Balance of August, 2016

During the month of August, 2016, I reviewed the following:

Books:
- "Arena 3" by Morgan Rice. Read my review.
- "Parables & Ponderings" by Lia London. Read my review.
- "Oliver and Jumpy - Stories 49-51" by Werner Stejskal. Read my review.
- "Pandora's Eyes" by James M. Corkill. Read my review.
Movies:
- "When Call the Hearts - Season 3" - 2016 - Read my review.

Book "Pandora's Eyes" by James M.Corkill

About the Book: What If The Color Of Your Eyes Will Determine Whether You Live Or Die?

After securing a 180-million-year old spacecraft discovered in the Bering Sea, Geologist Alex Cave thought his life had finally stabilized, but during the recovery, he also found four alien artifacts that seemed designed to destroy all life on our planet. He thinks they are locked up at Groom Lake, away from unscrupulous industrialists and scientists, but two of the devices have gone missing, and one of them is in orbit over our planet.

John Essex had good intentions when he modified one of the stolen artifacts to collect and recycle the space debris orbiting our planet.

Nevertheless, when he turns it on, an artificial intelligence detects the signal from deep in the Earth. The AI named Pandora learns the Earth has new inhabitants and informs Alex that humans with brown eyes are genetically inferior and prone to aggressive behavior. She threatens to wipe our entire species from the face of the planet unless our world leaders voluntarily kill anyone with brown eyes.

“Can Alex find a way out of this no-win situation?

“Get ready for thrilling scenarios, exhilarating situations, and nail-biting suspense. A fantastic ride from this bestselling and award-winning author. A great sequel to Gravity.”

About the Author: Hello. I’m James M. Corkill, a Veteran, and retired Federal Firefighter from Washington State, USA. I was an electronic technician and studied mechanical engineering in my spare time before eventually becoming a firefighter for 32-years and retiring. I’ve since settled into the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina, and I have a fantastic view from my writing desk.

I began writing in 1997, and was fortunate to meet a famous horror writer named Hugh B. Cave, who became my mentor. In 2002, I rushed to self-published a dozen copies of Dead Energy so my wife could see my book before she was taken by cancer. When my soul mate was gone, I stopped writing and began drinking heavily.

“When you wake up in the morning, you never know where the day will take you.”

In 2013, I met a stranger who recognized my name and had enjoyed an old copy of Dead Energy, except for the ending. When she encouraged me to start writing again, I realized this chance meeting was just what I needed to hear at the right moment. I quit drinking and began the rewrite of Dead Energy into The Alex Cave Series, and guess what? Now I’m a bestselling and award-winning author, and I’m thankful for that fateful encounter.

I’ve always been an inventor with an overabundance of imagination, and I’ve been fascinated by unusual rock formations for most of my life, so let me introduce you to my alter ego, Alex Cave. These are his adventures.

My review: This is another very well written thriller featuring Alex Cave, our famous and beloved Geologist. This book is the fifth one on the series. Although they are stories that can hold on their own independently, in a couple of times there are references to situations that happened in the previous books. So I would recommend that you read the previous books in the order they were published, so you can savor this one better. The sequence is: "Dead Energy", followed by "Cold Energy", and then "Read Energy", "Gravity" and finally "Pandora's Eyes". You will not regret it. Excellent and very entertaining reading, intelligent plots and very enjoyable reading.
In this particular book, one of the four alien artifacts that were found in previous books is in orbit, and was modified to collect space debris that is flying in orbit of Earth. When this device was activated, an Artificial Intelligence named Pandora that was dormant detected the device. The crew of this alien spaceship that was sleeping for millions of years is awakened. They contact humans and the adventure really begins to pick up. Alex Cave and his best friend Okana face the most challenging situation they ever had.
This is a great book and I recommend it to the permanent library of all science-fiction readers. They will not be disappointed.

If you read this review, feel free to write a comment. 

Book "Oliver and Jumpy - Stories 49-51" by Werner Stejskal

About the Book: Oliver is an elegant tuxedo cat, who is full of himself. As a matter of fact he says: “I love myself!”, quite often. Naughty, isn’t he? But his best friend Jumpy, a kangaroo lady, is aware that he has a soft heart and will always want to help others. The great thing is Jumpy’s pouch, which Oliver loves to ride in! He calls her his kangaroo taxi! These little bedtime stories with their lovely illustrations are great for small kids. A parent can read the text and tell the child in his own words. These animal stories have sufficient text to keep early readers happy and provide some educational value. Love you all! Meow!

• Story 49: Ice – Joey is getting Oliver into big trouble with an ice bear.
• Story 50: Mice Chase – Oliver is the tutor of a bunch of mice.
• Story 51: Dragon Heat – A naughty dragon is taught a lesson.

About the Author: Born in Vienna, Austria, Werner is now living in the paradise of Perth, Australia with his wife, two married children and three grandchildren. He worked many years in the printing industry and later for the United Nations in Vienna. His wife had been a pen-friend, whom Werner visited in Hong Kong and finally got married to. After an eventful life, now retired, he began to write children's stories, had them illustrated through Upwork, narrated them himself for YouTube and finally published the ebooks on most platforms. Werner's dream is to see "Oliver and Jumpy" animated as a TV series.

There are lots of fairy tales and bedtime stories around and many of them quite violent. This made Werner decide to write something different. On a flight from Europe to Australia he watched the movie Magic on Belle Island with Morgan Freeman, where Freeman teaches a little girl to have imagination and write her first story. This inspired Werner as well and the first stories with his two characters Oliver, the elegant tomcat, and Jumpy, his kangaroo lady friend, made their appearance. Some very capable illustrators have helped to create this picture book series.

My Review: This book is part of a series called Oliver and Jumpy. This particular volume has stories 49 - Ice, 50 - Mice Chase, and 51 - Dragon Heat. It is an excellent gift for parents with children under 8 as suggested by the author. The book is beautifully illustrated by Maycee Ann Reyes and that is a very important plus, as its main audience will rely on the images to follow the stories, as many will not have reached the age to start reading by themselves. In "Ice", Oliver is enjoying himself ice-skating in the lake with his friends when Joey starts skating down the brook and Oliver has to go after him to rescue him. Their adventure begins, when they try to escape from a polar bear and are rescued by a whale. In the "Mice Chase", Mausi asks Oliver to teach his 6 kids to escape any cat chasing them. At the end, he is the one who learnt a lesson. Finally in "Dragon Heat", Oliver and Jumpy go to the ghost castle using a magic door and what they find there is devastating. Everything is burnt. They find an ant that is delivering mail and tell them what happened, an incredible tale with a dragon that destroyed the whole country. With the help of a giant, they start chasing the dragon. All stories are very sweet and even touching and the characters are always showing good behavior. No violence, nothing too scary or too exciting, it will keep your toddler entertained (but not over excited) during that critical bedtime period. They will love the stories and soon enough Oliver and Jumpy will be in their hearts forever.

In my kindle fire the story was presented in landscape orientation. No option to have it in portrait orientation, but this is far away from being a problem. I just thought it was worth mentioning. I highly recommend this book to the permanent library of any parent that is willing to entertain their kids during bedtime.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment.

Book "Parables & Ponderings" by Lia London

About the Book: If you’re drowning in work, traffic or housekeeping and feel like God has forgotten you, think again! Lovers of the Chicken Soup for the Soul or Robert Fulghem books will devour these funny and insightful true-life anecdotes. Be inspired by everyday things around you! Perfect for devotionals.

About the Author: Lia London was born in southern Oregon and raised as a military brat in North Carolina and Scotland before returning to Oregon. She attended Western Oregon University and earned degrees in Language Arts Education and the Performing Arts. Upon graduation, she served for 18 months as a missionary in Guatemala, teaching cholera prevention, literacy, and gospel messages. She worked as a high school teacher and ESL instructor for college students for a few years before becoming a stay-at-home mom.

London currently home schools her two teens, plays the organ at her church, and volunteers in her community. She also is the founder and chief administrator of a network called Clean Indie Reads, an organization of over 2400 authors, illustrators, and marketing specialists who work in the independent publishing industry. She loves milk chocolate, extra-cheesy pizza and cuddling with her cute dog to watch old movies and TV shows from the 50s and 60s.

My Review: This is truly an inspirational book. The author did a superb job adapting situations that everybody lives in a daily basis and transforming those situations on parables with powerful Christian messages of hope and wisdom.

Some particular ones touched me deeply, like "How a Funeral Changed my Life Goals". The realization that "...an eulogy with a long resume cannot replace a legacy left in the hearts of the survivors" is tremendous! Some of the conclusions are obvious after we ready them, but we never thought about that until we read them.

I recommend this book to the permanent library of any Christian (or not) that enjoys a very well written and easy read book. You will not be disappointed and for sure your strength will improve with the words of wisdom provided by the author. Excellent reading!

Book "Arena 3" by Morgan Rice

About the Book: After nearly freezing to death on their trek north, Brooke and her small group wake to find themselves in civilization. They have found the utopian city, hidden deep in a remote stretch of Canada. They have heat, food, comfortable beds, clean clothes, and security. Finally, they have made it.

As Brooke recovers, she meets the mysterious survivors who inhabit this city, and who vie for her love. She trains again, enhancing her fighting skills greatly under the wing of a new mentor, and matures into a woman.

Brooke soon realizes, though, that being safe and secluded is not all there is to life. When she hears rumors of survivors underground, deep in America, fighting to restore order from the inside—her Dad possibly amongst them—Brooke finds herself facing the choice of a lifetime: to live in this perfect place, free and safe for the rest of her days, or to embark and fight for others’ freedom. It would be a journey, she knows, back through post-apocalyptic America, this time traveling west, across its breadth, in search of the rumored survivors, of her father. She would have to fight her way through a land transformed by apocalypse, try to survive a never-ending stream of dangers, roving packs of violent gangs, with few resources and fewer supplies. It would be a two thousand mile trek to a certain suicide. And if she leaves this utopia, she knows, there is no coming back.

Yet that is not the worst of it: something else lies in her way. Arena 3. The greatest arena left in what was once America, the most brutal and dangerous of them all, the one from which no one survives. The one, she knows, that would test the very limit of all that she is.

Will she risk it all for others?

An action-packed dystopian thriller featuring a tough female heroine whom readers worldwide have fallen in love with, ARENA 3 is the shocking conclusion to the bestselling Survival Trilogy, and one that will leave you turning pages late into the night.

About the Author: Morgan Rice is the #1 bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the epic fantasy series THE SORCERER’S RING, comprising seventeen books; of the #1 bestselling series THE VAMPIRE JOURNALS, comprising twelve books; of the new vampire series VAMPIRE, FALLEN; of the #1 bestselling series THE SURVIVAL TRILOGY, a post-apocalyptic thriller comprising three books; of the #1 bestselling epic fantasy series KINGS AND SORCERERS, comprising six books; of the new epic fantasy series THE WAY OF STEEL; and of the new epic fantasy series OF CROWNS AND GLORY. Morgan’s books are available in audio and print editions, and translations are available in over 25 languages.

Morgan's newest releases are ONLY THE WORTHY (THE WAY OF STEEL--BOOK #1) , the debut of a new epic fantasy series, SLAVE, WARRIOR, QUEEN (OF CROWNS AND GLORY--BOOK #1), the debut of another fantasy series, and ARENA 3, the conclusion of the Survival Trilogy.

TURNED (Book #1 in the Vampire Journals), ARENA ONE (Book #1 of the Survival Trilogy), A QUEST OF HEROES (Book #1 in the Sorcerer's Ring) and RISE OF THE DRAGONS (Kings and Sorcerers--Book #1) are each available as a free download on Amazon! BEFORE DAWN (Vampire Fallen--Book #1) and ONLY THE WORTHY (The Way of Steel--Book #1) are available as a free download via KU.

Morgan loves to hear from you, so please feel free to visit www.morganricebooks.com to join the email list, receive 4 free books, receive free giveaways, download the free app, get the latest exclusive news, connect on Facebook and Twitter, and stay in touch! As always, if any of you are suffering from any hardship, email the author at morgan@morganricebooks.com and Morgan will be happy to send you a free book!

My Review: This is an epic finish for this apocalyptic trilogy featuring a young lady and her friends, living in a world destroyed by a nuclear war. Some survivors of that war became like animals, feasting in the terror and fear of weak ones, making then fight to death for entertainment in arenas.

In this final book, our heroine and her companions finally reach Canada and they find the city they were looking for, but did not know if it really existed. It is an army shelter, taken care by a commander that is very restrict about receiving new members in his community. After a while living there, they receive a communication from another community in Texas and they figure out that there might be other survivors struggling to recompose their lives after the war. Brooke thinks the message came from her father and now the dilemma she faces is if she tries to reach her father and work with him to restore America or if she stays in the security of the compound they found. 

The author managed to bring into this story situations that will keep you hooked from the very first page until the end. Savor each turn of page, because it is really worth it!

I recommend this book to the permanent library of all readers that enjoy a well written thriller. You will not be disappointed.

If you read this review, feel free to leave a comment.

Movie "When Calls the Heart - Season 3"- 2016

About this Series: As with the When Calls the Heart Season 1 and Season 2 Collector’s editions, this 10 DVD set contains both the film versions and the TV episode versions of When Calls the Heart Season 3. You can watch the series as 10 hour-long episodes or 5 feature films. As in previous years, fans will enjoy finding small differences between the film versions and the individual episodes. The really exciting elements of the Season 3 collectors’ edition are the three bonus Discs. Disc 8 features the typical bonus material one would expect from a project like this – behind the scenes footage, interviews, etc. Disc 9 is a special product devoted to the fans that have made When Calls the Heart such a grassroots success - featuring footage from the #Hearties gathering in Vancouver in January of 2016. The 10th disc is a When Calls the Heart trivia game that devoted fans are sure to love.

This Series is distributed by FishFlix, a company that produces Christian DVDs (to inspire and entertain).

As a special promotion, for everyone who preorders the Season 3 Collector’s Edition from FishFlix.com, they’ll send the Season 1 “Episodes” set as a free gift. We believe that this set is a great item to give away to friends who are not yet familiar with the "When Calls the Heart" brand. With the release timed for October 11, 2016 this bonus item is a great Christmas gift for any fan of family­friendly romantic programming.
Another promotion FishFlix is running is a drawing for a $100 gift card.
In order to enter the drawing, one needs simply to leave a review of Season 3 on this page:
https://www.fishflix.com/review/product/list/id/1836/category/153/#review-­form and send an email to promo@fishflix.com verifying the “nickname” used on the product review.
A drawing will take place on Sept 1, 2016 and one lucky winner will receive a $100 gift card to FishFlix.com.