Book Preview: The Midnight Mayor

Book Preview: The Midnight Mayor
Author: Kate Griffin
Publisher: Orbit
Preview: Jeff

This is the second book in the series. It is out already in hardcover, but I like to wait for the paperback wich comes out early next year. I am currently reading the first book of the series A Madness of Angels. I am really liking the book so far. Here is the blurb for this one:

"It's said that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, then the Tower will crumble and the kingdom will fall. Resurrected sorcerer Matthew Swift is about to discover that this isn't so far from the truth. . . One by one, the protective magical wards that guard the city are falling: the London Wall defiled with cryptic graffiti, the ravens found dead at the Tower, the London Stone destroyed. This is not good news. This array of supernatural defenses - a mix of international tourist attractions and forgotten urban legends - formed a formidable magical shield, one that could protect London from the greatest threat it has ever known. But what could be so dangerous as to threaten an entire city? Against his better judgment, Matthew Swift is about to find out. And if he's lucky, he might just live long enough to do something about it . . ."

Book Review: Fat White Vampire Blues

Book: Fat White Vampire Blues
Author: Andrew Fox
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Review: Larry

The typical vampire story , no matter how wild the plot, has one thing in common with all other vampire stories: the vamps are all portrayed as Brad Pitt look-alikes with sometimes dubious sexual preferences (my opinion is the author is usually a fat mid-western housewife writing down her sexual fantasies). Well, Fat White Vampire Blues definitely breaks that mold.


Taking place in modern day New Orleans, the story revolves around Jules, an anti-hero that you can’t help but root for. Central to the story is the thought that “you are what you eat”. So what happens when your “food” is the populace of New Orleans, the city with the dubious reputation as “the fattest city in the country”? In an area known for deep frying everything, the populace is understandably “large”. Enter Jules, who is an unapologetic 463 pound taxi driver that likes to buy his victim a big, greasy meal so that the blood he drinks later his loaded with triglycerides. Naturally, this “diet” has resulted in Jules being fat. But Jules has a new problem. See, New Orleans is 80 percent black so naturally most of his victims are black. Enter a new and powerful vampire to the New Orleans scene: Malice X. Malice shows up and says “his people” are off-limits to Jules and that Jules will have to stick to only white victims. Jules doesn’t like the idea but, like all fatties, was planning on going on a diet anyways. And like all fatties on a diet, he rapidly falls off the wagon. Shortly thereafter, Malice burns Jules’ home and is chasing Jules all over town.

What is not apparent in my synopsis is the personality of Jules. He is an ordinary working stiff with the best of intentions that things just continually turn bad for. This makes Jules a very comedic fall guy. The story is loaded with situational humor and is one of those books that demands to be read in one sitting. You will lose sleep if you start it at night.

One of my favorite scenes is Jules is stuck (wedged) in the back seat of his 70’s era Cadillac on top of his latest victim, and the neighborhood patrol shows up. Not being able to see the victim underneath Jules, they try to pull Jules out by his feet. Jules’ idea is to turn into a bat. Jules does, clambers out from the pile of clothes and intends on flying out the door into the night. He spreads his wings, flaps and falls off the seat onto the floorboard of the car. So Jules scurries out of the car and runs across the ground with the do-gooders in pursuit, wondering if Jules was a nutria (a swamp rat) with wings. The imagery is priceless!

There is an equally good sequel to this book called Bride of the Fat White Vampire and if you read Fat White Vampire Blues, you will definitely put it on your “to do” list

Book Review: Monster Hunter International

Book: Monster Hunter International
Author: Larry Correia
Publisher: Baen
Review: Jeff

I was a little intimidated at start with the 713 page count, but this book is so fun, and entertaining that it didn't feel long at all. I think I would file this under urban fantasy, but most urban fantasys the main character is either a wizard, a vampire, an exorcist, or at least has some sort of special gift that he/she uses to take on creatures that a regular person could not. That isn't really the case in this story. In this story they fight vampires, zombies, and all kinds of other evil, but these guys don't use magic or special gifts to fight them, these guys fight them with REALLY BIG GUNS!

Owen Pitt the main character in this book, is having a normal day at his boring acounting job when his jerk of a boss calls him into his office before he is going to leave for the day. Well this time he finds out that his boss turns into a werewolf! After a few close calls Owen survives the werewolf attack by throwing his boss out of a 14th story window.

Owen didn't even know that werewolfs exist, but now that he does there are people visiting him in the hospital to tell him about the different kinds of evil in the world but he can't tell anybody, and even if he did they would just think he is crazy. They also have the fight with the werewolf caught on tape from the security cameras in the office. Since Owen handled himself so well against the werewolf they tell him about a team of people who kill monsters for a living called Monster Hunter International. They also ask him if he would like to join.

I am not a "gun nut" but I would expect that those who are would really apriciate the detail of the different guns that the different members of the team use. I don't know the first thing about guns so I kinda just picture everyone with huge guns fighting the different monsters they encounter throughout the book.

Monster Hunter International soon finds out that there is an evil being called the Cursed One, and he controls seven master vampires that all seemed to be dertermend to help the cursed one use an ancient artifact that on a specific time, and at a specific place can cause a rift in time and basically destroy the world as we know it.

Throughout the book Owen also has dreams. In these dreams he sees a "Yoda" like character that shows Owen the Cursed Ones past and hints on what he needs to do to defeat him. At start I admit I thought I would have got tired of these dreams, and thought maybe they could have been left out of the book to trim the page count a little bit. Towards the end though I didn't really mind them at all and I think it added to the book and made the ending even better.

I really enjoyed this book from start to finish. There is tons of action, the characters are great and fun to root for. The humor in the book was also something I apriciated as there are moments that are very funny. I look forward to reading the second book Monster Hunter Vendetta wich comes out in October. The second book is half the amount of pages wich is still a good amount for a book. I definatly recomend this book if you love action packed with lots of guns, blood, vampires, and everything that goes along with it. Check it out if you get a chance, I'm glad I did.

Podcast Review: Dead Mech

Podcast Review: Dead Mech
Written by: Jake Bible
Review: Larry

This is a review of a podcast novel called "Dead Mech" by Jake Bible. Before I start, I should state that this is only the third zombie book I have read/listened to, and I have never considered myself a fan of the genre. I should probably change that because I LOVED ALL OF THEM!


Dead Mech is a very well thought out and artfully told story of the future a hundred yrs hence. The first episode lays a very plausible and detailed background so the subsequent episodes can go straight to the action. The first episode details the plague's outbreak, the fall of civilization, and the birth of the city-states that follow. It also explains the use of the Mechs, 30 foot tall human-piloted robots, that became mankind's savior and the danger they are when a pilot dies in a mech. The subsequent episodes take place in a forward-operating base on the Wastelands and are ACTION PACKED!

There is one thing that requires an explanation here. The author of this podcast writes this as a "Drabble" novel. A drabble is a story told in 100 words. Not 101 words, not 98 words. 100. The result is a very fast-paced story that goes from scene to scene very quickly. Made me think more of a television episode than a book. Some of the reviews in Itunes are against this style, some are for it. I, personally, liked it. It did take a little getting used to at first, but nothing I had to struggle thru. And, as I stated, it moves the story along at a break-neck pace.

This story is also a good selling point on the value of podcasts as a new media. The author is a fan of "Mech" stories and zombie stories and thought “Why not combine the two?” An author trying to pitch this idea to an editor at a New York publishing house would be laughed out of the building. He would be probably laughed out if he was just trying to pitch just a zombie story or a mech story. Both together? No fucking way! A podcast allows the author to write the story he wants and have a potential audience of millions immediately. There are alot of stories in the world that never make it into print, lost forever due to an editor's lack of balls to publish a story. Podcasts allow a story to be told and allow the author to practice and perfect his storytelling.

What voracious reader hasn't thought at one time or another "I could write a book if I tried"? Now you have the opportunity to not only write/record a story, be it a short story or a novel in length, but to have that story enjoyed by others at no cost to the author.

As I write this in early April, I just finished episode 14 and am in serious withdrawls waiting for the next episode. Would I buy this as a book from Barnes and Noble? Probably not. Would I download it and listen to it non-stop, episode 1 thru 14, driving from Columbus, Ohio to Orlando, Florida? I just did, and it made the ride as enjoyable a trip as I have ever had.

Book Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Book: Darkly Dreaming Dexter
Author: Jeff Lindsay
Publisher: Vintage
Review: Larry

If I had to pick the best book of the decade that began with 2000, it would only take about 10 seconds of consideration to come up with Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay. This is the first book of a series (4 as of this writing) that breaks all conventions of what is "right and decent" in today's society and will have the reader cheering for the sociopathic protagonist.


The short synapsis can be summed up as "a serial killer who kills serial killers". The long synapsis is as follows:

Dexter Morgan is a foresnic specialist (specifically a blood splatter analyst) with the Miami Police Dept. He is funny, charming, handsome, and easy going. But all of that is a mask he wears simply so he can blend in with "humans" so he can perform the duties that are his real reason for living: he likes to kill people. Luckily for Dexter (and Miami), he was adopted at a young age by Harry Morgan, a decorated and experienced Miami Police Detective, after Dexter had a violent and traumatic experience at the age of 3. As Dexter grew to a teenager, Harry recognized the signs that Dexter was permanently scarred and on his way to be a sociopathic killer. Harry, for several reasons, trained Dexter to leave no clues and instilled "the Harry Code", namely to only kill killers. The result is the best character in the best book of the best series of the 2000 decade.



The Dexter books are all told from the first person point of view, and that person is Dexter. The reader has an intimate view of the world from a sociopath. But this isn't a typical crime-laden mystery novel. This is a book that will have you laughing out loud every other page. I named my dog "Dexter", by the way.

The first two books were so sucessful, Showtime immediately began a very popular series, "Dexter", on their cable channel (just finished the third season) and the show already has won several Emmys.

The books in the series so far are Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dexter in the Dark, and Dexter By Design.

This is not the typical crime novel and is probably more appropriate to be placed in the Horror genre, although the humor in the stories cannot be overstated.

Book Preview: Simon R. Green

Book Preview: 3 books from Simon R. Green
Publishers: Ace Books, Roc books
Preview: Jeff

I am a fan of Simon R. Green although I've only read 5 of his 30+ books. I should really catch up because he has some cool stuff coming out including a new series. His books are fun fast paced books.

First up is Just Another Judgement Day. book 9 of the Nightside series it was released in December. Here is the blurb. :

"God's own enforcer, the righteous engine of destruction known as the Walking Man, has come to the Nightside. His sole purpose is the elimination of the wicked and the guilty, which means no one will be left in the Nightside once he gets started. So the Authorities have hired P.I. John Taylor to stop him. Legend has it that he can't be killed. Taylor is very much hoping that the legend isn't true. "

Second up a june release book 3 of the secret histories series, The Spy Who Haunted Me:

"Eddie Drood is back, in a contest with five up-and-comers in the spy game. Legendary independent agent Alexander King, on his deathbed, has devised a contest, the winner of which will get his secrets, lest they expire with him. The Drood family is roped into competing by hints that King knows who the traitor in its bosom is; the other five contestants, by promises of fame, glory, and whatever else they desire. Eddie and his fellow contestants range round the world to solve some of the greatest mysteries ever, from the truth about Nessie to that about Roswell, yet only one will win. King assumes they will backstab each other, and he’s not entirely wrong. The Droods need to know who their traitor is, so Eddie will do everything necessary to win. There’s more to the contest than simple mysteries, however, and Eddie gets to the bottom of things with style and a particularly cynical sense of humor. Series-spinner Green’s Drood books are fun, funny, and action-packed, and Eddie is one of his most entertaining creations."

And 3rd, In August is book 1 of a new series called "ghostfinders" I don't know too much about it yet, but I do know that the first books is called "Ghost of a Chance", he did have this to say about it:

"The Ghostfinders is my new series, and my first out and out horror series. The Carnacki Institue exists to deal with all out of the ordinary incidents, and we start with a major haunting at Oxford Circus tube station. This book is titled Ghost of A Chance, and should be out somewhen next year."

Another thing I know is that while I am reading Ghost of a Chance a song from early 80's Irish mod/powerpopers called The Blades will be in my head the entire time! heres a link to the great song.
The Blades: Ghost of a Chance

Podcast Review: The Byron Chronicals

Podcast: The Byron Chronicals
Written: Eric Busby
Produced by: Darker Projects
Review: Larry

For my first review of a podcast, I knew I had to pick one that will have you hooked on podcasts and show the power of this medium, one that will forever have you jonesing for your next audio fix and cursing the sumbitch that turned you into the audio equivielent of a meth-addict whore. Well folks, prepare to tap a vein!


The Byron Chronicles is as good as it gets! It is a full cast audio production with sound effects, writing, and sound editing that is, in my opinion, unequaled. It is produced by a group called Darker Projects (check them out at darkerprojects.com) and they are the equivialent of 20th Century Fox or Paramount to the audio world.

What is The Byron Chronicles? It is the ongoing story (Season 3 is about to begin) of a character called Byron, aka "the pale man of Portland". We are introduced to modern day Portland, OR where the supernatural exists all around us but the majority of mankind is oblivious to it. We learn that the being known as Byron is a major Power in the scheme of things. And, best of all, Byron is not necessarily a "nice guy". He's not good, not bad, merely...pragmatic. This is a world in which vampires, werewolves, demons, and others exist and they don't play nice. But, Byron has decided that Portland is his territory. Do what you want anywhere else but Portland is HIS. But not everyone agrees, of course...



Trust me on this: Get your ass over to Itunes, and type in "Byron Chronciles" in the search window, and click on the little black icon that will pop up as a result. In the window with the episodes, scroll down to the bottom and click the "Free" button for the bottom two episodes ("Welcome to the Byron Chronicles" and "The Taint"). You will see the episodes download (the left column in Itunes) and from there you simply copy it to your Ipod. You can also play it straight from there thru your computer speakers (but where is the fun in that?!). If you want to play it straight from the computer, just follow the directions at the end of this post.



Leave a comment praising my genius and thanking me for turning you onto The Byron Chroncles. If you have problems or have an MP3 player other than an Ipod, leave a comment and I will do my best to help.



1.Go to darkerprojects.com

2.See the very small print in the left column under “Original Projects”? Go down about ten items and click once on “The Byron Chronciles”.

3.Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Byron page that loaded.

4.The very bottom episode is a sort of promo for The Byron Chronicle entitled “Welcome to the Byron Chronicles”. You can listen to the promo if you feel like it (it is only 30 seconds long) by clicking on the mini player just below the episode title (ie, “Welcome to the Byron Chronicles”).

5.Just above the promo mentioned in Step 4 is the first episode. You will see “The Byron Chronciles 1: The Taint”. Just below that is the mini-player option mentioned in Step 4. Just click on the little arrow to the left and make sure your speakers are on. This episode is 27 mins long.

6.If you have an MP3 player (other than an Ipod), you can click on “Download” to get it on your harddrive and then just drag and drop it to your device.

Podcasts 101

Podcasts 101 from Trucker Larry-

If you have an Ipod (or any MP3 player) and haven't heard of or utilize podcasts, then prepare to take your earbuds to the next level. Podcast is a very wide encompassing term. It, basically, is someone (or someones) who sat down before a computer armed with a microphone, something to say, and time to kill. It is audio that has been recorded and encoded into the MP3 format and posted to a website (ie, Itunes, podiobooks.com, podcastalley.com, ESPN.com, etc) for your downloading pleasure. Podcasts are completely free and, believe me, more entertaining than the majority of crap available on your 200+ channels of cable. They offer the ultimate in portability and this is their major attraction. For example, how many hours do you spend on your commute to/from work weekly? If you are in L.A., you probably have 5 hours a week to twiddle your thumbs. Use this time productively! You go for bike rides, walks, or smoke breaks? Again, effective use of time and portability are the key selling points. And, I haven't even mentioned the actual CONTENT yet! Lets correct that.There are many types of podcasts. These are my self-named categories and there may be more but these are the major ones:

1) Audiobook: This is the author (usually) reading text and telling a story. They are released serially, that is the author may post/upload a chapter every other Tuesday (or weekly or monthly...) until completion. Number One With a Bullet (When the top ten hitmen in the world battle in a last man standing contest for $100 Million, the only rule is to stay alive).

2) Audiobook Drama: This is the audiobook above but the reader is changing his voice and acting out the scenes. This is the more common of the first two categories and is remarkably very entertaining. In this style, the speaker is as important as the content that he is reading and, done properly, is your normal audiobook on steroids. Infected by Scott Sigler, Nocturnal by Scott Sigler, One Among the Sleepless by
Mike Bennett, and Underwood and Flinch by Mike Bennett are outstanding examples (and MUST-HAVES!) of this art form.

3) Audiobook Performance: This one is an audiobook that becomes a movie experience for the ears. Sound effects (a slamming door, gunfire, tires squealing, blood dripping, etc) make this a true movie-for-the-ears and is performed by different voice actors playing dedicated characters. This is the best audiobook experience possible and unbelievably engaging. Think of a stripper giving you a lap dance with your
eyes closed; that lap dance is still pretty entertaining! Leviathan Chronicles by Christof Lupaka and The Antithesis Progession by J. Daniel Sawyer are great examples of what is possible.

Lets pause here and talk about the WHY of the audiobook format. How many books-turned-movies have you seen? Honestly, how many of the movies lived up to the books? The main reasons, for me, movies almost never live up to the books are the characters are never fully fleshed out and, most importantly, the movie screen will never live up to the special effects that your own imagination can generate. To me, the audiobook (be it an audiobook you check out from your local library or an audiobook podcast) combines the best of an old-fashioned page turner and a movie. Think about it for a second: the author describes what is taking place but YOU are the one generating the pictures and there is no shortage of scenes/effects that you can envison. So, if you like a good book, give the audiobook
formats a chance. I will steer you to good examples of each category and you can decide for yourself. The examples will always fit the criteria of being worthy of inclusion in this blog; So, download without fear and know that these examples are approved by a redneck with a 4WD truck! But, we have some more categories to cover!

4) Educational podcasts: These can be easily become the main draw to podcasts for some. Want to learn Spanish? There's several good podcasts. Want to learn about the Byzantine empire? Check out Want to learn about history from a unique viewpoint? Then you need Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. (Hardcore History is my absolute favorite podcast! Friggin get this one! I know, you're thinking "History? WTF?"
Trust me here: GET THIS ONE!!!). Want to learn about String Theory? It's available and free. My personal favorite include two in this category. The Skeptoid Podcast by Brian Dunning and The Survival Podcast by Jack Spirco are always on my Ipod Touch.

5) Reality podcasts: Are you in a garage band? Want to hear another garage band's trials and adventures? What about a truck driver's day-to-day life? Want to live vicariously and explore the life of a university student?

6) Religious podcasts: Everything from Catholism to Wicca is available. Consider for a sec: you have always wanted to have a ministry of your own ever since you saw that hot Tammy Faye Baker but this little thing called Life and putting food on the table interfered with your establishment of the Cult of You. But, not any more! Get a mircophone and plug it in and you are there, dude! Post it to Itunes and you immediately have a potential audience of tens of millions. That's a one with a friggin lot of zeroes!

7) Sports podcasts: Are you a Dallas Cowboys fan living in South Dakota? Then download the "Talking Cowboys Podcast" done by Mickey Spagnola and Nate Newton done daily from Valley Ranch every day of the regular and post season. Missed ESPN's "Mike and Mike" today? Then download
their podcast. Want to hear Stanley Cup talk in July? Then listen to Hockey Rant (w/ David Stearns), just one of about 40 podcasts that came up!

8) Comedy: Who doesn't like comedy? Got 60 seconds to listen to something? Then download a couple of "news stories" from "The Onion Radio News". Want to hear talk about Howard Stern? The Three Stooges? Want to hear new comedians? Then you need the podcasts! I could (and probably should) keep going but there's so-friggin-many!

I haven't even mentioned the news podcasts, the political podcasts, the fan-driven podcasts, etc.

If I have interested you enough to read to here, then tune in to the next installment to learn how to get this free wealth of entertainment and how to put it on your Ipod. The goal is to ultimately recommend and review podcasts that fit into Jeff's criteria, urban fantasy/shock/horror, that still leave you with your manhood intact and able to sneer at the metro-sexuals reading "Twilight".

New Recruit: Larry Graves AKA Trucker Larry

So far all of the previous posts have been done by me Jeff, but now there will be 2 of us since Larry Graves was nice enough to join the blog to ad some more new content to the blog. I think it will make the blog much better. Now there will be much more updates, and now there will be two views of things instead of just me. Also since Larry is more technologically advanced than I am, he will be reviewing some podcasts as well, wich is really cool. In fact tomorow as his first post he will be explaing how to go about getting into podcasts for people like me who have never listened to a podcast. So this is defintatly a good thing. check back on sunday for his first review!

Book Preview: Eagle Rising

Book: Eagle Rising
Author: David Devereux
Publisher: Gollancz
Preview by: Jeff

This is the second book by david devereux, I liked the first one. "Hunter's Moon". This book came out a while ago in the UK but only came out last month here in the US. I bought my copy but my "to read pile" Is pretty big right now so it might take me a while to get to it. that tagline is a good description "magician by profesion, bastard by dispositian." these books are fast paced and pretty short at around 250 pages. I think a third book called turnabout is suposed to come out too although I have no idea when. anys here is the blurb:

"Jaunty magician Jack, agent in the U.K.'s occult secret service, goes undercover in the witty sequel to 2008's Hunter's Moon. His goal is to crush the Eagle Society, neo-Nazis intent on busting Hitler out of hell and into a handsome new Aryan body. Jack assumes the role of successful banker John Dennis and grapples with Eagle Society members like lunatic Sir James Gold as well as annoying MI5 mole Miss Penny Marsh, herself undercover as cultist Alexandra Gentle. Amiable Jack despises some of the violent chores he must undertake in the fight against the forces of darkness, but he soldiers on bravely. Devereux's quirky blend of horror and deadpan humor bristles with pop culture references, giving Tarantino-style profanity and gore a twist of Robert Rankin tomfoolery and Ian Fleming derring-do."