Book Reviews: Corpses and Cognac, The Rising Tide, & The Shoreless Sea

Happy Wednesday everyone. I hope your week is going well. This week I thought I would share a couple of books that I’ve finished reading (Corpses and Cognac, The Rising Tide, & The Shoreless Sea) and my reviews. I hope you enjoy and please do check out these authors and their stories they are amazing.

Corpses and Cognac (Deadly Drinks #2) by Dorian Graves

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A Terrific Continuation of the Story

This is book two in the Deadly Drinks series by Graves and what an amazing continuation. This is not a stand-alone book, so you will need to read book one first (and you won’t regret it). There are a lot of story elements to love about this novel, and for me, there are a few features I wasn’t crazy about. The writing is solid and Greaves does an excellent job with their characterizations and plot. We continue to follow Jarrod and Retz who are brothers and half-huldra and I adore them and love getting to read more about them and where the story progresses. Corpses and Cognac is a unique story filled with colorful and odd (in a good way) tale. I don’t want to get too in the weds here about the novel, so I won’t. As I’ve mentioned, the characters are well developed and enjoyable to read about. The brothers are my favorite. Sadly for me, this did not extend to Nalem (the god-like being that is connected to Jarrod) this go around. I found them annoying and uninteresting even though we got some wonderful background information and we got to learn more about them, which was nice). Regardless, the plot was well written. The writing is fantastic, as is the continued world building.

I’m looking forward to the next book, as I’m very interested in how this often-mesmerizing story will end.

The Rising Tide (Liminal Sky: The Ariadne Cycle #2) by J. Scott Coatsworth

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More Sci-Fi Greatness

This is book two in the (Liminal Sky: Ariadne Cycle Book 2) and it’s a wonderful continuation. Coatsworth does an amazing job continuing the story of the people who live in Forever. There are so many elements to love about this story it’s difficult to pick one thing to focus on. I love the world building and the storytelling. I felt Coatsworth made a conscious choice to be more inclusive in this story, which is a good thing. However, in doing so, some characters felt a bit thrown into the story, which was disappointing. Still, all the characters are amazing and wonderful to read. I love Eddy and Andy; they were wonderful and their interplay was a joy to read. What I loved most about this story was how Coatsworth created such a rich world in a confined space (we are inside a generation ship so there are only so many places to go (or are there?).

If you need a good sci-fi series, I suggest you start with book 1 and go from there, cause you don’t want to miss a thing.

The Shoreless Sea (Liminal Sky: The Ariadne Cycle #3) by J. Scott Coatsworth

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I Want so Much More

This is book three in the (Liminal Sky: Ariadne Cycle Book 3) and wow! I’ve been sitting on this review for a while, because there is so much to love about this book and this series, however, I had a really hard time with the story. I don’t maybe I wanted too much, or maybe I loved the first two books too much. Anyway, we continue our adventures inside Forever, humanities generation ship, that houses the last of humanity, or so we are told. There are bits about this story that made me a little sad, because I wanted so much more from the story. I had a tough time believing that many of the people inside the world ship no longer believed there was an Earth and they were from there. They believed Forever was their world, and that is where humanity came from. Not everyone believed this, of course, but it threw me for a loop since it had only been a generation, maybe two. Anyway, that was a small bit of the story.

Overall, for me, this story was a battle for the soul of humanity and where we would end up. Lilith is the ‘big bad’ of the story and sadly she fell flat for me. Especially since there were so many other wonderful characters to enjoy. What is great about this story is how Coastworth connects this story with the first two books (which means you really need to read books one and two so you don’t miss anything). I really loved how unique Coastworth made each of the Liminals (I can’t dive too deep here because this is a big plot point in book two). However, understand these characters are brilliant and you’ll be cheering for them.

Despite me being picky on this book, don’t get me wrong, I loved it and I enjoyed the series. This is how Sci-Fi should be written and I could easily see the series be developed for TV (pay attention Netflix and Hulu) cause this is a gem that needs more attention.

Well that is all for this week. I hope you have a wonderful day and see you next time.

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The Rising Tide - Book Announcement

This week I’m pleased to share that J. Scott Coatsworth has a new book out, Rising Tide, Book 2 of his Liminal Sky Series. The first book in the series, The Stark Divide, is amazing and you can find my review of it here, and you can find it in my Book Recommendation here. Here are all the details on his new book and you can be sure that once I read it I’ll be posting a review.

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Book Blurb:

Earth is dead.

Five years later, the remnants of humanity travel through the stars inside Forever, a living, ever-evolving, self-contained generation ship. When Eddy Tremaine and Andy Hammond find a hidden world-within-a-world under the mountains, the discovery triggers a chain of events that could fundamentally alter or extinguish life as they know it, culminate in the takeover of the world mind, and end free will for humankind.

Control the AI, control the people.

Eddy, Andy, and a handful of other unlikely heroes—people of every race and identity, and some who aren’t even human—must find the courage and ingenuity to stand against the rising tide.

Otherwise they might be living through the end days of human history.

Series Blurb:

Humankind is on its way to the stars, a journey that will change it forever. Each of the stories in Liminal Sky explores that future through the lens of a generation ship, where the line between science fiction and fantasy often blurs. At times both pessimistic and very hopeful, Liminal Sky thrusts you into a future few would ever have imagined.

Excerpt (non-exclusive):

Cassie climbed the foothills at the edge of the Verge, carrying Eddy up toward the Anatov Mountains. The horse seemed to enjoy being out there in the wilds. As wild as they could be on a man-made world.

Eddy stared up at the vast peaks that towered above them. Even after six years, Forever still had the capacity to surprise him. It was hard to accept that the world—built on such a grand scale—was the work of the hands of man. Or woman. The Anatov—Ana Anatov—who had gifted her name to these peaks.

The foothills were sparsely planted, mostly a crabgrass variant that spread on its own, and occasional wildflowers—though to call anything on Forever “wild” was a stretch.

There were only scattered trees up there. The glowing grass had been beaten down along the path of the marauders, creating a dark and ugly stain across the hills.

It was hard for Eddy to imagine anyone doing something like this on Forever. He’d seen enough of the crimes of humanity when he’d fought in the wars that had consumed Earth in her last decade. But his world was supposed to be different.

The world was like an island among the stars. Where was there to hide?

He checked his loop for the time. It was close to nightfall. His circadian rhythms had adapted, aligning themselves with Forever’s days and nights, but he missed things like cold and hot. On Forever, it was always temperate, a side effect of the seed ship’s living architecture. It never snowed, and it was most certainly never hot.

He climbed to the top of one of the rolling foothills and turned to look at the world behind him. From here, he could almost see the South Pole, the wall that marked the end of Forever. Around him, the walls of the world curled up to meet high above, their point of merger hidden by the sky glow.

Micavery was too small to see at this distance.

He’d come all this way on horseback, while traveling inside a ship floating in the void. It was surreal. He supposed future generations would come to see it as normal, everyday even—but he was still an Earth boy at heart.

The grasses around him went dark, as did the glow that emanated from the middle of the sky. Nightfall swept toward Lake Jackson far below, passing the Verge, the ranches and farmlands, and the orchards where so much of the world’s food came from.

At last, the shores of the lake winked out, and he could finally see Micavery Port, the lights of it, anyhow, as they shone in the newly come darkness.

Above, the golden glow of the spindle had diminished to a silver gleam.

He sighed. It was such a beautiful world, but it seemed it still harbored some of Old Earth’s evil. Wherever mankind went….

Eddy dismounted, lit a lantern full of luthiel, and set about making camp.

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Buy Links:

Buy the book from the Publisher here and here.

Find the book on Amazon US here.

Find the book on Barnes & Noble here.

Find the book on Kobo here.

Find the book on iBooks here.

Find the book on QueeRomance Ink here.

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Author Bio:

Scott lives between the here and now and the what could be. Indoctrinated into fantasy and sci fi by his mother at the tender age of nine, he devoured her library. But as he grew up, he wondered where the people like him were.

He decided it was time to create the kinds of stories he couldn’t find at Waldenbooks. If there weren’t gay characters in his favorite genres, he would remake them to his own ends.

His friends say Scott’s brain works a little differently – he sees relationships between things that others miss, and gets more done in a day than most folks manage in a week. He seeks to transform traditional sci fi, fantasy, and contemporary worlds into something unexpected.

A Rainbow Award winning author, he runs Queer Sci Fi and QueeRomance Ink with his husband Mark, sites that bring queer people together to promote and celebrate fiction reflecting their own reality.

For the Author Website click here.

For the Author Facebook (Personal) click here.

For the Author Facebook (Author Page) click here.

For the Author Twitter click here.

Find the author on Goodreads here.

Find the author on QueeRomance Ink here.

Find the author on Amazon here.

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