Book News and Reviews

Author: Jess Haines

Book: Hunted By The Others

Genre: Fantasy

Julia Rating: 10

Comments: Hunted by the Others is Jess Haines’ debut novel.   Jess sent me a copy of her wonderful book prior to release so that I could review it here, Yay!  (She also did a little brow waggle to get me off my lazy butt and get reviewing.)

One more note about the author before I get on with my review.   I have to say that it’s really wonderful to find new authors who have never been previously published that are as fully formed as Jess.  Often I see new authors who are good at one part of writing – like they’re really good at creating an awesome great plot, but the characters fall flat or their narration is great, but the dialog is awful.  I didn’t encounter any of those “growing pains” in Jess’s books, which really pleased me.

Okay, so Hunted By The Others is a story about a kick ass, female private detective named Shiarra Waynest who’s just trying to make ends meet in New York City – only her NYC includes vampires, werewolves and mages who have recently “come out of the closet”.  They have lived amongst us forever, they just never revealed themselves to us.  These are the Others.

Shiarra is hired by a coven to spy on a well-known vampire and possibly steal an item from him.  This is not her ideal working environment, but she figures she can always back out if she needs to.  Plus, the money is better than good.  However, the more she is entangled in the world of the Others, the more she is unable to escape.

This book explores magic, real vampires (as in the non-sparkly kind), werewolves, awesome mages and even touches on social issues like racism.

Hunted By The Others seems to have it all, humor (there are some seriously funny bits), action, drama, adventure, crazy human (and not-so-human) relationships and more.  I have been a little listless on the reading front lately, skipping from book to book, and I found that Jess’ book grabbed me and held me until I finished it.  So, if you like vampire novels, I recommend preordering Hunted By The Others.

PS: If you go to JessHaines.com, you can see her cool cover. For some reason GoDaddy upgraded wordpress to an evil version which makes all pictures look idiotic. I’m working on fixing that, but until then, don’t deprive yourself of cool cover art.

February 4th, Neil Gaiman is coming to UCLA to do a lecture.  I’m so there.

* February 7th:  It was really fun to hear Neil Gaiman talk.  He read bits from his books The Graveyard Book, Fragile Things (he read his poem “Instructions”) and Odd and the Frost Giants.  If you want to find out about what happened at Neil Gaiman’s lecture at UCLA, check out these two articles: 1 and 2.

In case you didn’t hear the news, the author of the classic novel – Catcher in the Rye- passed away at 91 today. The full article from Business Week is here.

As you all know, I went to the Los Angeles Scott Sigler Tailgate at the Happy Ending Sports Bar on Sunset Blvd.  The Sigler book signing at the bar was completely different than any other book signing I’ve ever experienced. 

For example, most book signings either have an author behind a table you walk up to, or have the author behind a podium doing a reading, then maybe some Q and A. 

The Tailgate is, of course, at a bar, so it’s a totally different atmosphere. It’s like you’re just hanging out with your friends, having an awesome time. Basically, that’s what the Tailgate is. You get to meet Scott, have a few drinks with him and the other fans (or junkies as Scott calls us) and just hang out. We got to hear a great teaser for Scott’s book Pandemic, his plans for The Rookie series (the next book is The Starter and the whole series is now YA – so get The Rookie for a teenager near you!) and more about his awesome podcasting series The Crypt .

On a more personal level, he regaled us with stories about snowmobiles, drunken KKK members, past jobs (garbage man, tech support, he’s done it all) and other great stuff.   We laughed, we drank, we took pictures, I got my iPod signed.  It was really cool.

Seriously, if you just want to have a great time with cool people, go to one of these Tailgate tours. The next two are in bookstores, but I’m sure they’ll still rock the house.  You can check it out, but I think they both end with a pub crawl, so if you go you’ll probably end up with a similar experience.  

As you now know, yesterday was my birthday and I was in Portland visiting my friend who just moved up there.

While I was away, Hugo and Nebula Award winning author James Patrick Kelly sent me two – count ‘em – TWO of his wonderful books with his signature and a really awesome personal message in each. The books he sent are Think Like a Dinosaur: And Other Stories and Look Into the Sun.

I am so excited about these unexpected gifts from this awesome author!  Thanks Jim!

So… to help out this fantastic writer, I wanted to remind everyone that you can buy his wonderful Sci Fi novel Look Into the Sun directly from him and – to top that – he’ll sign it for you!! Just email him at Jim (@) JimKelly (dot) net.

If it were my birthday today (and it is) this is the list of books I would ask for:

- Burn by James Patrick Kelly

- The Living Dead – an anthology featuring Joe Hill, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, George R. R. Martin and more

- Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry For Your…Brains by Ryan Mecum

- Locke and Key #3 by Joe Hill also – Joe Hill’s novel Horns, which is not out yet, but I guess no one’s perfect.

- The Rookie by Scott Sigler and his novel EarthCore and his other novel Ancestor, which isn’t out yet . Apparently no one coordinated their book releases with my birthday.

- Personal Effects: Dark Art by J.C. Hutchins

- Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

- Odd and the Frost Giants, The Facts In The Case Of The Departure Of Miss Finch and The Sandman Vol. 2: The Doll’s House by Neil Gaiman

Keep in mind, I haven’t read these books so I’m not reviewing them. I’m just letting you know what I would get me if I were… me.

Anyway, I’m in Portland right now.  So, I’m logging off to have some serious birthday fun.  Thanks for checking out my blog!  You readers o’ mine are the best present I can imagine getting this and every year!  But, if you feel a need to help me out – buy stuff from Amazon by clicking a link from my site. That way I get paid if you buy something! W00t!

If you live in Los Angeles (like me) or in San Diego or San Francisco, check out Scott Sigler as he comes to town to pimp his book The Rookie. I’m going to the LA one, so if you want to be cool like me, check out the Tailgate. And, if you want to find out about The Rookie for free, click here to download it onto the MP3 player of your choice.

PS: As usual, no one pays me to announce these things, I’m just extremely excited about seeing Scott Sigler in LA!

Nebula and Hugo award winning author James Patrick Kelly is offering all of you – yes you – an opportunity to buy his book Look Into the Sun direct from him and get it signed.  How do you take advantage of this amazing opportunity?  Email him at Jim (@) JimKelly (dot) net.  Getting a signed book direct from the author is not only awesome, but a great gift as well, so get ‘em while they’re hot.

Here is the next on my list of gift, suggestions for the upcoming holidays.

Horror
For those friends and family members who like the thrill of fear crawling up their spines when they read:

- Salem’s Lot or The Shining or really anything by Stephen King
Salem’s Lot is a classic vampire novel (they don’t glitter) in which few survive and evil vampires overrun the town of Salem. The Shining is a freaky book that is WAY better than the movie and will send shivers up your spines. It’s a horror must read.

Because I’m such a King fan, I’ll recommend a few other books by him for your friends who love horror:
- It (I’m reading it right now and it’s scaring the crap out of me).
- Duma Key which I reviewed.
- Carrie which is an extremely disturbing story about a telekinetic misfit who kills most of her high school.
- Cujo – a tragic story about a rabid dog, a child and a mother.
Obviously Stephen King has written a ton, so just dive in.

- Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Works
This is a great compilation of Poe works. My favorite is The Masque of the Red Death. Extremely scary.

- Tales of H. P. Lovecraft
H.P. Lovecraft is the king of weird horror. It’s a compilation of H.P. Lovecraft’s short stories. I wouldn’t say his stuff scares me, but it’s pretty creepy.

- Infected by Scott Sigler
I’ve reviewed Infected previously and I still absolutely love it. The sequel is Contagious, which also absolutely rocks. I reviewed that one too. They are awesome books, horrific, extremely bloody and macabre.

- Crescent by Phil Rossi
I haven’t reviewed this one yet, but Crescent is a Sci Fi/Horror novel about a haunted space station which wants to consume every living inhabitant. It’s definitely rated R, so don’t get it for any young folk.

- Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
This is a graphic novel series about the Locke family who, because of the father’s horrific murder, have moved to the family home “Keyhouse”. They think they’ve gotten away from their past, but the ghost haunting the well of Keyhouse proves them wrong in a macabre and bloody scene.

I’ve reviewed the first Locke and Key novel and am in the process of reading the rest of them. Book 2 – Locke & Key: Head Games is a great extension to the story. I can’t wait to read more.

- Pseudopod CDs
No Horror fan’s collection of books would be complete without a subscription to Pseudopod(which is free). Barring that, get them one of the cds of this fantastic podcast of short fiction. I happen to love all three of the podcasts in the Escape Pod/Pseudopod/Pod Castle network, but Pseudopod is what any horror fan needs to accompany them through their journey through short fiction. (I don’t get paid to recommend these guys, I just love them and the short stories they provide really are awesome.)

I just re-watched Shaun of the Dead and I thought, with all the Twilight – New Moon excitement, we should turn our attention to another undead issue. That’s right people, zombies.

So, in honor of the undead becoming so interesting to this crazy world of ours – I want to dedicate a post to interesting and fun books/music/movies/podcasts/etc that have to do with zombies.

First of all, zombies truely terrify me. So much so that I actually couldn’t read the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, even though I’ve read little bits and pieces and found it riveting. It gave me nightmares for days, so I had to stop. But, a friend of mine who is very picky about books, loved it, so I’m recommending the book here. It’s a post-apocalyptic look at what the world would look like after zombies re-animated. It is a reflection on the past by war heroes and survivalists alike who experienced first-hand a full-out zombie war. Creepy, creepy stuff.

There is a fan site dedicated to the zombie apocolypse world as inspired by world war z called Tales of World War Z. There are some brilliant and terrifying stories in there. Check them out.

Next we have a less serious look at the walking dead issue – The Takeover, a podiobook/podcast presented by Mur Lafferty. This is a hilarious look at what it would be like to have your company taken over by Zombinc – a company run by zombies which provides low wage zombie labor to other companies. The only way to be promoted in the ranks of Zombinc is to, well, become a zombie.

When I listened to The Takeover, I was entranced by the amazing zombie theme songs Mur put on there – specifically a song called Re: Your Brains by Jonathan Coulton. Check it out, pretty darn hilarious.

Last but not least, zombie movies. These really doll out the nightmares for me – yes, even the funny ones like Shaun of the Dead. The only one that didn’t give me nightmares was Zombieland . I’m not sure why. Maybe (and this IS a spoiler folks, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to be spoiled) it’s because of the zombie clown. I’ve always wanted to see one. A friend of mine and I had a joke that a zombie clown would be the ultimate worst nightmare scenario. Also, the number (or lack thereof) of zombies made the movie slightly more comforting.

The two movies above are funny, but the following are not funny, but extremely scary movies. I’m going to categorize them by speed of zombie:

- Dawn of the Dead – Super fast zombies with no explanation of how they came to be. The dead started rising one day. Freaky.

- Resident Evil- all three movies feature fast zombies, but the last two feature fast, mutant and possibly intelligent zombies. There is, however, a reason for the undead-ness. The t-virus which has spread to so many people continuously re-animates the dead body.

- 28 Days Later- fast and ferocious zombies. The movie is about a particularly horrible strain of rabies, called “Rage” getting loose in England. It’s extremely scary.  I couldn’t watch the whole movie in the middle of a bright, SoCal afternoon.

One more movie which is funny because it’s so cheesy is The Return of the Living Dead. Extremely campy and awesome. Also, it was released the year I was born, so it’s gotta be good, right?

Finally, I will give you some authors with non-infectious zombies – zombies which may turn against you, but they mostly just fight or stand there and moulder:

- Terry Pratchett’s Making Money , along with several other of his Discworld Novels.  His zombies have personality and character.

- Piers Anthony’s Xanth Series.  These are fighting zombies, reanimated corpses and such.

- Laurell K. Hamilton in Strange Candy. This is the traditional zombie, raised by a spell and not really so friendly.

I’m sure there are others, but those are the main ones I can come up with. Do you have any recommendations for zombie books/movies/podiobooks/podcasts?

As usual, please remember that I don’t get paid unless you click on an Amazon link in my site, then buy something. The recommendations to other sites I give you because I love them – not because they pay me. So, if you want to get something at Amazon, click on my links and buy from there. I get a small commission, you get a good deal on cool stuff. Win Win, yeah?