Review: Children of the Fifth Sun

Children of the Fifth Sun by Gareth Worthington
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a free copy of this book through BookSirens in exchange for an honest, voluntary review. Also, I see some other references to novellas and/or multiple parts of the story. To clarify the edition, I read a review edition of the book that was 415 pages (according to BookSirens).

I am really conflicted with how to rate and describe this book. It is like a condensed version of the show Ancient Aliens with a mix of concepts from the movies 2012 and The Shape of Water (among other concepts/theories). When we are first introduced to K'in and what he is, my first thoughts went to the creature in The Shape of Water.

The execution was a little disappointing. I really love the topics the book delves into, but it was not the page turner I was hoping for. It reminds me a bit of a writing assignment I had to do in high school. We were given a list of phrases and nouns and had to use as many as we could in a story. It was like all of the ancient alien theories were on a list and had to be used in someway in the story. The redeeming quality of this book is that it is action packed; in fact, you are into the action in the first chapter or two. I found that the book picked up further down the line as well.

Because of the direction the book goes, this book could have ended around chapter 28 or 29 and everything after that could have been a whole separate book. The segue from chapter 29 to 30 (one year later) seemed a little awkward to me especially since the connections to the all of the theories presented are never fully explained or connected. It seemed like one theory would be talked about for a couple of pages then suddenly a new theory is being talked about for a couple pages with a somewhat connection to the first theory then another theory is dropped that may or may not have anything to do with the first two. The story essentially takes you from theories like Earth Crust Displacement to DNA splicing and back again. While writing this review, I really struggled with trying to explain what I mean in words. Maybe I watch Ancient Aliens too much.

So, back to the rating. I am really conflicted. I found parts of the book to slow down a bit, but I did enjoy the book overall. I almost never give half stars, but this time I would give this book 3.5 stars rounded up to a 4 as I am definitely interested in reading the sequel, Children of the Fifth Sun: Echelon.

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Review: Death From Above

Death From Above by Robert Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novella gives background into the Mantid vs Mogo conflict. The bulk of the story takes place millennia before World of Warcraft. The epilogue takes place during the Mists of Pandaria expansion.

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Review: The Valley

The Valley by Helen Bryan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received a Kindle edition of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway a long time ago, but life happened and I only got around to reading it recently.

As I start to write this review, I am on at the start of chapter 5 (page 89 according to my Kindle). It’s been 88 pages of Sophia’s character development and her inability to decide on a suitable husband. The chapters are long and the plot is not moving! At page 119 we finally make it to the boat!

Before Annette Blair became a full-time writer, she worked at a high school in Rhode Island and wrote part-time. One of my English teachers invited her to our class to read and critique the stories of one of our assignments. She started to put down my classmate’s story when my classmate exclaimed, “But it gets better!” The advice that Mrs. Blair gave my classmate (and the rest of us) was, “If you have to say ‘It gets better!’, then everything before that part should be removed from the story.” For some reason this stuck with me. During the first 100+ pages, this memory kept coming back because part of me feels like this advice should apply to this book.

The majority of the story up until that point was unnecessary. This is a slow moving book that takes place over the course of nearly 100 years. We start in 1751 and end in 1833. I'm slightly concerned about getting into the second book because based on the description, the book does not pick up where this one left off. In fact, it starts in 1783, and based on reviews it spans another 100 years. I see the potential for confusion because of this. I guess I will see after I get into the next book.

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Review: Weathernose

Weathernose by Maram Taibah
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a free copy of this book through BookSirens in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

This novella really annoyed me for half the book because it seemed like the children dictated the actions of the adults. For example, why is it up to the child whether the father gave someone a job in the bookstore? The parent should be the parent. Just because a child is smart, does not mean they should have a free for all. This is just one of a few examples. At the beginning, I sympathized with Tart (even though he went overboard now and again) more than I did with Cypress.

After the story unfolded, it turned out to be a decent story. It's a story of two people finding themselves through turmoil.

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Review: Cranberry Christmas

Cranberry Christmas by Wende Devlin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: Cranberry Thanksgiving

Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende Devlin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Halloween and Valentine books pale in comparison to this one. This was a cute little story. I've never read any of these books until now.

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Review: Cranberry Halloween

Cranberry Halloween by Wende Devlin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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