gems begins. The Dead City has an inherently interesting story line with characters you can really love or hate. My dislike of Colonel Paden was so great, I prayed for a mutiny. While Ryan is suitably indomitable and brave, the author has also created many minor characters who grabbed me emotionally. As I said about The Dead Lands, this is not a story for the faint of heart. There were times when I was overwhelmed with the repetitive and gruesome slaughter; there’s a limit to the amount of gore I can handle. Luckily, each time when I thought I’d reached that limit, the story and characters kicked back in and I kept reading. The ending was a total surprise and made it more than worth reading the book. I want the sequel! Two things. I wish there had been more of a transition between the previous book and this one – seeing what happened to the first team when the remnants of it returned to Erebus, for example.  I also wondered why the mutants never killed and ate each other. The relentless gore aside, the author does a great job of describing his world and drawing the reader into it.  This book should appeal to everyone who likes strongly written, post-apocalyptic thrillers. PS, this is a planet I would never want to visit! Four out of five stars. About the author (from Amazon): Dylan J. Morgan was born in New Zealand and raised in the United Kingdom. He now works in Norway and writes during those rare quiet moments amid a hectic family life: after dark, with limited sustenance, and when his creative essence is plagued the most by tormented visions. A member of the Horror Writers Association, he has published 8 books, all available on Amazon. You can find him: @dylanjmorgan https://dylanjmorgan.wordpress.com/ https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3156560.Dylan_J_Morgan You can find The Dead City on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31329015-the-dead-city 0 0

Here are some more bloggers you might be interested in following! https://chingum.wordpress.com/2016/07/06/hyper-realistic-paintings-by-emanuele-dascanio/  Chin gum has a fantastic blog of pictures and art. Check out this post – it blew my mind! https://newsixtaste.wordpress.com/2016/07/30/mini-chocolate-croissants/ Anthony Angelov has a blog about food with recipes. I was drooling over this one. All you foodies out there, this is for you! https://amychhabra.wordpress.com/2016/07/22/first-blog-post/ Amy Chhabra has a blog about beauty, fashion, make-up, and nutrition. Amy is Interior Designer and Architectural Technologist by profession – I could have used her blog a lot earlier in my life! https://literarydust.wordpress.com/about/   Candace at Literary Dust is an avid book reader and reviews all the time. You might want to check in with her and see what she’s reading and what she recommends! https://drewavera.wordpress.com/   Drew Avera is an active duty Navy veteran and a sci-fi author. His new book Broken Worlds: Book One of The Alorian Wars, comes out in September and he reviews sci fi boos and movies. I know there are some sci-fi aficionados out there so check him out. Tye Files at https://butterfliesmachineguns.wordpress.com/about/ What a blog title! The author is a creative writer and I think you’ll like some of his postings! https://ironmommi.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/whatactuallymatters/  The author of Unreally Written is a self-proclaimed mushy mom, with a little madness and a lot of musing. She writes, she reviews and she doesn’t believe in sitting around waiting for inspiration to hit – she thinks then you are a waiter, not a writer. Writing is her safe haven. Jackie P at https://tobreatheistowrite.com  Jackie is the author of the DeeDee Watson, PI, series. She lives in Canada now, but was raised in Wisconsin and Texas, and has been blogging for four years. Any mystery writers out there besides me? Anu Joy  https://petulantpotato.wordpress.com    She reviews books, movies and TV shows and is a talented writer herself. You might want to see what she’s critically reviewed recently! Don’t you love the name of her blog? https://readersnerve.wordpress.com     This blog is a little different in that it provides insights about latest thinking and reflections of the author in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Investments, Insurance and Personal Finance.  How about that? You own personal financial advisor. The author, Anthony Misajon, has a broad experience in real estate and capital markets! https://toshphotography.wordpress.com/2016/07/16/first-blog-post/  Check out the first post – a lovely canal photo! https://beautifulkittens.wordpress.com/about/  If you like cats, this is the blog for you. Wonderful photos, which of course Elijah Moon just loved! https://historyarchiveblog.wordpress.com   This blog just knocked my socks off. Written by a history student, it is a collection of well-researched essays such as the impact of warfare on Hellenistic culture. European witch hunts, division within black politics in the 1960s – just fascinating! I recommend it to any history buffs out there! The Fashion and Fitness Craze  https://yashdedhablog.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/10-benefits-of-drinking-water-on-an-empty-stomach-yeah-its-amazing/  This blog covers things such as health and fitness and skin care. Recent posts include the benefits of drinking water on an empty stomach, best natural cures for dandruff, and the best low calorie fruits for a diet. https://zoe169.wordpress.com/about/    Its author is Zoe, of course, who lives in England has a blog that is a mixture of reviews, thoughts, quotes and notes on authors. She does do book reviews! And reads amazing numbers of books… 0 0

It’s been a while since my human has let me take over her blog. She had an excellent opportunity when she was in Maine selling books and eating seafood (yes, she taunted me with that!) but somehow she felt I would have a hard time adjusting to having the daughter taking care of me. Little does she know, I got brushed every night and received lots of cuddles. Anyway, I’m sitting at the computer this afternoon while she is out swimming. I have been my usual busyself – sleeping in the new round bed that showed up one day, sunbathing on the porch, sleeping on the sofa with ‘she who must not be named,’ sleeping out by the pool, sleeping on my favorite cushion in the living room, playing with a sock, and lying upside down on the family room rug to entice passersby to rub my tummy. It’s no wonder I need to sleep! Amidst all this summer activity, I reminded my humans what a good watch cat I am. One early summer night, there was a commotion out on the back deck. It was just a big cat with large big ears playing through glass door with me, but it ran away when Noelle opened the door and talked to it. I heard my humans say it was a bob cat. A few days later, it came back very early, before the sun was up. www.felidaefund.org (if you want to save our North American bob cats) Apparently during its absence, it had decided it didn’t like me.  So it crashed into the glass door. Do you think it wanted to eat me? I was very brave! I howled and hissed and screeched and yowled, which naturally woke everyone in the house.  And you know what? That big cat ran away and hasn’t been back since. I was very proud, and my human told me many times how wonderful I’d been, so I just had to walk around with my fur all puffed out the entire day! I, Elijah Moon, had driven off that big cat. tvtropes.org I just wish my brother was alive to see it…Zeke was the hunter! 0 0

I couldn’t help responding to Sue Vincent’s photo prompt from last week. Ellen looked at the crowd of people around the cage in which she hung, their red faces contorted as they shouted cruel words at her. “I’m not a witch,” she yelled over and over, until her throat was raw. “I’m innocent!” The Elders hadn’t listened to her either, and she knew what awaited her – either the ducking stool or the hangman’s noose. Maybe even fire. She sank to her knees, weak with fright. Then she heard the sound of tramping feet and looked up to see the Elders approaching her cage. Someone lowered it to the ground and unlocked the door. Arms roughly dragged her out and along the dirt road to the river, her heels leaving two lines in the dirt. So, it was to be the ducking stool. She felt the faintest glimmer of hope. They tied her hand and ankles with rough rope and placed her on the chair at the end of a long pole. Their last step was to bind her loosely to the chair. She knew if she struggled out of her binding and came to the surface, she would be deemed guilty. If she stayed down, she would drown and be proclaimed innocent. Elder Williams pronounced, “Ellen Sayers, you have been judged a witch. You proclaim your innocence. Now you have a chance to prove it.” Ellen took as many deep breaths as she could before they lowered the chair, weighted by a huge rock, into the deepest part of the river. Wiggling out of her binding, she expelled some air, which rose in bubbles to the surface and helped her stay at the bottom, where she swam dolphin style with the faster-moving bottom current.  Hold on, hold on. Don’t breathe out. Follow the flow. God help me. She finally emerged from the surface out of sight of the crowd, knowing they would soon pull the chair up. She maneuvered to the opposite bank, imaging what the townspeople would think. Working the ropes from her ankles, she climbed out of the river. They didn’t know she’d been taught to swim by her grandmother and loved the water. 0 0

I really enjoy books that are aimed at a YA audience, and I did enjoy this one. The Owl Goddess by Jenny Twist is based on the claim of Erich von Dänekin that extraterrestrials or “ancient astronauts” visited Earth and influenced early human culture and is set in the prehistoric Mesolithic age.  It’s a first contact tale, which begins with the crash of the spaceship Atlantis on a planet populated by an intelligent but primitive people. The sign of their Goddess appears in the sky, marking the crash site – a giant Sacred Mushroom. The difference in this story is that the aliens aboard the spaceship are a group of Greek gods and goddesses: the teenage Athena, her father Zeus, Ares, Demeter, Artemis, Apollo, Hades and Poseidon, to name a few. Following the crash, which they all survive, they set up camp and very quickly recognize that this planet is exactly like their home. The gods become quite delightfully human in this author’s creation, having many of the foibles we associate with their myths, and assume the jobs of their mythic descriptions. Hestia, for example, the virgin goddess of the hearth, architecture and domesticity, takes on the job of camp cook, while Hera, the wife of Zeus, is portrayed as self-centered and shrewish. The book is told from the points of view of Athena, and the boy, Prometheus, who not surprisingly is the keeper of the fire for his primitive tribe, the Titans. Prometheus is in love with Pandora, who has become The Mother of the tribe and assumed sacred powers. The Mother decides to see the aliens and she and the tribe climb the mountain to reach their camp. What follows is an interesting story of assimilation and learning, as the two groups try to understand each other. There is plenty of tension: the love triangle of Athena, Prometheus, and Pandora; the hatred of Prometheus for his brother, who becomes Pandora’s husband; the challenge of Atlas to Zeus’ leadership.  The author also cleverly weaves in some of the legends: Athena adopts a baby owl, and the primitive tribe worships her as a wise goddess; Zeus banishes Atlas and his followers across the Mediterranean to Africa. This is a sweet story and an easy read, humorous with quirky characters. The only drawback for me was some of the dialogue – a bit simple. The book should be a great hit with tweens and younger teens who are into Greek mythology. Four out of five stars About the author from Amazon): Jenny Twist left school at fifteen and went to work in various jobs, including an asbestos factory and a bacon-packing plant. She even did a turn as an escapologist’s assistant before returning to full-time education, earning a BA in history at Manchester and doing post-graduate studies at Oxford. In 2001, she retired and moved to Spain where she lives with her husband and their rather eccentric dog and cat. Besides writing, she enjoys reading, knitting and attempting to do fiendishly difficult logic puzzles. You can reach Jenny at: amazon.com/author/jennytwist https://sites.google.com/site/jennytwistauthor/home https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jenny-Twist-Author/291166404240446 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4848320.Jenny_Twist Twitter: @JennyTwist1 You can find The Owl Goddess on Amazon: 0 0

Here’s my people for this week! Check them out – as usual, amazing! Madelyn Griffith-Haynie https://addandsomuchmore.com/  Madelyn has a lot of degrees (CTP, A.C.T., CMC, MCC, SCAC) and is a certified [Life] Coaching pioneer and ADD Coaching Field founder. She blogs about ADD and all the other alphabet disorders. I wish I had had her around when my son (who even as an adult is still ADHD) to help me. She could be a fantastic resource for some of you. https://kittomalley.com/2016/07/06/arms-length/ Kitt O’Malley is a mental health advocate, wife, mother, sister and daughter who neglects housework as she blogs, connects using social media, and lives with bipolar disorder. This is a great resource blog for those who live with or are living with bipolar disorder. https://tammikale.com/2016/07/04/independence-is-a-state-of-being/  Tammi Kale is mother, daughter, mammy and a budding author.  She is loves to travel, loves to read, loves to make new friends, and a lover of animals.  Her travel recommendations and photos are wonderful! https://burbuqeraufi.wordpress.com/2016/06/07/short-stories/  Burbuqe writes short stories, inspirational pieces, quotes and other uplifting posts. Visit this blog is you need a lift! https://bloggingpuppies.wordpress.com/about/  This blog specializes in photos of dogs, alone or with humans, and other pets. I love the these! https://lcaisling.wordpress.com/  L C Aisling is the pen name of an Estonian author, whose writings have grown into worlds of their own over the years with characters, rules, weather forecasts and shoes that need to be remembered and organized: an alternative to the modern world, a parallel universe with an urban fantasy twist, and aliens in a futuristic world. Some of her posts involve an encyclopedia with all the information about these worlds.  I checked one out, and she does an amazing job! https://immodiumabuser.com/2011/08/03/wanna-hear-something-ironic-imodium-ad-actually-tried-to-stage-an-intervention-with-me/  And now for something truly different.  For him, Imodium is a lifestyle choice.  He will not leave the house without Imodium in his pocket. Throughout his whole life, the constant support system and the thing that enabled him to accomplish anything has been Imodium, so name of his blog is a shout out to the Rx. He writes wonderfully sarcastic posts. Check out: My relationship with St. Patrick’s Day: It’s nothing to shake your shillelagh at! https://alwaysnforeva.wordpress.com/2016/06/15/love-is-work/ This is an uplifting and spiritual blog of encouragement by a person who spreads the word that if you learn to work with all the negatives in life, you will surely make better pictures out of it. https://pamelascanepa.wordpress.com/2016/05/28/the-stamped-addressed-envelope/ Pamela Canepa posts reflections on writing, life, dogs, learning, books, and almost everything else. This latest one is about accepting the fact her son is not going to be a college student, how he found another niche, and cashing in his college fund to add to a retirement fund. Lots of letting go and acceptance. Which I did myself when my son decided to join the Army instead of college. Check this one out! The Impeccable One https://theidlerinrapture.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/notes_from_underground/ The Impeccable One is Subhajit Das, an extremely good-looking (as per his gravatar – what? I’m not dead!) young Indian man who reviews anime, books, movies, TV series, music and dance in great depth and insight. Check out his blog for recent reviews if you have a question about a choice in any of these categories. 0 0

Sue Vincent is one of my blogging buddies, and she asked me if I would do a guest post. You can see it here: https://scvincent.com/2016/08/09/guest-author-n-a-granger-pilgrim-children/ I was honored to be asked, and I decided to use the opportunity to present some of the research I’ve been doing for my historical novel. Since the woman about whom I’m writing was 4-5 years old at the time of the Mayflower voyage in 1620, Pilgrim children are much on my mind. What you will see is that children are not much different, no matter the historical era. If you haven’t had a chance to meet Sue, do check her out. Her blog is nothing short of amazing. 0 0

Baby X by Rebecca Ann Smith is a work of science fiction…or is it? The story is built around the ethical and human considerations of growing a baby (embryo, then fetus) ex utero – that is, in an artificial uterus in a laboratory. Scientifically, we are almost at the point of being able to do this, so what are the concerns? The story is told in first person from different viewpoints: Alex Mansfield, the physician and scientist overseeing the entire operation, from conception to implantation to growth; Karen Frey, the woman, who for genetic reasons is unable to bear a child, and who chooses to have a donor egg fertilized by her husband’s sperm and grown ex utero; and Dolly, Samantha McFarlane, who takes the position of laboratory assistant in Dr. Mansfield’s lab and thus observes the motivations and emotions of both her supervisor and the patient. Having these three viewpoints is essential to understand the complicated motivations of each woman and added a depth to the story. What I had difficulty with was the timeline: the story jumped forward and back. I think it would have been better written in a linear fashion, since the changes in point of view, coupled with the jumps in time line, led to some initial confusion on my part. An element of surprise is given away at the very beginning – Dr. Mansfield births and kidnaps the baby boy, named Baby X, and goes on the run. This grabs the reader and the how and why of it develops through the rest of the story. I think using this as an introduction is fine, as long as the remainder of the story proceeded in a straightforward fashion. The author does a bang up job combining the science and medical ethics of the various techniques available to help childless couples, and since I myself went through a round of in vitro fertilization, I could feel Karen’s pain and sense of worthlessness. Her husband, Robert, came across as a cypher, in that he initially agreed to everything having to do with Karen’s decision to try IVG (in vitro gestation), only to reject his wife and her feelings after the event. This struck me as off, but it’s certainly the author’s choice in developing her characters! There was no discussion of adoption (something that was considered in passing later on), which is usually something childless couples discuss at the outset of their decision-making. The mystery comes with the involvement of scientist with a questionable past in Alex’s life – what is his motivation and is he trying to harm the baby? Why is Alex experiencing changes in her physiology? Through it all, we get the thoughtful observations of Dolly, who is being questioned about the process and the people involved via a Public Inquiry. Despite the furor generated by the media, she remains close to and supportive of Alex, all the while questioning the ethics and ramifications of IVG. This book explores the maternal instinct from any mangles, along with its challenges and compensation. I enjoyed it, possibly because of my scientific background and personal experiences, but also because there is good story telling here. It is leavened with the humanity and decency of the author’s consideration of the medical ethics and the readers are left to decide for themselves how they feel about the issues raised. About the author Rebecca Ann Smith writes novels for novels for adults, teenagers and children.  Her first published novel is Baby X. She is interested in creativity, feminism and social justice; she blogs mainly about her writing process, but occasionally about politics, swimming and other random stuff. She can be found on her blog: http://www.rebeccaannsmith.co.uk/ on twitter: @beckysmithhurst) and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rebeccaannsmithauthor/?fref=nf Baby X is available on  Kindle through Mother’s Milk Publishers: http://www.mothersmilkbooks.com/index.php/shop/product/212-baby-x-by-rebecca-ann-smith And on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30823467-baby-x 0 0

As most of you know, I have made it a habit to do a shout out to new followers. I have been blessed with 30+ in the last month or so, so many that in order to do a shout out to each of them, I am instituting a post called New Followers Friday. Each Friday I will recognize six or seven people who have chosen to follow my blog…until I run out! I hope everyone will take a look at these amazing bloggers. I have, and I’ve come down with a case of blogger boggle! Hemangini blogs at My PetriDish.  This blog has book reviews and pretty darned good short stories, so check it out!  http://mypetridish.com/blog/me-before-you-by-jojo-moyes-book-review/ MeRaw   The Journey of My Left Foot (whist remembering my son) is written by a mother with malignant melanoma. She has already suffered the loss of her son to testicular cancer and writes movingly about her life.  https://alienblob.com/2016/05/18/remembering-you/ Stephen Anthony is a recent college graduate trying to build up his social presence. He is a skilled photographer – check him out at https://stevenphotos.wordpress.com/about/ Kritika Nangia at When the Pen Speaks, who is pursuing an engineering Degree from Delhi Tchnological University (formerly Delhi College of engineering) with majors in Computer Science and who likes to explore, travel, eat, meet people and write. Expand your world and go here: https://kritikanangia.wordpress.com/2016/03/06/the-dilemma/ Plaisted Publishing house for indie authors. Check it out at  https://plaistedpublishinghouse.wordpress.com/2016/05/27/scam-alert-paperbacks/ Amanda Fairchild at the Uncertain Scribe. She’s a poet, the author of short stories and thoughts on writing. https://theuncertainscribe.wordpress.com/2016/05/08/a-forbidden-mothers-day-poem/ Adam Harkus, a musician! His blog contains music, written and performed by him. To treat your ears, find him athttps://adamharkusblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/sitting-here-at-home/ 0 0

How could I resist reading a sci-fi book which has a blurb saying, “Parts of the world are disappearing…”? The premise is exciting: bits of our world are just gone – a part of a beach, a swath of African savannah, a wall in the Grand Canyon. The well-drawn characters who discover these phenomena are compelling, and the descriptive talent of the author is truly awesome – beautiful, colorful, lyrical. Eventually news of these individual events makes its way via circuitous and political avenues to the United Nations, where the allocation of money which can be diverted to investigate the phenomenon gets the ball rolling. Simple, yes? Hardly. This book is packed with expositions on fractal geometry, quantum physics, philosophy, civic and corporate politics, psychology, religion – all wonderfully written but heavy on minutiae. In many ways, it reminded me of Umberto Eco’s In the Name of the Rose. I think the book will appeal to people whose roots lie in these various disciplines, but I freely admit that much of the physics and math lost me, and there were parts where I turned the pages to get back to the story line. At least I understand Shrodinger’s cat and the Heisenberg Principle! The protagonist is a young woman, Susan Corporell, who works for the UN in Africa, fighting a losing battle with local government to provide donated food to starving populations. She sees one of the first manifestations of the phenomenon and it is she who finds a physicist and mathematician, David Altaforce, with the drive and supreme intelligence to try to determine the cause of the “disappearances.” The great mystery is not only who is behind them, but how it’s being done, and the solution will boggle you. The plot is wonderful, with lots of twists and turns, and the characters are colorful and three dimensional. Herzog is a truly gifted writer, and this book will appeal to readers who are looking for a dense, intelligent story packed with musings and observations on far more than just the story line. About the author: Robert Herzog was an entrepreneur in the worlds of energy, environment, digital media, the internet and health care for over thirty years, while keeping alive his writing hopes. He’s had stories and poems published in Solstice Literary Magazine, Toasted Cheese, Downstate Story Magazine, Straylight Literary Arts Magazine, and South Jersey Underground, and made an award-winning short film, “Flights.” He was a physics major until he read Nietzsche, a political philosopher who became an entrepreneur engaged with the great issues of his time, from energy and the environment to technology and health care, and this translates into his first book. He has also climbed another height, Mt. Kilimanjaro. This book is the culmination of decades of dreams. You can find the author at:    http://www.robertmherzog.com/ and http://thezog.com/ on twitter @HerzogIND and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertmherzogauthor/?fref=nf 0 0