Review: Whatever Became of the Squishies by Claire Chilton, Psion Beta by Jacob Gowans, Smokeless Fire by Samatha Young

Posted by bkristin on Jul 18th, 2012 in reviews | 0 comments

Review: Whatever Became of the Squishies by Claire Chilton

Carla is purple in a society filled with green skinned people. She always thought it was just a fluke, a genetic anomaly. Turns out she is not from Derobmi, but from Rhecknaw, where people are purple skinned. That is not the only difference, but will what Carla learns help her save her brother or not?

As in most science fiction, this is set in a different world. There are races of people that display traits and are physically different from each other. The green race Carla is part of loves to clean and keep (at least the surface) spotless clean. There is another character from Zoola who is blue. There they worship being strong and brutely along with beer. Each race is different and I would love to read more about the other various races. We only encounter the green Derobmi, purple Rhecknaw, Blue Zoola, and orange Kalamar. There are several other places I’d love to read more about.

This author sure does have a good sense of humor and you can see it in the writing. The main character is very sarcastic and does not fit well into the prim and proper clean OCD society she was born into. But even so if your read more into the story and the glossary at the end just makes you laugh. The clean society worships the god Ajax because of his bleach and bleach free options and the Budda Wiser Frog god of the beer loving zoolaf race is their choice of worship. When you read this book, take the time to read the glossary. It is a good laugh and quite a great ending to the great story.

I would recommend this book. While most science fiction tends to be heavy due to the excessive science, this had a more fun feel to it.

Review : Psion Beta by Jacob Gowans

Sammy has been living a hard street life since his parents were murdered. It all changes the day he not only runs from the Shocks, but causes their weapons to turn back on themselves. Sammy begins a new life training as a Psion- people with genetic anomalies that allow them to create blasts out of their hands and feet. Sammy does not only have to endure a new life and training regimen which causes some friction due to his intelligence, but he has to learn how to survive against people with the mutation thirteen, cold blooded killers that do not feel anything remotely human.

There were a lot of supporting characters in this novel. Sammy is the main character and is well developed. We get snippets of his life as he finally opens up to friends in the training facility, and it shows more and more why he is the way he is. The supporting characters range from his rival the twin Kobe, Jeffie the love interest, Brickart the roommate and youngest recruit, and recruits Kawai and Natalie, along with the mentor Byron and Al. All of these characters play a part in forming Sammy into a new person. It was a lot to keep track of, but well done.

This sci-fi novel was an action novel and it did not disappoint. The action was continuous with little breaks to catch your breath before something happened again. It made for a quick fun read as you didn’t want to stop. It even ended in action- little disappointed as I am not a fan of cliffhangers.This author created evil that can only be described as really evil. The Thirteens were truly terrifying. I would never want to run across one of these and it didn’t seem like Sammy did either. Sammy was well prepared to fight them, but still did not want to see them.

For those lovers of actin sci-fi, this is the book for you. If you like Divergent and Hunger Games, this would be a good read.

Review : Smokeless Fire by Samatha Young

Ari finds out the truth when she wishes for her mother on her eighteenth birthday. She is not human and her father is not her biological father. Her father is a Jinn and a very powerful one at that. When he offers her a chance to join him, Ari must make a decision that will force her to take sides in a war she didn’t even know existed.

The author makes you like the main character very well. She is confused and doesn’t know what to do with her life post-graduation. I know from experience, the majority of people have felt that way at one time or another and often upon graduating from high school. Also the secondary characters are nicely written. Charlie is the exact ideal of dealing with grief and Jai shows how some people deal with the rejection of family. They make great contrasts to each other on how to deal with life.

I liked that this book was original in dealing with the supernatural. I have read tons of books on vampires, werewolves, and faeries and this one had none of those. She also gave a good back-story myth to her Jinn. The set up of the book in the first few chapters made it a bit hard to get into the story, but once past those, it was a good read.

I would recommend this book to fans of paranormal romance.