SPSFC2 – FIRST IMPRESSIONS! #3

Hello everyone! I hope you all are happy and with a good book to keep you company! I had some internet problems this past week, and then work so… I disappeared for a bit but I am back, and I decided to come back with another round of my first impressions for a bunch of SPSFC books. Since I missed last week, I made this post a bit longer, with 7 books instead of 5, and I would do the same with the next post like this one… and now, let’s go!

It is now 2244 and the all-female society of Arkite is on the brink of revolution. Only the return of the Mother Savant can hope to maintain order.
Savant Elise Jackson, Arkite’s supreme leader, is stricken with terrible grief over the recent loss of her lover. She has spent the last two years with her assistant, Sara, trying to repair and genetically engineer her lover’s damaged body and mind.
But the Viceroy of Pyramid City and her followers in the Savant Council have no interest in squandering the city’s resources for Elise’s personal gain. With the help of the mainframe AI, they will vie for power, even attempting collusion with Sara and sabotage.
And even if her enemies fail and Elise somehow manages to revive her lover, Elise knows she’ll have to vie for something she covets even more—her lover’s love. For Sara once loved her just as much, if not more.

Mother Savant is the sequel to Candy Savant—Book 2 in the Candy Savant Series.
The books in this series are complete self-contained novels not ending in cliffhangers. Some spoilers cannot be avoided, but Mother Savant is a stand-alone novel that can be enjoyed without reading the first book.

This book could be promising, on a personal level I am not really intrigued by the story but I am not completely averse to it, either. And the premises are interesting, the writing is smooth and the social structure has potential. But the experience was pretty annoying. The language was getting on my nerves, the characters used a lot of “bitch” and “dollface”, and they keep repeating them over and over and over. And the worst, to me, was that it was all women talking. And mind me, I am okay with harsh language and curses and the like, and I am also more than okay with women who cuss and curse. What got on my nerves was that all the insults in there were sexist.

In the far future. Performers battle it out as Wizards, Magicians, and Warlocks, using advanced technology to perform amazing feats for fame and fortune.
For Talos June, he is living the life he has wanted the most: competing, entertaining, working with the dangerous technologies that produce magic. When trouble finds him, he has to decide what he wants to do next and how to solve the new puzzle trouble has brought to him.
A GameLit inspired Space Opera.

I loved the idea of a GameLit inspired Space Opera, and the world is intriguing. It is an interesting mix of magic and science, and I really love AI (or UI, as they are called in this book), so I am intrigued, but I am not yet completely sold on it. I think I may come back to it later or, and see how things go from there. Also, the MC has some strong Harry Dresden’s vibes. I am not a fan of the Dresden series, and yep, my main problems tend to be with the MC, but if you are a fan of the series I think this one is worth checking out!

The enemy has found our long-hidden refuge under the sea, the last colony of mankind. Will this be our final battle?
As the last descendants of Earth struggle to survive in an aging undersea colony, one man’s discovery will lead him on a journey of redemption, while he fights to save what’s left of his world.
Jacob Stone is a man haunted by his past. When he reluctantly accepts a job to help pay for a cargo submarine he inherited but doesn’t want, he inadvertently awakens an ancient and terrible power. Its arrival triggers a chain of events that could destroy what’s left of the human race or be the key to its future. But, is it a future he’s willing to fight for, let alone die for?

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, we have an interesting cast of characters and things can get better, because I am intrigued by the characters, and the world is worth exploring, and we have so many possibilities here, but, on the other hand, I have a distinct feeling that my expectations could and would be disappointed. I think that the only way to know for sure is to keep reading!

Forget diamonds, in the Post Apocalypse, Bullets are a girl’s best friend!
Pink is a mysterious woman who walked out of the wastes. She is an up and coming member of the Patrol. They are the sheriffs of the wild wastes, taking on zombies, mutants, bandits and robots left over in the ruins.
Pink is now freshly promoted and set out on a seemly mundane mission with three other wasteland warrior women at her side. However, she is haunted by a failed expedition to find her mentor in more ways than one.
Pink must now lead this team of bad ass bullet babes into the wastes for answers. The End of the World was just the beginning of Action and Adventure!
The world ended in the weird future of an alternate earth.
Zombies stalk the wasteland!
Mutants lurk in the ruins!
Forgotten robotic soldiers still patrol the devastation.
Raiders and rival tribes war over scraps.
But there is hope. Braves souls still seek the tame the wasteland and ensure humanity’s survival. Intrepid settlers and traders struggle to make a slightly better future. In such strange times tales of adventure abound.

I am really sad to say that this one was a big disappointment. Boobs so prominent on the cover that you could not ignore them notwithstanding, I had great expectations from this book. And I think that things could have been way better with good editing because the writing is quite jumbled up and things are just… confusing! I may go back to this one later on, but I was expecting to be captivated by this book, and instead, I am not really motivated to go on. And the problem is not the lack of a good editing job. Sure, this is a big problem, and one that could have done wonders for the book if done properly, but there are some other issues that may not be as “easily” resolved as this one.

One discovery has unimaginable consequences…
While searching a deserted mountain range, an explorer locates a high-tech artifact he assumes is merely another interesting find. It’s only one piece in a greater puzzle leading towards a device of ultimate power, the Diffusor-Sphere. Suddenly, he’s thrown into a battle between an engineer who’s remade himself as a cybernetic demigod, and the one tasked with safeguarding humanity from him. The only way out is recovering the Sphere first, but will he reach it in time?
The Treasure of Lor-Rev is another exciting adventure from Bryan Asher, set in the world of floating nations known as The Intercontinents.

It was really hard to get a feeling from this book. And in the end, I am in a neutral zone, here. It is not bad, but I don’t think it would amount to much. We have an interesting world, but it sounds like we won’t get to explore it a lot, and the characters weren’t so intriguing, either. They were not bad, but not so good. But they are eating real food, and this is a big plus! And again, I am a bit bummed, because I was expecting so much from this one! (And I just love the cover!!)

Zendaya Fernwood carries with her a secret. The world around her is a lie, an ingeniously designed digital prison for the mind. Escape occupies her every thought. Freedom is her goal and nothing will stop her from unplugging. What awaits Zendaya is a fate far worse than she could have imagined. Beyond her prison is a scorched earth where man and machine wage war in a seemingly endless campaign of suffering. There is hope on the horizon, a unique figure with the potential of rising from the shadows of the scorched earth to make a difference. To finally, after so very long, give humans the freedom they deserve.

To be frank, I hate this cover. A lot. But the book sounds so promising! This could really well be a case of “don’t judge a book by its cover”! It is a bit rough, and I think that some good editing could do wonders here, too, but I am mighty intrigued. The MC sounds promising, a lot, and I need to know more about the plot and about the world!

When everyone has a brain-interfacing tracking chip, one glitch threatens the entire network. Kaya Weiss is that glitch.
Through thoughts and blinks, Kaya can access anyone or anything on the tracker network. But the authorities monitor everything—where Kaya goes, who she talks to, and what she searches. And without the ability to turn it off, Kaya and her family can’t observe a tech-free Shabbat. To fix the glitch, the authorities slice into her skull to reset her tracker, leaving Kaya to question more than the system’s invasion into her faith.
Kaya won’t be a lab rat again.
Evading the authorities requires some serious tech skills the rogue underground Ghosts can offer. But Kaya’s not sure she can trust them—even if their top tech wiz, Bailen, has interest in her running deeper than her bum tracker. Kaya must decide if gaining freedom is worth losing her tracker’s infinite knowledge—because to take down the tracker network, she must betray the only tech she’s ever known.

So far this was the worst of the batch, at least to me. It is just not the right one for me on so many levels. And there are so many things that are not really functioning in there. I’ll stop here, but I am really sorry for this comment, I tried to find something more positive to say but… nope!

And that’s all for today! What about you? Do you know some of these books or authors? And are there some titles that intrigued you?? Let me know!!

Happy reading!
S.