New Year Clean Up

I have been whining for a while about me getting (far) behind on the reviews so I’m going to do something about it. I realized that I am never going to catch up doing full reviews (even with my rather short ones) of all the books in the backlog, which stands at 38 books right now, so here we go with a kind of New Year Clean Up.

Below is a short resume of the books in my backlog which I found somewhat mediocre or not really worth reading at all and for which I simply cannot be bothered to write up a review. Some of the entries below are for multiple books in a series and the rating is the average for the books mentioned.

Animus 2 & 3 by Joshua Anderle, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

I was somewhat interested after the first book but the books continuing theme of “training” people (for real life) by running them through a virtual video game world, buying upgrades etc… is getting old fast. It’s not remotely logical.

 

Through the Fire and Flame by Michael Anderle, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This series seems to be running out of steam. I really, really liked The Queen Bitch and the Kurtherian Gambit but lately the series seems to be going nowhere and way too much time is spent on other nonsense than the actual adventures of Bethany Anne.

 

Orion War 4 & 5 by M.D. Cooper, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This is another series that I generally enjoyed but these latest books are so bogged down with political machinations and plots inside of plots that they were not that fun to read…for me at least.

 

Project Atlantis by Brandon Ellis, ⭐ ⭐

This one barely got 2 stars actually. I was hoping for some cool story with ties to the myth of Atlantis and maybe even some developments taking humanity to the stars. What I got was some bloody (government?) conspiracy mess jumping all over the place.

 

Superdreadnaught 1, 2 & 3 by Michael Anderle, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This series is not fantastic but it actually not really bad either. I quite liked the third book so I hesitated to add it to this post but the first  two where somewhat meh and even the third one is pretty simplistic so… If you like the Kurtherian universe and, in particular, their AI’s and don’t mind some simple and fast read this series could be for you.

The Vigilante Chronicles 4, 5 & 6 by Natalie Grey, ⭐ ⭐ :star

This is another of those Kurtherian Gambit universe series where Michael Anderle’s name is on the cover but is actually written by someone else. Personally I think the Kurtherian universe is getting more than a bit diluted. The first books in this series was quite okay. The last three barely passable though.

The Lost Stargate by Vaughn Heppner ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ (barely)

This series has lost itself. Instead of being a adventure with Maddox & Co leading the story it is now a messy soap opera with political machinations, betrayals and plots within plots.

 

The Avalon Chronicles 1, 2 & 3 by Steve McHugh, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ (barely)

A thirteen on a dozen Urban Fantasy series. Started off with some promise and then went downhill. The last book is a 2 out of 5 star one. Just a jumbled mess of Urban Fantasy stuff thrown together in a less than skilled way.

The Ghost Squadron 1 & 2 by Sarah Noffke, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ 

Another Kurtherian series inflating the book count and not really bringing that much to the universe as a whole. If you are a Kurtherian fan you might find it read worthy. It is not really bad but there’s not much of a wow-factor here either.

 

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Young adult style science fiction adventure with some interest. Not bad but again, nothing to wow you either. Decent read, nothing more, nothing less.

 

The Lazarus Wars: Origin by Jamie Sawyer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

The weakest of the books in the series so far. It just did not really manage to get me that interested while reading it. This simulant stuff was pretty cool to begin with but maybe it is getting old?