Fallen Angel by John Ling

Fallen Angel by John Ling
Kia Kaha Press NZ
Kindle version

I got a copy of this thanks to the author, John Ling. This novella is a prequel and sidequel to his novel, The Blasphemer (which was excellent). This tale involves Kendra Shaw, recently returned from fighting in Baghdad and she is struggling to adjust to normal life. Feeling she has finally gotten kind of a grip on the situation she sees her ex-lover walking along the street. She left him 10 years ago to serve her country. She wants to run up to him but decides to let things be. Then she notices three black ops hovering nearby. Affiliation unknown. Intentions unknown. So she follows and the results are a rip roaring spin through Auckland, a lot of gunshots and a plot fit to today's world.

John Ling again succeeds in driving a thrilling tale at breakneck speed. One quibble (but not a biggie as it is only used twice) is the word "that" being used following Roger i.e. "Roger that." Having worked for airport security at the Airport and trained by an ex-army officer, he informed us 'newbies' to never use that after roger. "Copy that" is perfectly fine. 

Pick this up at Amazon, you won't be disappointed. Then get The Blasphemer (review here).

4 out of 5 stars

Alice in Deadland by Mainak Dhar

Alice in Deadland
Mainak Dhar
(self published?)
224 pages


I bought this on a whim, seeing that it was a #1 bestseller as a Kindle read and the title grabbed my attention, Alice in Deadland. I bought the paperback (reading on the phone can be quite tiresome sometimes).

Alice is interesting and the story pays slight homage to the original. It is a zombie book and interesting as hell. Alice is a 15 year old girl with blond hair in India. She lives in the deadland where those that want to live free and away from Zeus (the military trying to take control of India with masterminds in China and other 1% wealthy of the world) and survive on their own. 

The story starts off at a quick pace and using the woes of international incidents these days makes a plausible reason for the end of days and the escape from infected cities. There is a new unexpected twist with zombies and a zombie queen (a woman infected but only partly turned).

Alice is tough throughout the book but when she becomes the leader of 2000 people she starts having doubts, but she pulls through. The change of a tough 15 year old girls into the fighting machine she becomes is staged step by step though hardcore action. There were parts where I turned the pages so fast, I'm surprised the book didn't catch fire.

4 out of 5 stars
 

Midnight by Stephen Leather

Midnight
Stephen Leather
473 Pages Paperback edition
Published by Hodder


Stephen Leather hooked me with Nightfall, the first of the Nightingale supernatural thrillers. And book 2: The Search for his sister did not disappoint. We faced a known demon from Hell, there were many references to Nightfall (so read that book first) and we discovered a baby eating Satanist and two new kick-arse demons. Awesome.

In this book Nightingale must make a deal with a demon called Proserpine where each question answered she will send one killer after him. He gets the answer for three questions. We don't know what these questions are until much later. After finding his sister and tricking two high ranking demons and two serial killers, the third killer almost gets him. But there's a twist (of course).

I am confused by Jenny's character in this book. In the first it is hinted that they'd get together and she seems like a decent enough assistant and there's a lot of comedy between them, but she comes across often pissed off in this book, especially with Nightingale's sister (considering who she is) and when we reach the conclusion she bitching about the deal that was brokered.

One complaint I have for this book is the dinner party and shooting the next day. I understand why it was added as it casts a weary eye on a few characters, but still, were so many pages needed or were they filler? I did like Nightingale's talk with God.



4 out of 5 stars